User reviews

Severance is a pitch-black comedy/horror that successfully blends laughs with outrageous scenes of extreme violence to tell the tale of a group of employees for a weapons company who, whilst on a team-building weekend in Eastern Europe, run into trouble when they are attacked by masked assailants.

I found the film to be both highly amusing and also rather creepy, although how much you enjoy the film will depend on how warped your sense of humour is. I liked it a lot, but then my sense of humour has always been rather questionable.

The story, which bears some resemblance in places to the extremely over-rated Hostel, allows some conjecture on the audience's part as to exactly who the killers are—something I particularly liked. Theories are bandied about by the film's characters, but the issue is never resolved absolutely, allowing the audience to decide for themselves.

The likable cast give sterling performances and manage both the comedic and horrific elements with ease. Director Christopher Smith, who also made the rather humdrum Creep, handles the action well, and the film moves at a brisk pace delivering plenty of chills and thrills along the way.

And to cap it all, Smith makes sure that the gore-hounds get their quota of blood 'n' guts, and even finds time to throw in a couple of topless escort girls for good measure.

I give Severance a very respectable 7 out of 10.

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.

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.

I recall this film coming out in 2006 and getting a lot of positive buzz from horror fans. For one reason or another, I never ended up watching it until now (March 2013). And I must say, the buzz was probably correct -- while not among the best horror films out there, it sure is well above average.

The trick of this film is that it is a horror film, but only in its feeling. Terrorists, a bus flipping over, guns and bombs... that is an action film. This should be an action comedy. But the style is definitely in the horror vein, with the way certain things are presented (particularly the bear trap). What makes a horror film a horror film? That question has been asked many times, and I think this film definitely makes you wonder.

Although many of the references were lost on me, I now know (from looking into the production) that many of the scenes were evoking Kubrick ("2001", "Strangelove" and "Clockwork Orange") and other notable directors. I love it. I love the subtlety of these homages... the "Clockwork" scene was clear to me, but I also am probably most familiar with that Kubrick film (although I have seen them all at least once).

I would need to see this again to fully review it, but my initial impression is that it is a great blend of action, humor and horror. Well worth a look.

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.

I'm quite surprised that this movie hasn't done better as I thought it had hit written all over it. This film has only been out for two weeks here in Scotland and it already only has one showing at 10.25 at night and the screen that we were in only had around 15 people in it. Shame that, as this movie is brilliant entertainment.

It starts out with pretty funny moments but gets very violent and gory after a while. This is what I found a bit confusing with the film as I found myself not sure whether to laugh at some parts or not (the part with the guys leg being the main example).

However I did enjoy it though and some parts, especially the ending are very exciting. The plot is pretty clever and the characters are likable. All in all if you can handle the violence then this is a movie worth catching. Shame it's not getting the same recognition as Shaun Of The Dead.

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.

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.

Firstly, yes, it's a "slasher" movie by definition: people meet horrific ends through discomforting means. But unlike slasher movies with sophomoric scripts, this one get points for smart dialogue, strong political perspective and a high humor quotient.

Some, upon hearing the title "Severance," will think it a reference to loosing ones job. Upon hearing it's a slasher film, one might think the reference cuts more towards Marie Antoinette. Both are borne out, yet the title's other reference which comes quietly but cleverly to light at the conclusion is somberly delightful.

For the squeamish, give this one a miss - you won't make it past the first bit of nastiness. For those who are a little braver, but wouldn't usually attend a film in which most of the cast is guaranteed to wind up sprung from this mortal coil, do give this one a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

The genre of self-referential tongue-in-cheek slashers has worn out its welcome a long time ago, but luckily "Severance" often takes breaks from being so damn clever and brings some actual thrills. The first half hour is pretty boring and filled with lame attempts at comedy, but afterwards it actually gets pretty exciting. The tension is gradually built up, and around halfway you're just totally sucked into this movie. This is mainly due to the characters, who are all pretty likable (to the standards of the genre, at least). You actually give a damn who lives and who dies, which is very rare is a slasher. The story also takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns, it's a pretty cleverly written movie. "Severance" is by no means great cinema, but it does seem to achieve whatever it wanted to achieve. Fun watch.

Comedy and horror together don't always work but in this case it was a good move, not that there are hilarious scenes, just some subtle humor, but the mix between the two genres was well balanced. The horror parts were creepy and there was a constant suspense what kept you interested in the story. The acting wasn't bad either. Danny Dyer might be in Eastenders, what I think as an ordinary soap, but he can act better than the average soap actor. Anyway, Severance is a bit of fun, a bit of horror and suspense all the way through, an entertaining British movie.

