Severance Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Another bloody office outing.
The Company Is Making Cutbacks
When a weapons multi-national Palisade Defence reward their European sales division with a team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe, comedy blends with horror as the team fight first amongst themselves, and later for survival against a group of war-crazed killers intent on revenge.
| 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 |
| Christopher Smith |
6.80 out of 10 (7963 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Dark, sick, twisted... and hilarious
posted on 16 Aug 2009Described as Shaun of the Dead meets The Office, they're not far wrong. A team of office workers are sent to a retreat in rural Hungary in a team-building exercise. Completely unaware that there may or may not be something nasty in the woods...Born out of one mans hatred for commuters, this is a nasty, gruesome, bloodthirsty, dark little film. It's also as funny as hell. Tim McInnery turns in a great performance as the boss who above all else, insists on team work and team spirit - think David Brent only even more unbearable. The rest of the cast aren't just fodder either - they are all characters that you'll recognise. The smug guy who think's he's bigger than the company. The cocky guy who couldn't care less about the team. The office weasel, sucking up to the boss despite the fact that he will never become management.The film isn't so much laced with dark humour, it's more dripping in it. If you like films where you're laughing even though on every level you know you shouldn't be, this is the film for you.
Very, VERY disappointing
posted on 14 Aug 2009This is an American film with English people in it. All the reviews in the UK broadsheets say that it's a scary horror and a black comedy, but to be honest, I think it's a "trapped in scary woods" scream-style American jump fest with some frat-lad jokes.As such, it's OK. But if you are wanting black comedy a-la Man bites dog or REAL horror as in Night of the living dead this is not the film for you.Please British film reviewers: stop being so nice about British films and tell us what they are ACTUALLY like.Sad waste of Tim McInnerney and Danny Dyer's talents.
Makes you laugh in all the wrong places! Hilarious
posted on 12 Aug 2009I think this is comedy at its genius highest level. The film makes a couple of attempts at sinister moments but the fantastic use of music in the film makes all such attempts futile. I will not write a spoiler but there are a couple of laughs which are the most side splitting ones I've had in quite a while. They're in the wrong place though, and probably says more about me than the film. Which is how Horror Coms should be if you ask me... Danny Dyer is just himself like you will remember him from any appearance really (but he does it well) and he shares the film with some other real characters, none of which overshadow the production with their acting talents but the film works. I think it is well and cleverly written with a quirky script and some real characters. Sure it's outrageous and follows a bit of a template in places. But I am truly sold on this film. Severance? Don't try to get someone out of a bear trap...
A bit hard to classify, but a bloody good film
posted on 25 Jul 2009This is another one of those films that's a bit hard to pin down. Ostensibly it's a "horror-comedy" (which is a difficult genre to get right in the first place), but felt more like a comedy and a horror/thriller mashed together, as if the director wasn't sure which genre he wanted to make. It's been called "The Office meets Deliverance", which should give you an idea of what I'm on about.The story follows the misfortunes of a group of British / American employees from an international weapons company, on their way to a team-building weekend at a Hungarian lodge. Abandoned by their bus driver, they get lost in the woods and end up bunking down in a run-down building in the middle of nowhere. It soon turns out that the building is part of an abandoned detention center for ex-Soviet war criminals, some of whom are still living rough in the woods. The war criminals in question happen to have an old grudge against the same company their uninvited guests work for, and are armed to the teeth with the very weapons it manufactures. Cue the running and screaming.Not that it's a bad movie. On the contrary, I loved every second of it. Watched it three times. It's just that while the comedy parts were funny (in that dry, satirical British way), and the thriller parts were scary (and extremely violent), the two didn't completely gel. One moment you're watching something along the lines of Hot Fuzz or Still Crazy, and then you get a rather harrowing torture/murder scene that would put Tarantino to shame. It's a credit to the director and the actors that both genres are handled so well - I can honestly say that this film contains some of the most distressingly poignant death scenes I've ever seen. And the fight scenes near the end - where the surviving victims fight tooth and nail to overcome their attackers - are satisfyingly brutal and entertaining as hell.It's still an odd film, though. Odder still in that, had they made a straight thriller or a straight comedy, neither would have been as much fun to watch. I'm going to give it an 8/10. Just don't rent it if you're squeamish.
