Severance (film)

Severance
Severance
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Christopher Smith
Screenplay by	James Moran; Christopher Smith
Story by	James Moran
Produced by	Jason Newmark; Finola Dwyer
Starring	Danny Dyer; Laura Harris; Tim McInnerny; Toby Stephens; Claudie Blakley; Andy Nyman; Babou Ceesay
Cinematography	Ed Wild
Edited by	Stuart Gazzard
Music by	Christian Henson
Production; companies	Qwerty Films; UK Film Council; Isle of Man Film; N1 European Film Produktions GmbH & Co. KG; Dan Films; HanWay Films; Wildgaze Films
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution (United Kingdom); Magnolia Pictures (United States); Splendid Film (Germany)
Release dates	August 25, 2006 (United Kingdom and Ireland);
Running time	96 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom; United States; Hungary; Germany
Languages	English; Hungarian; Russian
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$5.95 million

Severance is a 2006 comedy horror film co-written and directed by Christopher Smith. Co-written with James Moran, it stars Danny Dyer and Laura Harris.^[4] The film tells a story of group of British and Canadian co-workers who go to a remote mountain forest in Hungary, where they become victims of murderous attacks by a group of poachers.

Severance received mostly positive reviews. In 2009, media interest in the film was revived following the alleged copycat murder of a UK teenager.^[5]^[6]

Plot

The European Sales division of Palisade Defence military arms corporation are en route to a team-building weekend at a lodge in the Mátra Mountains of Hungary. When a fallen tree blocking the road halts their bus's progress, the driver refuses to take a dirt road through the woods and, after an argument, drives off, leaving the group to walk the remaining distance to the lodge.

The lodge is old and in disrepair, but the manager, Richard, convinces them to enter. Inside, they discover a file cabinet full of Palisade documents written in Russian. This leads Harris to relate something he heard: the lodge was a mental institution, and in the early 20th century a Palisade-made nerve gas was used to clear it out after the inmates took over. Jill heard something different: the lodge was a "reeducation center" for Russian war criminals and poachers, and after an escape, a Palisade-made nerve gas was used to clear escapees out of nearby buildings. Both mention a lone survivor who swore revenge on Palisade. Steve starts to tell his own story about the lodge's past as a clinic when he finds a human tooth in the meat pie the group is eating for dinner. Chastising Gordon for serving a pie he just found in the kitchen, everyone goes to bed.

That night, Jill sees someone looking into the lodge from the trees. Though nobody is found outside, everyone but Richard agrees that they should leave the lodge. The next morning Richard sends Harris and Jill to the top of the hill to call the driver back. Reaching the hill, the two find the bus abandoned and the driver dead in a nearby creek. At the lodge, Gordon steps into a bear trap. After failed attempts by Steve and Billy to pry the trap open, Gordon's left leg is completely cut through. Harris and Jill arrive in the bus, load everyone in and head back for town. On the way, a spike strip is thrown in front of the bus, which causes it to crash. Harris is thrown clear of the bus and is decapitated by a masked poacher with a machete. Jill is tied to a tree, doused with gasoline, and burned alive. The rest discover Harris's body and return to the lodge for the night.

Gordon later gets captured. Discovering a newly opened door, the remaining four enter the basement, which leads to an underground prison. Through one door, they find the now-dead Gordon with the Palisade logo carved into his torso. A poacher then fires a shotgun at them. They hide in a cell, where Billy dies from a chest wound. Richard escapes to the woods. While trying to kill the poacher, Maggie falls through the rickety floor. The poacher aims at Maggie, whom Steve saves by killing the attacker.

Believing they are safe, Maggie and Steve exit the lodge, but discover more armed, Russian-speaking poachers awaiting them outside. The two run into the woods and encounter Richard, who stepped on a Palisade-made land mine and cannot move without detonating it. Richard guides Maggie and Steve through the minefield. Meanwhile, the poachers use a fallen branch to pass over the minefield and torment Richard with insults and stones. Accepting his situation, Richard steps off the mine, killing himself as well as two poachers.

