2004 sparked a small revival of sorts for British horror comedies with Shaun of The Dead, one that saw some fairly decent titles come out over the next few years following Wright and Pegg’s success, whether these films would have been made otherwise is a question that can’t really be answered, but you have to think it had at least a little influence in these other films getting funding. One of those films was the 2006 horror comedy, Severance.
Severance sells you in the opening 2 minutes by doing everything it needs to tick the horror comedy box. Three people running frantically through the woods, one man and two big-boobed blondes who subsequently fall down a pit and decide to take their clothes off to try and climb out some-way, or build some sort of…I don’t know, screw it, they took their clothes off within 30 seconds, you’re hooked. The film follows a small UK branch of a multi-million dollar company Palisade, travelling through Eastern Europe. The team is made up of boss Richard (Tim McInnerny), the arrogant Harris (Toby Stephens), strong-willed Jill (Claudie Blakley), kiss-ass Gordon (Andy Nyman), new girl Maggie (Laura Harris), quiet Billy (Babou Ceesay) and geezer Steve (Danny Dyer). When a tree has blocked their path, the team must make it on foot to the lodge where George (David Gilliam) is waiting for their arrival. Only a few problems though, they have no idea if the map is to scale, they have no real idea where they’re going, and Steve has taken a bag of magic mushrooms and on a bad trip (to hilarious results). The best thing about Steve being on mushrooms, apart from it makes perfect sense for Danny Dyer to be in the film, is that he actually sees the threats around them numerous times as they’re travelling to the lodge, but nobody will believe him because he’s high on mushrooms. As the group arrive at an abandoned cottage which is quite obviously not the luxury lodge promised to them, boss man Richard refuses to be wrong and decides they must stay because they have to be in the right place. But as they wait around deciding what to do, the ever-lurking danger outside is waiting, biding its time to strike and pick them off one by one.
Severance begins as your typical comedy horror, not taking itself too seriously at all. After a promising opening two minutes and a few good jokes – mostly supplied by Danny Dyer – during our introduction to the team, Severance looses a lot of pace as the group dilly-dally around the ‘lodge’ for a good 20 minutes without actually doing anything. It manages to collect a few chuckles here and there, but Severance fails to earn any real hysterics or screams, and Danny Dyer – while not the best actor but has a knack for comedy – is mostly underused in what must’ve been the films draw name at the time. The film was billed as a sort of Deliverance meets The Office at it’s time, but it’s hard to see how – especially for the latter – as the only comparisons you can draw are it’s a small office team….and that’s it.
While Severance is an okay flick for the British audience, who are adapted to the charm of Danny Dyer, in reality it’s lacking in both comedy and horror. A few jokes come from Tim McInnerny and Andy Nyman, but it’s few and far between and while the film picks up towards the end and the comedy comes back, it all feels a little too late. It seems as if Severance was just waiting for these few jokes right at the end. While the deaths are imaginative, they’re also mostly done off screen, and it bitterly under-uses its very talented cast. The filmmakers could have done better if they decided what they really wanted Severance to be, a horror comedy or a horror comedy spoof.
Rating: Good for a first time watch, but perhaps lost on non-UK audiences (5/10).
Recent Comments