Delicious, surprisingly original treat
posted on 13 Jul 2009In Severance, a group of defense workers goes off on a corporate retreat ("team building") and are confronted by a menace. But what is facing them is not just some unseen killer, no, it's the terror of an unforgiving public who's been there, done that. They don't just have to win over the attacker -- they have to win over the audience as well. Or should I say that's the challenge of writer-director Christopher Smith, and he succeeds with ease.A veteran ensemble cast makes up this motley crew, all well-versed in the art of sight gags and comedic timing. No small feat, then, that Danny Dyer's Steve is still able to provide comic relief in a film that's already quite satirical. The goal of this trip is a little r&r, but Steve misread it as sex and drugs and r&r. He is a standout here. Laura Harris also shines as Maggie, who has a little Ripley in her just waiting to burst out. Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Andy Nyman, Babou Ceesay, and Tim McInnerny all turn in perfectly nuanced tongue-in-cheek performances while remaining frighteningly real.Severance looks like a big budget film but with indie sensibility. The opening strains of the Small Faces' Itchykoo Park had me from the opening credits. As in the best horror films, the score becomes a character unto itself. It plays with the audience's funny bone, and there is a plethora of jump-out-of-your-seat moments which owe themselves to masterful sound editing. Liberal hand-held shots and outstanding visual effects round out the scare factor, and believe me, it's there.Severance, like most good slasher flicks, borders on satire but Smith dares to take it a step further. It gingerly walks that line down the center, still managing to elicit plenty of gasps among the laughs. No small feat in a genre that leaves little room for originality. You'll laugh, you'll scream, and you'll applaud with equal levels of excitement. It's hard to imagine even the skeptics not being taken in by this one. Severance is a delicious treat worthy of the unforgiving midnight madness masses.
decent black comedy/horror
posted on 11 Jul 2009Severance is the story of several employees of a defense contractor who are on a team-building exercise somewhere inside the former Iron Curtain....like, Hungary. When they encounter a tree across the road the driver refuses to take an alternate route & find themselves left to their own devices in the middle of nowhere. Their destination is a lodge & they think they've found it but things don't seem "quite right" and they've actually stumbled across an old asylum which was home to a bunch of psycho soldiers....ones that "liked the killing too much". And guess what? Maybe they haven't really left the area. This starts out fairly funny but for a long period of time it's more as if it were a straight horror film, but then the humor kicks back in for a bit...the ending is a nice touch with scantily clad women with machine guns, always a crowd-pleaser. The box description of "The Office meets The Hills Have Eyes" is actually fairly on target, too. Not bad, thanks to whomever traded theirs in so I didn't have to pay full price. 7 out of 10.
Not horrible.
posted on 05 Jul 2009"Severance" is a film that reminded me of "Hostel" or "Wrong Turn" but with a dose of "Shaun of the Dead." A group of people go on an 'office outing' to a run-down resort-type of place out in the boonies of Hungary. I liked the setting, it was creepy for sure.The people start getting hacked up and disappearing one by one. There's really nothing new about that. Some of the gore is pretty cool and there are some genuine scares, but I'd throw this into the ever growing horror-comedy genre.My major complaint about this film is that the ending really makes no sense. We simply find out that the 'killer' is a group of Ninja-like dudes who have been using the building and grounds as a training ground. Maybe I just didn't get it, but I was expecting more of a twist."Severance" was pretty funny but it tried a little too hard.5 out of 10, kids.
Enjoyable British comedy/horror from the director of Creep.
posted on 03 Jul 2009Severance 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.
movies should learn from this
posted on 21 Jun 2009i have been on IMDb countless times but this time i registered as a user just to rate (and comment on) this movie. its amazing in a nutshell. the actors are very talented, the plot is a great one, and the flow never leaves you in a lull. the dark humor picks on everything that's cliché - and in a most apt manner. the acting, even for the bit parts, was professional all the way. even when i passed the halfway mark with the movie, i was pretty busy still trying to figure out the very last detail (although some people may figure it out earlier), paying attention to what is going on, and at the same time being distracted by the action. i have never been so gripped, in so many ways, by a movie. splendid job.
