Review: "Severance"
As I descend ever deeper into embittered old age, I find that I quite resent the wasting of my time, of which I no longer have so great a store. Consequently, in a lot of movies at this year's Fantastic Fest I've had no choice but to fidget and squirm impatiently at the sedate and self-indulgent pacing of some of the offerings, until at last I can do naught but bolt to my feet and shout "Get the HELL on with it already!" At which point I am usually removed from the theater and administered a sound thrashing by the waitstaff. They don't play games, man.
So one of the remarkable things about "Severance" is that not once did I grow slack-jawed with dull boredom or start thinking about how it would benefit from some judicious editing. The plot moves along snappily without very much at all in the way of wasted motion, and the director doesn't show off with any unseemly "Look at me, Ma!" trickery but instead buckles down and keeps everything marching forward.
The story is your typical city slickers versus forest dwellers kind of thing. The way horror movies tell it, to enter anything other than a small stand of larches is to ensure your complete doom, because evidently any chunk of Nature more wild than the shrubbery alongside your garage is infested with either inbred hillbillies, psycho bushmen, or super-soldiers gone mad, and sometimes all three, vying for attention and killing time.
Now, that's all well and good, but this movie not only dispenses bloody death, but it also doles out a load of laughs. A lot of people are comparing this to "Shaun Of The Dead", and those people need to get out more. I say that mainly because I didn't think of the comparison first. And also, I honestly don't think they really are film mates. I mean, let's say that one of Benny Hill's sketches had featured grisly cannibalistic slaughter AND jokes. (Historically, of course, none of them ever had either.) Would we then say "Oh, this movie is totally like Benny Hill, you know, with the guffaws and the axes to the head"? I think not. But I digress. Also, I'm quite worried that I even am thinking of Benny Hill. Looks like I picked a bad day to quit crystal meth.
Anyway, comedy hijinks there are aplenty, and no small measure of murderizing, with the city folk going down pretty much in the order you'd predict. The last quarter or so of the film is particularly excellent as we speed along to our conclusion with bodies falling to the left and right. Also: there are some bare-breasted chicks, so you know Joe Bob Briggs would approve.
Our noteworthy performances come from Danny Dyer as a heavily medicated slacker and from Laura Harris, late of TV's "24" and "Dead Like Me". And one of them gets partly naked. The remainder of the cast also has fun with their roles and accept their horrifying deaths more or less gamely.
"Severance" was written and directed by Christopher Smith, who also pulled down the same duties for one of last year's highlights, "Creep", an altogether different affair with roughly 98% fewer laughs. We need to keep an eye on this guy, because he's got some mad skillz. If nothing else, he can script some creative deaths. And in the end, isn't that what it's all about?
So one of the remarkable things about "Severance" is that not once did I grow slack-jawed with dull boredom or start thinking about how it would benefit from some judicious editing. The plot moves along snappily without very much at all in the way of wasted motion, and the director doesn't show off with any unseemly "Look at me, Ma!" trickery but instead buckles down and keeps everything marching forward.
The story is your typical city slickers versus forest dwellers kind of thing. The way horror movies tell it, to enter anything other than a small stand of larches is to ensure your complete doom, because evidently any chunk of Nature more wild than the shrubbery alongside your garage is infested with either inbred hillbillies, psycho bushmen, or super-soldiers gone mad, and sometimes all three, vying for attention and killing time.
Now, that's all well and good, but this movie not only dispenses bloody death, but it also doles out a load of laughs. A lot of people are comparing this to "Shaun Of The Dead", and those people need to get out more. I say that mainly because I didn't think of the comparison first. And also, I honestly don't think they really are film mates. I mean, let's say that one of Benny Hill's sketches had featured grisly cannibalistic slaughter AND jokes. (Historically, of course, none of them ever had either.) Would we then say "Oh, this movie is totally like Benny Hill, you know, with the guffaws and the axes to the head"? I think not. But I digress. Also, I'm quite worried that I even am thinking of Benny Hill. Looks like I picked a bad day to quit crystal meth.
Anyway, comedy hijinks there are aplenty, and no small measure of murderizing, with the city folk going down pretty much in the order you'd predict. The last quarter or so of the film is particularly excellent as we speed along to our conclusion with bodies falling to the left and right. Also: there are some bare-breasted chicks, so you know Joe Bob Briggs would approve.
Our noteworthy performances come from Danny Dyer as a heavily medicated slacker and from Laura Harris, late of TV's "24" and "Dead Like Me". And one of them gets partly naked. The remainder of the cast also has fun with their roles and accept their horrifying deaths more or less gamely.
"Severance" was written and directed by Christopher Smith, who also pulled down the same duties for one of last year's highlights, "Creep", an altogether different affair with roughly 98% fewer laughs. We need to keep an eye on this guy, because he's got some mad skillz. If nothing else, he can script some creative deaths. And in the end, isn't that what it's all about?
posted by Purukivel at 9:28 PM
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