I'm not really sure what this film was – a comedy, a thriller, an action flick, a horror? That is to say, I'm not sure what it wanted to be. I know what it was – resoundingly adequate. A bit funny, a smidge thrilling, a touch action-packed and a little scary. Unfortunately, rather than committing to any one of its ingredients and exploiting them, Severance lurched from one idea to the next, and finally unwound with a really rather feeble reveal as to the bad guys, rendering their motives and actions baffling and pointless and making the preceding film feel hollow. On the plus side, some of the humour was spot on, it was nice to see a capable action girl and some clichés were side-stepped, but ultimately this is one to borrow, not to buy.

I recently saw this film premiere in Manchester as part of the Sky Festival and I have to say, I was impressed. I went in expecting nothing much, having read the comments and other info on IMDb before I went. However, these do not do this film justice.

It was witty, clever, well written but managed to balance this perfectly with it's horror elements. The idea behind the story is seemingly unique within cinema, and therefore was interesting and kept the viewer gripped. The acting was of a high standard in particular, Andy Nyman. I would say that Danny Dyer's role was well-played etc etc, but I met him afterwards, (and there was also a Q+A session) and he was rather obnoxious, I didn't like him (think Moff from Human Traffic... that wasn't method acting).

As for the direction, it is very commendable, in fact, the director Chris Smith, held a Q+A after the film and he definitely knew what he was talking about, as a big horror fan/geek, that was refreshing to see, particularly since none of his other films have approached this genre with any gusto. The film is reminiscent of Calvaire (the ordeal) and you can definitely see this in the direction - (he did say that Calvaire was one of his favourite films when I questioned him about the similarities).

Overall the film is definitely worth your hard earned £6. A wonderful example of GOOD contemporary British cinema, something which is difficult to find these days. However, I can't help wondering whether or not it's all an allegory to British rave culture...?!?!

A group of British employees of the weapons company Palisade Defense travels to Hungary for a team-building weekend. However they are hunted by a paramilitary force composed of deranged blood-thirsty killers and they have to fight to survive.

Last month I saw "Backwoods" (2008) that has a similar story of a group of employees that goes to an isolated place in the woods to improve teamwork playing paint-ball and other activities. Both "Severance" and "Backwoods" are not a bad movies, meaning that the acting, direction and effects are decent. However, there is a total lack of originality in the story, which is a rip-off or remake of "The Hills Have Eyes", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Wrong Turn", "Timber Falls" and others less famous movies. The leader Richard is extremely stupid to be considered a "top-executive", and I could not see how this silly paint-ball game could improve relationships in work. Due to the lack of originality of the story, I copied part of my review of "Backwoods" to keep the level. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mutilados" ("Severance")

I saw a screening of this film recently and loved it! It is truly original and one of the best horror/black comedy films I have ever seen.

The story is gripping and the cast is excellent - some of the finest British actors give star performances - in particular a stellar performance from Danny Dyer.

Normally this type of film can be all blood and guts, but Severance manages to combine the horror element (ie enough blood & gore!) with a gripping story line which keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.

You will be either clutching the person next to you or howling with laughter as the filmmakers take you on an extreme roller-coaster ride. I will be surprised if this film is not a huge hit!!

I would say the average score for Severance is too high, and there are a LOT of suspicious looking comments about this movie. I would guess that cast, friends & family are all 'playing their part' because many comments are just too positive and too considered, with none of the enthusiasm or 'amateurishness' you get from real fans.

Severance is not a terrible movie. It has a few laughs, and some funny characters, but it's mostly missed opportunities. Certainly not a patch on Sean of the Dead or, er, all the other British horror comedies. (actually, there was League of Gentlemen - also a crashing disappointment). To be fair, this director's first (and last) film Creep was also flawed. It's relevant, because Severance shows he still hasn't got the hang of 'scary'. The forest didn't seem scary, the hostel didn't seem scary, I didn't feel any real tension when they're all walking around on ground full of bear-traps, and it made no difference when the enemies were revealed. Sure, there were a few nice jokes, but not enough to be a comedy. The ending was pretty lame as well. I just don't get it - how does a film this lacklustre get made? Why didn't anyone catch the weaknesses in the plot & script? Is it arrogance on the part of the film makers (who clearly don't know as much as they think they do)? It's a shame, because it could have been good. And I don't think it ultimately helps things by getting friends to write glowing reviews.

I know I'm going to get jumped on for this, but this film was touted as being a "Comedy-Horror" along the lines of "Shaun Of The Dead", but safe to say we didn't laugh once.

Horror and gore and pointless storyline, sure. But comedy? No way. And to include a "gag" which involved a 747 being accidentally being shot from the sky.....? I guess loads of people will love this film, which is fair enough - different strokes and all that. But I just wanted to make a point that you can't always take reviews which describe things as "absolutely hilarious" or the "best film of the year" seriously.

Just my opinion...........