Much Better than "Hostel"
posted on 17 Jun 2009WARNING - PLOT SPOILERS..."Severnance" takes a vaguely similar premise to Eli Roth's "Hostel" - ie dump a few "tourists" in the middle of Eastern Europe and have fun watching them suffer horribly, but whereas "Hostel" was puerile, juvenile, xenophobic rubbish, "Severance" actually has a brain at the heart of its nastiness, and a pretty damn good sense of humour as well.The idea of a group of criminally insane Balkan war criminals put in an asylum by a Multinational weapons company and then escaping their captors and wreaking bloody vengeance on representatives of said arms company that put them there is actually a damn sight cooler, as well as making more sense, than crudely ripping off yet again "The Most Dangerous Game" as "Hostel" did.The whole concept of taking a bunch of mismatched weirdos and putting them in the middle of nowhere is a basic staple for horror/slasher films, but here it is given new life by the fact that these people are actual CHARACTERS, with PERSONALITY and not merely teenage serial-killer fodder. From Tim McInerney's hopeless 'team leader' to Danny Dyer's cynically funny 'cockney wideboy' to Toby Stephens' insufferable public schoolboy to Andy Nyman's annoying, overly-keen 'team bonder', all the characters have something to contribute, are well developed and, rarely in a film like this, actually Likable - even the annoying ones, and you actually care about their fate..This is down to good, solid scripting (again, something pretty rare in the "Slasher" genre), anyone who's been on these ridiculous corporate "team bonding" exercises will recognise something in all these characters, and I do like the double-edged meaning of the film's title....In these times when the Horror genre seems to be saturated with crappy remakes and Post-"Scream-meets-Dawson's-Creek" guff made for 13 year-olds that seem populated with stars of crappy daytime soaps and Teen Programmes, it really is refreshing to see a horror with a spark of originality like "Severance", with well-placed humour that doesn't seem forced and some real frights and surprises as well along the way...
not bad, awful.
posted on 17 Jun 2009After the success of Creep (?) we get severance from the same director. A comedy/horror that to be honest isn't that funny or horrific, at a fifteen certificate, Spielberg has sh*tted me up more in every film he's made. A diverse cast is let down by a mediocre and ludicrous script. Horror is something that has always had an element of parody to it anyway, so to be clever enough to squeeze something from the genre is hard. The Scream films failed as did the Saw series and even horror legends like Wes Craven and George A Romero have struggled to recapture past glories, despite constantly playing with the format. So here we get all the boxes ticked violence, t*ts, geeks come good, sh*ts get their comeuppance, drugs, maniacs, love, death and stupidity. This is the film equivalent of the daily star, bottom feeders, like the two guys sat next to me will love it and think its amazing and hopefully go home and copy it by shoving knives up their own arses. If you like sh*t horror with more boobs than jokes then this is the film for you. It is throw away slasher cr*p with no real substance or plot, but blood, old ideas and clichés by the haunted house full.
I can't get enough of this film. It is the best film yet to be released of 2006 ! :)
posted on 15 Jun 2009I was thinking 2006 was gonna be a damp squib, in terms of creative, original and clever film-making. Boy was I wrong! SEVERANCE! The best film of 2006. (Period) If anyone says otherwise, you'd better be able to prove it. I can't find one fault with this film. And I usually can find faults. Not one fault with this one. This is amazing film-making. And at this budget! Wow! I am not a fan of the horror genre. But this film takes the cake for pretty much every genre this year. I would love for it to be recognized for its brilliance in the US, but apparently it doesn't get released there until April 6, 2007! Oh well.This is a film you wanna watch with friends! You wanna get some nice fat-filled buttered popcorn and beers and just go nuts! This is absolutely the best 95 minutes I have spent in front of my TV this year! Not one single frame wasted! My kudos to Chris Smith for an amazing job... and hey anyone know Ed Harcourt's phone number? He's that guy with that wonderful rendition of "we'll meet again.." in the end credits! What a way to end a film! DUDE! Am doing cartwheels! I have told all my friends about this film - from New York to New Delhi, they all know about it! Hope it helps.You have to have to have to have to watch this film! P.S. The reason I didn't write about what this film is about is because you need to watch it! I hope my enthusiasm rubs off on you.. :)
Great. The best film of 2006!
posted on 11 Jun 2009Wow.I am so glad i saw this film because we did buy tickets to go see you me and dupree but that got abit boring so we sneaked out and sneaked into see Severance. i saw this film last night it was brilliant. It was very funny and very jumpy. The best bit of the film was where one of the guys got his leg trapped in a trap and he couldn't get it out, so he ended up ripping his leg out. Steve put the leg in the fridge to keep it cool and they all got onto the coach and drove away. one of the crazy guys poped the left side Tye the coach skidded back into the woods and flipped over. they had to make another plan, because one had, had his head chopped off and the other one went into the woods and got burnt alive! the plan was to go back to the (sex) lodge and walk back in the morning. Sorry if i am giving the story away :-) this film was just to good to miss 10 OUT OF 10 ***** 5 stars!
