Hallowe'en Horror: Time Off In Lieu of Body Parts (Severance (DVD))

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	Severance (DVD)
Date:	13/10/07 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gory AND funny

Disadvantages: Some bits are a bit silly

En route to a wood side luxury lodge, deep in the Eastern European mountains, members of a leading defence organisation's sales team suddenly find themselves rather lost. Despite their best attempts to locate the lodge on their map, they are unable to persuade the coach driver to take a diversion and after a brief, heated argument, they find themselves abandoned in the middle of nowhere, with only a bare idea of where they need to go. As they make their way through the woods, they aren't entirely sure that they are heading in the right direction; their nervousness is only made worse by Steve, a member of the team who is high on magic mushrooms and seems to be hallucinating about seeing people in the trees.

When they finally reach their destination, their fatigue turns to despair when the "luxury" lodge that they were promised turns out to be almost derelict. The team leader, Richard, does his best to raise their spirits but in the absence of any comforts, his attempts are largely unsuccessful. That night, as she prepares for bed, another member of the team, Jill, is disturbed by what she believes to be a man, watching her from the trees. The men of the team rush outside to have a look, but find nothing. In an attempt to calm the hysterical woman, Richard reluctantly agrees to review things in the morning and decide whether they should go home.

In the morning, the team's mood is no different, but things are about to take a turn for the worse. A grisly discovery in the woods prompts Richard and Jill to hurry back to camp and warn their colleagues that they are all in serious danger. But by the time they get there, Richard and Jill's friends have pretty much worked that out for themselves……

Severance is billed as one of those curious horror comedy things. I'm not a fan of the genre. Whenever someone mentions horror comedies, my mind immediately switches to the Scary Movie series and promptly shuts down. Horror generally isn't very funny, you see, and whilst the medium can be used to make wry social observations, out and out laughs don't seem to follow hand in hand with out and out shocks. In 2006, when I first watched Severance at the cinema, I was hugely disappointed. Indeed, I thought that the film was so dreadful that after 30 minutes I simply got up and left. A year later, and after a second sitting, this time on DVD, this time in full, I feel quite differently about it. Somehow, director Christopher Smith (he did Creep - not a good start) has put together a product that intermittently made me laugh and jump and sometimes left me in a quandary about which would be more appropriate. Is the first successful horror comedy?

At the beginning, it's difficult to believe that much is going to happen that will make you laugh. A lone man and two women are stalked through the woods by an unseen menace. The woman fall into a trap and desperately try and claw their way out; the man finds himself suspended from a tree and promptly despatched in a suitably grisly manner by a rather large hunting knife. It's hardly the stuff to make you giggle but then events take a rather different turn and for the next fifteen minutes or so, we are introduced to the characters that may then make us laugh or shudder. This curious introduction is probably what initially put me off. The contrast between the opening slaughter and subsequent comedy is so stark that the two sit together very uncomfortably. But in all fairness, you need to make the investment to get to know the characters better, because first impressions may or may not count.

In the film's earlier scenes, the creators skill here could largely be filed under "leading you up the garden path". When Steve calls out for help, his friends rush to his aid, apparently shocked by the discovery of his predicament. As Jill leaves her room to fetch a drink, our attention is drawn to a large, hairy spider climbing its way up her back. As Richard, the team leader, wakens after a light bedtime snack, he is drawn seductively into the room of one of his female team members, visible only from behind as though something is wrong with her face. It's an elusive and elaborate exercise in tricking the audience to believe that menace is present, when in fact the opposite is in fact the case. But then with a cunning trick of hand, the menace reveals itself to be somewhere else entirely. In a straight-laced horror film, this kind of manoeuvre probably wouldn't work, given only that the audience's terror is offset by a little humour, a flourish that could only work, of course, in a horror comedy.

Notably, however, when Smith decides to go for horror, the film is remarkably brutal. As the team mates are gradually picked off, one by one, Smith wastes no opportunity in making their departures as brutal as possible. Once again, each of the incidents is somehow given a comedy diversion. One character is beheaded and then realises that a previous conversation may actually have been closer to the truth than he thought. An incident with a flame thrower is delayed by the protagonist's inability to light a match and a mishap with a bear trap will almost certainly get everyone rubbing their legs in uncomfortable sympathy. Importantly, the humour is almost entirely delivered by the good guys here, with our sympathies extended towards every member of the team, caught in a nightmare they dare not comprehend. Crucially, Smith realises that there is no mileage in making the bad guys funny, a common mistake in films of this nature (Dracula: Dead and Loving It anyone?) and ensures that their villainy is unblemished by the threat of having a laugh. Occasionally, things do become a little too farcical (an incident with an untested anti-terrorist device springs to mind) but these are few and far between, and in all fairness, they're also rather funny.

The horror gore aside, Smith also manages to use the Balkan woodland setting to great effect too. The film is very atmospheric, with a real feeling of isolation and increasing desperation. The woods seem to go on forever, and every shadow within the trees threatens to be exposed as a new danger. Smith's garden path humour works well again here, also, with an early pun about the existence of bears in the woods providing some sharp script and a witty visual joke. Indeed, the script is consistently very effective, with some hilarious one liners ("this is gonna hurt, mate") to accompany the humour and the horror.

Whilst it almost runs contrary to my better judgement, full merit must go to Danny Dyer to carrying off much of the humour. Dyer's stone head Steve is initially unwelcome, but after half an hour of drug-induced tomfoolery, he kind of settles down and is much easier to warm too. Sometimes he doesn't have to say much to capture the mood perfectly (his reaction to a pie dinner says it all) and he's plausible enough to become likeable. His female counterpart Maggie (Laura Harris) is just as likeable, if not rather more ballsy and the two bounce off each other pretty well. The rest of the crew is strong too. Tim McInnery's misguided company man Richard gets lots of laughs, given only his complete incompetence at actually leading the team and / or being a decent bloke. Andy Nyman's portrayal of tubby team member Gordon works really well; every team has someone like him. Claudie Blakely's vulnerable Jill has hidden depths and even the team smart ass Harris (Toby Stephens) quickly becomes likeable. It is, therefore, all the more horrific, of course, when things go pear-shaped for them.

Criticisms? The early scenes with Steve in a state of drug-induced hysteria are distracting and at odds with the rest of the film. It's as though Smith was going to toy with the idea of suggesting that the whole thing was in his imagination and it all feels rather unnecessary. Also, there are lots of ideas around the back story but the villains remain very one-dimensional, which works to an extent but also misses the opportunity to add an extra layer to the characterisation.

Generally, however, the format works really well and Severance yields itself a very entertaining blend of laughs and shocks. The strong cast keeps the story on its toes and the lack of cliché keeps it fresh. This isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it – a perfect Hallowe'en antidote to slash and stab.

Summary: A genuinely funny horror film