Review of Severance (2015) by James S — 06 May 2009

Ah, the peril of the highwire act that is the horror comedy. Many will attempt it and so very few will not be sent plummeting into the safety net below. Severance is another of those movies which makes a good attempt but ultimately fails.

That is not to say that Severance isn't funny or scary. It's actually both, it just doesn't marry it's two elements very well. Moments of tension are built up and then destroyed with a witty one liner. A group of weapons company employees find themselves stranded in the eastern European wilderness (where else?) and set upon by a group of what seem to be deranged storm troopers. It's never sufficiently explained as to who the bad guys really are which leads to much apathy in the final act.

Danny Dyer and Andy Nyman stand out amongst the half decent cast and there are one or two very good moments of tension in the early goings and one or two good moments of comedy but once the terror is revealed all tension and humour seems to drain away and the film falters badly.

There is no twist in the story which you would think would be coming, even an obvious twists could have saved the film somewhat and the fact that the makers didn't even seem to think of one is quite disappointing.

Severance doesn't seem to know what it wants to be - comedy or horror, and sadly fails at being effective at either. By the end of the movie, they're throwing in semi-naked girls with machine guns, presumably to try and regain a flicker of interest but it's a hopeless case by then for this lost opportunity.