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Released by: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Released on: 9/18/2007
Director: Christopher Smith
Cast: Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakely, Andy Nyman
Year: 2006
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The Movie:
A maliciously funny blend of horror and comedy, Severance came and went all too quickly during its brief theatrical run. Hopefully with the home video release now here, this smart and clever horror film will find the audience it failed to bring in the first time around, as it really is a good film and quite and interesting one at that.
The film follows a group of seven co-workers, all employed at the Palisades Defense Company, who are on route to an off-site company meeting being held at the corporate retreat center out in the middle of the woods. They hope to show up, get some training, develop better team work skills and then enjoy a little relaxation time but a fallen tree blocks the road and our seven heroes decide to take an uncharted detour through the deep dark woods on foot. After a bit of a hike the group can't find the retreat and decide to bunk down for the night at an abandoned cabin. Oddly enough, one of the men finds a batch of files with their corporate logo stashed away in a back room, making the group all wonder what's going on and how those files got there in the first place. When they way up the next day, they learn the answer to that question the hard way when a gang of lunatics shows up and starts slaughtering them one by one.
You'd think a film with seven lead characters would mean we'd have trouble keeping them straight but thankfully the script makes sure we know who these people are, with each one of the leads based on a stereotypical office worker of some kind. Richard (Tim McInnerny) is the boss with the awkward social skills, Harris (Toby Stephens) is the snarky and annoying salesman, Jill (Claudie Blakley) is the shy one who cares too much, Gordon (Andy Nyman) is a brown-noser always sucking up, Billy (Baboo Ceesay) is the resident bookworm, Steve (David Dyer) is a stoner-slacker who coasts through his days, and Maggie (Laura Harris) is the hot chick in the group. Not only have the writers made the characters interesting independent of one another but they've also based them on people that any of us who have spent time at an office job can instantly identify with. It also makes the arguments that ensue between the characters more believable and as such, the humor is more effective as it's grounded in reality. In the same way that The Office succeeds by hitting a little too close to home, Severance nails it by bringing in similarly believable if slightly exaggerated characters… and then slaughtering them.
And slaughter is exactly what we get! Plenty of gore makes the humor in Severance pitch black in the most malicious way imaginable. Ironic, and at times almost nihilistic, the film plays itself just straight enough that the kill scenes actually pack a punch. The humor is, more often than not, dry and subtle as much of the best British humor tends to be, allowing us to lose sight of the fact that we're watching a film that really is pretty nasty. Of course along the way Smith is able to make plenty of observations and connections to how office life can be a lot like fighting for your life, and how a lot of times we don't want to work alongside our officemates unless we absolutely have to. The movie never moves into parody territory, so don't go into this one expecting a genre send-up in the same way that Shaun Of The Dead took the piss out of zombie films. Instead, Severance is a slasher film through and through even if it is a very funny one. The final third of the film is very effectively paced and quite tense, proving that if Smith and company decided they wanted to make a straight horror film sans laughs, they could probably do a damn fine job of it. The premise isn't quite milked for all that it could have been but the film remains and enjoyable and creepy horror-comedy hybrid that contains plenty of laughs and some quality scares.
Video/Audio/Extras:
For a newer film, Severance looks okay but it could have looked a little better. Color reproduction is decent, but it should have been great and the same can be said of the detail levels - they're just okay. Skin tones look good and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement, nor are there any issues with print damage or debris. The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen image just looks a little on the flat side is all. Not a bad picture by any stretch, it just does not look as good as you might hope such a new film would look.
Magnolia presents Severance with your choice of English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound or Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes, with optional subtitles provided in Spanish and closed captioning provided in English for the feature only. Audio quality is strong across the board with the surrounds used nicely during a few of the more action intensive scenes in the film. The score has some nice bounce to it and dialogue stays clean and clear.
Magnolia has done a fine job packing this release with extra features beginning with a commentary track from director Christopher Smith who is joined here by co-writer James Moran, production designer John Frankish and cast members Danny Dyer, Tim McInnerny, Andy Nyman, and Baboo Ceesay. Although things get a little hectic at times with so many participants, the good definitely outweighs the bad here as the cast and crew have all got a great sense or humor and there are plenty of jokes in here that make this a fun listen. Additionally, there are some interesting stories told as well, including bits about casting, and about certain script nuances and influences that affected the film. This is one of those rare tracks that finds the right mix between being really interesting and really funny and as such, it's completely worth your time.
From there, check out a behind the scenes featurette entitled, appropriately enough, The Making of Severance. This is, as the title implies, a thirty-five minute general behind the scenes look at the film by way of some production footage and interviews with the cast and crewmembers. They cover reading for the auditions, the importance of screaming, and how unfortunate it is when CGI has to cover your cock. We learn about the hair and make up design work and how some of the effects work and prop work was handled.
The Being Danny Dyer featurette is a six-minute segment in which the actor talks about his work on this film. He talks about his character and what it was like working on the film, as well as how he loves to use the word 'cunt' whenever he can. There's some amusing behind the scenes footage here of Dyer and some of his co-stars goofing off.
A selection of ten Deleted Scenes has also been included, presented here in rough form with time code on the bottom. We see some of the characters talk about their favorite Viet Nam film, some characters walk through the woods, a random encounter with a deer, and some interaction in the cabin. There's eight and a half minutes of material here, most of which was probably cut for pacing reasons as the inclusion of this material wouldn't have added much to the film. Just under two-minutes worth of amusing outtakes can also be found.
The five-minute Not So Special Effects featurette talks about the problems that some of the effects guys had to deal with working in Eastern Europe, as well as what some of the actors had to put up with when the role called for it. It's amusing to see how primitive a lot of the effects used in this film really are and how tricky it can be to get the right prop rock.
The Crashing A Coach and Additional Footage Of Crashing A Coach clips are roughly ten minutes combined, the first takes a look at the logistics of what goes into making a big bus crash properly on camera while the second one shows us some rough footage of that particular scene.
The Genesis of Severance is a fairly short interview with Smith and Moran who speak on camera about where they got some of their ideas from for the film while Behind the Scenes is exactly that, a thirteen-minute series of clips shot on during the production of the film. Rounding out the extras are the Danny Fight Scene Training bit which shows how Dyer rehearsed for his big scene in the film, some Alternate Ending Storyboards, an animatic for the opening scene, the Palisades Corporate Video, animated menus, chapter stops.
The Final Word:
Severance is clever, funny, gory and scary and that all adds up to one of the most entertaining horror-comedies to have been released in some time. Magnolia's transfer could have been better but the audio and extras more than make up for it.