Severance

I was a big fan of Chris Smith's previous film Creep and had heard this was even better so I had high expectations going in. They were completely surpassed by this superlative slice of hilarious horror action.

The way the film combines humour and horror is skilled and the script is smarter than average for the genre. The film works better as a comedy and there are some absolutely precious comedy moments that I won't detail here as I don't want to spoil any of them. Suffice to say that the audience were busily quoting them and some of the better of the fantastic lines of dialogue after the screening. I feel people will be quoting some of these lines for years!

On a more serious note, there are some seriously scary scenes in the picture and even a couple of deaths of some of the more sympathetic characters that are actually quite moving.

The cast is also perfect, none of them put a foot wrong. Laura Harris completely kicks ass as the heroine.

I sorta want to see a sequel but heaven knows where they'd go with it.

Overall, I loved the film - it's made by a writer and director who are genuine horror fans and it shows. They're also both very talented.

Gory, funny and frightening. The premise isn't that original, but the execution is mighty good and it succeeds in making you actually care for the characters. Well worth the watch!

I didn't like it much. It's not nearly as clever or funny as it thinks it is, and the horror violence seems disturbing and mean-spirited instead of mocking and over-the-top. The dialogue really isn't that sharp at all, and the characters are either incredibly unlikeable or just plain bland. There's only a few minutes of side-splitting humour (the rocket/plane being the highlight), and there's some moments of sly comic brilliance (loved the three different stories told), but it just turns into the very thing it's trying to mock by the end. The villains are too real and too human to be properly made fun of, and thus any joke involving them just falls flat. It's not nearly funny enough to be labeled a hybrid, so instead it's just a horror with some black comedy elements. Shame.

For the better part of a decade every British comedy or romance was hailed as 'The funniest film since Four Weddings and a Funeral'. Although there are many Brit films made in any year worth a look, only one will truly be mass marketed and labelled as our best export. With Four Weddings' a distant memory, anything remotely amusing or linked with horror is now wrongly compared to Shaun of the Dead (or possibly Dog Soldiers). Poster quotes and lazy comparisons aside, it's nice surprise that for a horror comedy, Severance isn't actually half bad at all.

The plot is nice and simple. A (predominantly English) sales division working for a multinational weapons corporation are sent on a team building exercise in Hungary only to find themselves stuck in a dense forest where they are being hunted by a merciless European gang.

While Severance doesn't do anything particularly wrong, there are of course a couple of faults. Any work environment has to have some pretty unlikeable characters so it's unavoidable to feel less sorry for some when the killings start. Toby Stephens is undoubtedly one of the finest actors around, but he's yet to play a role in a successful film that really does him justice. Utterly capable and ever reliable Tim McInnerny (of legendary Blackadder fame) is amiable enough, but it's Danny Dyer that gets most of the punchy one-liners as the part-druggie, part-chav cheeky chappie he's grown accustomed to playing. Thankfully, cute Laura Harris hasn't been cast as the 'is she or isn't she the villain all along?' as it's really time she ditched that and moved on.

The two distinct genres don't always make for a happy marriage and eventually the tone shifts over to deadpan. At least one line is stolen from elsewhere but there's a couple of shots that felt like homages rather than plagiarism. There's more than enough laughs and nasty moments to fill both audience preferences. The fast pace means Severance doesn't risk outstaying a welcome, the special effects team did a great job and the camera work is suitably snappy. The only real risk is hype as anyone expecting anything other than a night out with a few grim moments and some genuine belly laughs will leave wondering what the fuss is about. Try to avoid thinking about where these guys took their inspiration from too as that wouldn't do anyone any good either. A solid 3 star experience that hopefully has some extra bits come home-entertainment time.

Co-writer and director Christopher Smith puts a rather fresh and funny spin on the standard slasher formula with this irreverent horror comedy. The employees of a multinational weapons manufacturer named Palisade travel to the Eastern European woods for a "team building" retreat. They get on each others' nerves for a while, but this will not turn out to be their biggest worry. What happens is that a very stealthy and extremely sadistic killer is going to target them, and arrange for them to meet nasty ends.

Give Smith and his co-writer James Moran some credit for playing around with the conventions of slasher cinema without resorting to self-referential dialogue. The set-up is certainly a topical one, and the filmmakers do work in digs at corporate culture as well as this genre. The characters may grate on the nerves of some viewers. "Severance" does fall into that familiar trap of "dumb people doing dumb things", but at least not all of the characters are hopeless. Laura Harris plays Maggie as a resilient person who keeps a cool head in an emergency.

Genre lovers will be pleased with a respectable amount of splatter, and it must be said that these particular woods - "Severance" was filmed in Hungary and The Isle of Man - possess some decent atmosphere. The performances are generally capable. Danny Dyer is the principal supplier of comedy relief as the immature Steve. Toby Stephens is fun in the role of Harris. The filmmakers also work in a brief and very amusing way to contrive some nudity.

Ultimately, this is rather predictable and the ending isn't all that great, but this is still pretty enjoyable while it lasts.

Seven out of 10.