Steve and Maggie come to another building, the real Palisade lodge. Inside, they find their boss George, who is partying with two escorts Steve ordered earlier. George brings out a prototype missile launcher and fires it at the approaching poachers, but the missile locks on to a passing commercial jet instead, destroying it. The five run into the woods, where George and an escort are the next to be killed.

Maggie and Steve are left to fight the poachers with what they have at hand. At one point, Maggie breaks her leg, but is saved when the surviving escort, rescued by Steve, arrives and shoots their attacker. Steve, Maggie and the escort make it to a rowboat, and paddle off to safety.

Cast

Laura Harris as Maggie
Claudie Blakley as Jill
Toby Stephens as Harris
Andy Nyman as Gordon
Babou Ceesay as Billy
Tim McInnerny as Richard
Danny Dyer as Steve
David Gilliam as George
Juli Drajkó as Olga
Judit Viktor as Nadia
Sándor Boros as Coach Driver

Release

Home video

Severance was released in the United Kingdom on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on 8 January 2007.^[7] In the United States it was released on DVD by Magnolia Pictures on 27 September 2007. Severance has also been released on DVD in Australia by Warner Home Video, in France by Fox Pathé Europa, in Germany by Splendid Film and in Hong Kong by Deltamac.^[8]

Reception

Severance received generally favorable reviews. The film holds an approval rating of 66% on the film critic site Rotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The consensus reads: "A twisted and bloody spoof on office life, Severance nicely balances comedy and nasty horror."^[9] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 62 out of 100 sampled from 23 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[10]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commended Smith's "mischievous blending [of] The Office with Friday the 13th", awarding the film three stars out of four.^[11] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave not such a positive review, saying, "It is being billed as Deliverance meets The Office – a tellingly misleading description," giving the film only two out of five stars.^[12] In 2012, Total Film ranked it as the 36th best independent horror film of all time.^[13]

Connections

Mentioned in the film, the CRM-114 land mine is a reference to the CRM-114 radio discriminator in Dr. Strangelove.^[14] Severance and Dr. Strangelove both end with the song "We'll Meet Again".^[15]

On 28 April 2009, the BBC reported that the murder of a 17-year-old student from Norfolk was allegedly based on a scene from the film.^[16]^[17] According to the BBC news report, "Norwich Crown Court was told how Simon Everitt, from Great Yarmouth, was tied up and petrol poured down his throat before he was set on fire. Simon's body was found in woodland at Mautby in June 2008." Jurors at the trial of Jonathan Clarke and two other co-defendants were played a scene from Severance and told that, when Mr. Clarke had watched the DVD, "he made a comment to this effect: 'Wouldn't it be wicked if you could actually do that to someone in real life?'" On 29 May 2009, the trio were convicted of Everitt's murder.^[5]^[6]

References

^ "Severance". British Film Institute. London. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
^ "Release". British Film Institute. London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Severance (2007) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
^ Buchanan, Jason. "Severance". Allmovie. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Three killers jailed over 'spoof horror film' murder". The Daily Telegraph. London. 26 June 2009. Archived from the original on 29 June 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
^ ^a ^b "Three Found Guilty of Horrific Petrol Murder". Sky News. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010. The article contains relevant Flash video.
^ "Severance". DVD-Subtitles. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
^ "Severance". Rewind. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
^ Severance at Rotten Tomatoes
^ Severance at Metacritic
^ "Severance". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
^ Bradshaw, Peter (25 August 2006). "Severance". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
^ 50 Greatest Indie Horror Film | TotalFilm.com
^ Christopher Smith and Laura Harris Interview
^ "Severance at Internal Bleeding". Archived from the original on 30 December 2008. Retrieved 17 August 2008.
^ "Petrol killing 'based on movie'". BBC News. 28 April 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
^ Child, Ben (29 April 2009). "Student killed in imitation of a horror film scene, jurors told". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.