Severance (2006)

During a team-building retreat in the mountains a group of sales representatives are hunted down by crazed killers.

Director:

Christopher Smith

Writers:

James Moran (screenplay), Christopher Smith (screenplay),

Stars:

Toby Stephens, Tim McInnerny, Laura Harris

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Toby Stephens	...	Harris
Claudie Blakley	...	Jill
Andy Nyman	...	Gordon
Babou Ceesay	...	Billy
Tim McInnerny	...	Richard
Laura Harris	...	Maggie
Danny Dyer	...	Steve
David Gilliam	...	George
Juli Drajkó	...	Olga
Judit Viktor	...	Nadia
Sándor Boros	...	Coach Driver
Levente Törköly	...	Lodge Killer
János Oláh	...	Flamethrower Killer
Attila Ferencz	...	Head-squish Killer
Bela Kasi	...	Headbutt Killer

Storyline

A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division of the multi-national weapons company Palisade Defence when they become the victims of a group of crazed killers who will stop at nothing to see them dead.

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Plot Keywords:

team building | eastern europe | stabbed in the back | pot smoking | shot to death | 

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Taglines:

Another bloody office outing.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, drug content and some sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [us]

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English Hungarian Russian

Release Date:

25 August 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Mutilados

Filming Locations:

Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

£5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$8,316 (USA) (18 May 2007)

Gross:

$136,432 (USA) (22 June 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Qwerty Films, Dan Films, HanWay Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Because Laura Harris had such fun on the set with her fellow cast members, she found that she was often in too good a mood to reach the emotional depths needed for her character when it was time for her to shoot. As such, just prior to filming emotionally draining scenes, she would listen to dark and depressing music, to help her get out of the mirthful mood she was in.

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Goofs

During the paint ball scene, we see characters get shot with paint. In the scene with dialog the paint is missing from their clothes.

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Quotes

Flamethrower Killer: [yelling at Jill in Hungarian then voice turns sarcastic] Palisade.

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Connections

Spoofs Nosferatu (1922)

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Soundtracks

"Itchycoo Park"
Performed by The Small Faces
Written by Steve Marriott & Ronnie Lane
Published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd
(p) 1967 Sanctuary Copyrights Ltd
Licensed Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group Ltd
(p) 1967 Immediate
Licensed from Licensemusic.com ApS
An Original Immediate Recording

User Reviews

Entertaining mix of comedy and gore

I went into this film expecting a zombie movie for some reason, but actually Severance is more like a British version of Eli Roth's successful 'Hostel', albeit with a bit more humour. There have been a few good British horror movies over the past few years, including most notably the likes of Dog Soldiers, Shaun of the Dead, Wilderness and The Descent. I wouldn't say this one really lives up to the best of them; but Severance is good comedic and bloodthirsty fun, and there's certainly enough about it to ensure that the film stands tall as another feather in the cap of modern British horror. The film starts off in a truly nightmarish fashion; we are introduced to a bunch of office workers going on a 'team building' trip in the middle of nowhere. The prospect of this alone is enough to make me not want to sleep tonight, but it gets (arguably) worse for these guys it when it turns out that they're not the only ones in the middle of nowhere - a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs turn out to be doing a bit of team building too!

The film is pretty slow to start, with the first half of the film merely seeing us being introduced to the cast of snivelling office workers. However, once the violence starts, the film really hots up as we get treated to a whole load of grisly sequences that see things such as decapitations and limbs being lopped off. The location is put to good use as our cast of characters finds themselves in the middle of an Eastern European country and director Christopher Smith does an excellent job of ensuring the tone of the film is always hopeless. The cast isn't anything to write home about, although Danny Dyer, who you might remember from the very decent British gangster flick The Business, does a good job of holding the film together. The humour doesn't blend as well with the horror as the director obviously thought it would, and this is where the film falls down for me. Severance would have been a better movie if the director could have made his mind up about exactly where he wanted to take it. As it happens, Severance is an entertaining mix of gore and laughs; but it's not at the cutting edge of modern horror.