What is this film supposed to be?
posted on 26 May 2009I saw this film 04/09 and was left wondering what it's supposed to be? Not enough gore/suspense for a horror and not nearly enough humour for a comedy.I have stockings that are more robust than the plot which presented several openings for things to get a little more interesting but were clearly not acted upon. The limited laugh out loud moments and a few choice lines from Danny Dyer unfortunately could not save this film.The trailers promised something akin to 'Shaun of the Dead' using very creative advertising as sadly this film did not come close. I expected more from Tim McInnerney and some of the sharp wit that usually comes with a British comedy.
Highly entertaining and gripping.
posted on 14 May 2009I saw Severance last night after having planned to watch it for some time. I have to say that it was really quite brilliant in every respect. Great direction, location, actors/actresses, story, just about everything you need for a truly great film.I took it into the office to watch with the lads from work and they all said it was highly entertaining and gripping. If I had to point out a (very small) fault, it would have to be the strange mix of horror/comedy. Although original in it's own way, you are sometimes left wondering whether to laugh or cry, but this does not affect the overall film, in fact, it probably adds to it.If you are a fan of horror/violence mixed in with some coarse humour (think Shaun of the Dead), then this movie is for you! Danny Dyer has some excellent one-liners and the other characters have been cast perfectly. Its also British for a change! :) Go rent or buy Severance now!
The film has its brain cut off from the rest of its body.
posted on 06 May 2009So, here we go then – the beginning of a new wave in genre film-making for Britain, something Guy Ritchie did for the gangster genre in 1998 with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels plus knock offs that followed. This time, we're seeing 2004's Shaun of the Dead the source for inspiration in Severance, a quite ridiculous and downright annoying little film, from the director of 2004's 'Creep', that is dressed up as something good due to its 'clever' flipping from comedy to horror and its constant Kubrick referencing. In short, it's not funny; not clever and will have you wanting it to end after about an hour, regardless of how you approach it.The film's immediate beginning sees two slim, blonde, young female 'bombshells' trapped in a hole. They're muddy, panicking and eventually find themselves with 90% of their clothes off in a vein attempt to get out. A few minutes later, we see a guy hanging upside down following a stumbling into a rope trap of some kind before he becomes acquainted with about 90% of his blood. The opening is shameless in its announcing of guilty intentions: big breasted women and gore for anyone willing to enjoy it, too bad any sane adult over the age of 18 is likely to be unimpressed while anyone under the age of 18 shouldn't even be allowed any where near it in the first place; this is despite the '15' certificate slapped on from the BBFC, in what is quite a shameful attempt to branch a British film out to the widest possible audience – too bad they're only contributing to the dumbing down of the youth.The film prides itself on being of the pastiche variety, that is to say a film that is clearly paying homage to its inspirations and horror films and set ups of old. Several people, ranging from Danny Dyer to Toby Stephens to Tim McInnerny to a bunch of television based talent few will even have heard of, are placed within a small, deserted place in the middle of nowhere and put through the grinder of survival. The place is Hungary, another Eastern European locale getting dumped on in a horror film, and the reason for everyone being there is to bring together a sense of unity within a close-knit bunch of office working people. Too bad the study or 'look' at teamwork and unity within a desperate situation has to put more emphasis on violence than anything else and then end on an immediate note with a sex joke.For a while, the establishing of the setting is dwelled on. Some of the elder male characters lust after a female co-worker, which is a bit daft, and Danny Dyer's character, named Steve, is given the butt of the drug and sex related jokes designed to connect with some of the more younger audience members. But the term 'low art posing as high art' springs to mind when daft Kubrickian references to A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey pop up. Then there are a few jumps such as Richard's (McInnerny) uncanny dream and the fact 'someone' may or may not have been at a girl's window watching her sleep. The film even tries to play daft mind games when audience expectation is toyed with in a scene that shows some young, potentially deafening when it comes to screaming, girls might actually quite like large spiders.But there is a point when the film decides it's done enough and wants to descend into something else entirely. You get the feeling, pretty much throughout its early runtime, that it's just bursting to get to the gore; to get to the chase; to get to the conflict between these office workers and the antagonistic forces that arise and to just get to the bloodshed. The film veers off into some kind of pseudo-slasher piece whilst poking fun at the ideation that Myers or Voorhees is always able to catch up with their potential fodder, in a Halloween sequel or something, by producing multiple villains as the loose narrative branches out. Along with this are a couple of rather disturbing scenes, disturbing in the sense they feel so out of place nobody knows whether to laugh or vomit.One of which relates to an incidence which is, I feel, one of the most misjudged scenes in any film from recent years, during which someone is tied to a tree; gagged; soaked in petrol and then set alight before being left to cinder. You half expect someone else to come and rescue them or stop it from happening or something but no, they just burn up and given the black comedy content that is supposed to juxtapose with the horror, this scene just feels a step too far. The immediate finale is reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so the gags and referencing keeps on flowing, as a young and bloodied girl is chased through a rural Hell. The film even finds time to poke fun at an American's attempt to 'kill terrorists' by accidentally annihilating harmless civilians instead, such is the pomposity of the film. Severance is a needless and cheap venture into comedy/horror territory that few will find interesting and most will dismiss.
