severance

[took a sick day from work yesterday and what better way to greet the morning/afternoon than by digging through the vault-- i remember being amused by this movie but that’s about the only thing i remember]


‘severance’ is a brit wit horror comedy. i’d throw it in the same category as ‘shaun of the dead’... but only it’s a slasher and not a zombie flick. this is a huge distinction; it’s a little easier for the average person to find humor in something obviously fictitious (even ‘serious’ zombie movies are amusing) but when you see someone (unwillingly) gutted with a large knife, i don’t think it’s human instinct to laugh. so with that in mind, i’ll take back what i said about it being a comedy... this is really just your basic slasher with better writing. the characters are well-developed and the dialogue is funny... a rare treat in the horror genre.


a group of co-workers heads into the countryside for a team-building retreat. when they happen upon a tree in the middle of the road, their self-righteous and naive boss decides they should take a shortcut to the lodge. the driver of the bus becomes very worried at this point and abandons them in the woods (hint). so the group heads off on foot and the first lodge they happen upon is a rundown building (obviously not a ‘luxury lodge’ like they were promised).  now, things slowly start to go wrong. they find (and start eating) a pie containing a human tooth (hint). while doing team-building exercises, a field of bear traps claims the leg of the brown-nosing dork of the group (hint). oh, and the bus driver is found dead just up the road (hint... oh wait, that one was good enough? we’re gonna start worrying a little bit? oh ok... just checkin’...).


from here, the kill-count steadily rises, but as i said before, i rather enjoyed this movie so i won’t go into great detail on the rest. i did learn a few things from this movie though...


- saucy american blondes make me happy.
- psychedelic mushrooms and serial killers are a bad mix.
- a man’s desire to get sexed up will always be his downfall.
- working for a corporation that produces and distributes weapons of mass destruction might get you killed.
- half-naked strippers brandishing firearms are almost as good as fully naked strippers.
- my upstairs neighbor must hear a lot of screaming coming from my apartment at all hours of the day.


'severance'... not only would i pirate it, but i'd probably buy it (if i found $20 in my pocket and all the beer in the world vanished suddenly).