Film Reviews

Severance

• Rating:
• Director: Christopher Smith.
• Starring: Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny, Laura Harris, Toby Stephens.
• Details: UK / 95mins (18s).

Palisade, a multi-national weapons company, reward their hard-working English division with a weekend team-building exercise deep in a wooded countryside of Eastern Europe. Spirits are high and cheeky chappy Steve (Dyer) not only plans to get mashed on grass and magic mushrooms all weekend, but also hopes to get into the knickers of sexy co-worker Maggie (Harris).His plans are ruined when the small group realise that there are people in the woods surrounding their secluded cabin hell-bent on letting blood. Comedy horrors have been with us since the year dot, but Severance is different and stands out from the rest of the herd as it doesn't let the comedy dilute the horror, nor does the horror kill the jokes. Creep writer/director Christopher Smith both sends up and pays homage to British horror, keeping you in constant guessing mode. No-one knows if the upcoming scene will make you turn away from the screen in revulsion (the beer trap) or laugh like an idiot (the bazooka disaster), giving anyone time to take in what is happening as witty humour-follows-gross horror and vice versa. What is refreshingly unusual is that there are no Rambo-type characters who refuse to take any more and bring the fight to the bad guys; the characters know they are a long way from home and there is nothing they can do but run and hide. Dyer is on top form, dragging up parts of his Moff character from Human Traffic for comic effect, while 24's Laura Harris refuses to deliver the girl-in-distress caricature and turns in a believable performance. It gets a little fantastic towards the end but by that stage, you're either on board or not.

Review by Gavin Burke