Adequate!
posted on 26 Apr 2009I'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.
Silly Fun
posted on 24 Apr 2009When seven employees of Palisades Defense to on a team-building retreat in Hungary, the sins of their company's questionable corporate investments come back to haunt them. The group is besieged by former soldiers bend on revenge and anyone associated with Palisades is a target (whether or not their even a competent employee). Fortunately, this isn't a "corporate drones versus mad mountain men" film as most of the Palisades employees are generally an affable and diverse lot. Moreover, the film has several moments of well-placed levity.While I was surprised that there wasn't more pithy corporate speak ("I can't spell success without you"), several valid workplace archetypes are present (the kiss ass, the overeducated snob, the stoner, et cetera). With moments familiar to TIFF's Midnight Madness fans, this cross between OFFICE SPACE and SOUTHERN COMFORT still feels fresh and very fun.
unimaginative slasher film
posted on 16 Apr 2009"Severance" is apparently Britain's answer to the "Friday the 13th" movies (as if such a response were even needed). Seven employees - ironically enough of an arms-manufacturing firm - head off to the forests of Eastern Europe (the new locale-of-choice for the modern horror film, it would appear) for a weekend of corporate-sponsored team-building and morale-boosting. Their adventure turns into a nightmare, however, as the members of the party are hunted down and brutally murdered by a mask-wearing, weapons-wielding serial killer with serious developmental issues. Meat cleavers, serrated knives, blow torches, machine guns - no tool is too crude or too sophisticated for our intrepid little psychopath to employ in the course of his business. This is supposed to make him a sort of homegrown version of the company people he's killing, I suppose, but the movie is frankly too dumbed-down and lunk-headed for such heavy-handed ironies to register much of an impact.Though it is efficiently executed and reasonably well acted, "Severance" doesn't bring anything new to a genre whose modus operandi was pretty much set in stone once "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" laid down the original blueprint thirty some odd years ago. As with most such films, the majority of the thrills come in the earlier sequences before the nature of the threat has been fully revealed. Once that occurs, however, the movie devolves into yet another monotonous gore-fest, with only a trace of that trademark British cheekiness to distinguish it from the countless other slasher movies that have come before it. When all is said and done, the only thing more objectionable than the sadism and gore is the shocking lack of originality and imagination that all concerned have brought to the enterprise.
one of my favourites
posted on 20 Aug 2009Reading the back of the DVD, you may think to yourself "This is going to be just another slasher". It may be a slasher, but it is different than most. This movie has realistic (and awesome) people who think through the situation and don't do stupid things. Severance isn't like most horror-comedies which are over the top and unrealistic. You may be expecting something like Shaun of the Dead, but don't. The comedy in this movie is more subtle, yet it makes you laugh until you fall off the couch. Shaun of the Dead is more in your face and not what people would actually do in that situation (i did love Shaun of the Dead though). Severance makes it more about the situation and how they react to the situation the funny part about it. So therefore you can still accept it as being a true story which makes you more sad when the characters die. This movie was actually the closest I ever came to crying in a movie because I cared so much about the characters. So, you could go out and rent the ever so terrible Prom Night (2008)or Friday the 13th (2009) or the ever so awesome Severance. The choice is yours. Don't let me down :).12/10