Severance (2006)

Working nine to five is a real killer but teambuilding holidays can sometimes be even worse.A coach lurches out of the hustle and bustle of Budapest and heads towards the mountainous border. Aboard are seven employees of the international weapons manufacturer Palisade Defence global suppliers of innovative weaponry for the past 75 war-torn years. The lucky group are being treated to a team-building weekend at the company s newly built luxury spa lodge by their president George Cinders.But things quickly go awry as the colleagues find themselves faced with the chop when their corporate weekend is sabotaged by a deadly enemy. Forget office politics only the smartest will survive this bloody office outing.System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 876964000956 Manufacturer No: 10095 Product Description

Not bad, but nothing you haven't seen before either

Severance is a little misleading in the way that it's advertised. Before viewing Severance, it appeared as if it were a Brit-fueled comedy/slasher in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. While this wasn't necessarily the case, Severance does provide a few good laughs, but the film is actually more along the lines of the traditional slasher flick. Severance revolves around a group of sales divison drones (including David Dyer, Laura Harris, Die Another Day's Toby Stephens, and Blackadder vet Tim McInnerny) who are taken to the Eastern European mountains for the weekend, only to end up getting picked off in some very bloody ways. Without giving too much away, the body count and blood start to mount as the office crew find themselves hunted down in some pretty brutal ways. Seriously, Severance provides a good amount of blood and gore, but lacks in the suspense department, and ends up being pretty predictable. Still though, for what it's worth, Severance isn't bad one bit, and it's an enjoyable diversion that horror fans can get some enjoyment out of regardless. September 19, 2008

Death to Palisades

This has become my favorite horror movie of all time- and it's funny too. It's on my list of movies my friends never heard of. A shame it is not more popular. It's about a group of co-workers being stalked in an eastern european country by x-miltants, and the interesting twist is that the co-workers manufacter and sell weapons- which brings up an interesting philosophical point. Even though they may deserve it, we still relate to them and care about them- not such an easy feat- we are certain if they escape they will rethink thier choice of careers, Im sure they just wanted to afford bread like the rest of us and didn't give it more thought than that- basically it could be any one of us. It reminds me that in our society, guilt lies not so much with the good or evil but with the impassive- and also you better be prepared to fight dirty if you want to live. August 30, 2008

A good slasher with enough humor

Again, this is not the British answer to any movie, certainly not Friday the 13th. It stands on its own. It is a slasher and thriller that has enough humor at just the right spots to keep you watching. I liked the beginning and tie in of the beginning later in the movie. Without the humor it would have been two or two and a half stars. The acting is good and the predictability is kept in check throughout. Yea, it is a dark comedy slasher, that about sums it up. August 15, 2008

unoriginal slasher film

**1/2

"Severance" is apparently Britain's answer to the "Friday the 13th" movies (as if such a response were even needed). Seven employees - ironically enough of an arms-manufacturing firm - head off to the forests of Eastern Europe (the new locale-of-choice for the modern horror film, it would appear) for a weekend of corporate-sponsored team-building and morale-boosting. Their adventure turns into a nightmare, however, as the members of the party are hunted down and brutally murdered by a mask-wearing, weapons-wielding serial killer with serious developmental issues. Meat cleavers, serrated knives, blow torches, machine guns - no tool is too crude or too sophisticated for our intrepid little psychopath to employ in the course of his business. This is supposed to make him a sort of homegrown version of the company people he`s killing, I suppose, but the movie is frankly too dumbed-down and lunk-headed for such heavy-handed ironies to register much of an impact.

Though it is efficiently executed and reasonably well acted, "Severance" doesn't bring anything new to a genre whose modus operandi was pretty much set in stone once "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" laid down the original blueprint thirty some odd years ago. As with most such films, the majority of the thrills come in the earlier sequences before the nature of the threat has been fully revealed. Once that occurs, however, the movie devolves into yet another monotonous gore-fest, with only a trace of that trademark British cheekiness to distinguish it from the countless other slasher movies that have come before it. When all is said and done, the only thing more objectionable than the sadism and gore is the shocking lack of originality and imagination that all concerned have brought to the enterprise. June 8, 2008

Hilarious and Fresh Brit Slasher

Not much to say that hasn't already been said, but I like to think of Severance as the slasher version of Shaun of the Dead. It's very funny, but not too funny so that it becomes hokey and ironic like Scream, etc. It's bloody, but not so bloody and uncomfortable that it's like the horrendous Hostel films... but it takes elements of those films, and mixes it up into something very fresh and fun.

On top of all the great stuff, you've also got the legendary Tim McInnerny as Richard - hilarious. May 15, 2008

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