Severance

Severance (2006)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Christopher Smith

Starring: Laura Harris, Danny Dyer, Toby Stephens, Andy Nyman

From: HanWay Films

Here’s another horror film from Europe, which seems to be one of the few places where you can actually get at least a halfway decent film in the genre in recent years. This is also a movie that mixes scares and laughs pretty well, and isn’t grating or drags on forever; yes, I’m directing that potshot towards the movie known as Hatchet.

As for this movie, it seems to be quite a bit inspired by the few minute segment in the sixth Friday the 13th movie where Jason hacks up that company that is doing a team-building exercise in the woods and there’s a lot of humor involved. Here, it’s an English weapons company that is out in the woods on a team-building exercise, only it’s in Hungary (by the borders of both Serbia and Romania, according to a line of dialogue in the movie) and it’s a wacky group of people, from an American to a drug-using clown, a brown-noser type and an out of touch boss. They are on a bus off to a cabin when there’s arguing with the bus driver and they have to do a bit of walking to what they believe is their cabin. That’s when the fit hits the shan, so to speak, and they have to deal with a killer.

Much of the horror and carnage doesn’t come in the first half of the movie. Rather, it’s getting to know the characters and their various personalities. It’s done in a smart and entertaining way, for the most part. The laughs are actually worthy of giggle and it doesn’t drag. Once the second half starts up, you get to see some pretty dark humor, along with enough gruesome moments for the gorehounds. It also moves fast so it isn’t boring either. Oh, and whenever I hear the song Itchycoo Park (by The Small Faces) I’ll forever be reminded of this film.

I don’t want to give too much else away-as there are some surprises-but if you enjoy horror-comedy and want to see something that you haven’t checked out yet, you should track this down.

I'll be back Wednesday night with a new review.