SEVERANCE. Truly entertaining comedy horror

In the plot of Severance we won’t find anything groundbreaking. A group of employees of the arms company Palisade Defence is sent to the forests of Eastern Europe to integrate and have a good time. And here came the first glitch. I understand if Americans treat the part of Europe where we live as the “Wild East,” where the law of the fist reigns, men’s favorite pastime is torturing tourists and raping sheep (or vice versa), and women only dream of giving birth to the firstborn son of their abusive husbands, so Hostel only amused me. In Outpost, I laughed a little quieter because it’s a film made by our EU compatriots from the British Isles.

In Severance we have the same situation. Although the characters somehow distinguish between individual countries, overall, whether it’s Hungary, Romania, or Serbia – it’s all wild. But let’s get back to our arms dealers. Individual employees are supposed to transform into a cohesive team through a game of paintball. However, nothing goes according to plan. On the way to the cottage in the woods, they have to stop because the road is blocked by a fallen tree, the Hungarian driver refuses to take a side forest path – he escapes by bus, leaving our heroes to the mercy of bears (and more). Abandoned, the Brits continue on foot, finally reaching a small cottage in the wilderness…

In the film, we meet a whole range of well-drawn characters. Although painfully schematic, they quickly become memorable. There’s the uncertain manager, the cocky handsome guy, the optimistic fool, the stoned slacker, and the Black guy (this is by no means a racist statement – those who have watched a few horrors in their life surely know these characters – their main feature is being black-skinned). There are also women, one pretty, the other smart – like Daphne and Velma from Scooby-Doo. I missed some more interesting interactions between the characters; they are presented symbolically and don’t lead anywhere. Definitely the best among the actors is Danny Dyer in the role of the cheerful drug addict. He is the source of most funny scenes and eventually becomes the main protagonist in the film.

So, humor. I was a bit disappointed in this aspect. It relies mainly on situational humor (a fantastic scene with a severed leg), and I expected dialogue-based humor. I was waiting for exchanges dripping with irony and flawless one-liners. I waited, and unfortunately, I didn’t get it. However, there are enough funny scenes to confidently call the film a comedy. Certainly not funny for everyone, but always amusing. Much better when it comes to horror. Good gore effects, well-directed action scenes. When characters start dying one by one, it gets genuinely interesting. Although after five minutes of the film, you can guess who will survive and who will die a tragic death, the ending of Severance can make your heart beat faster.

I must mention one more thing that I don’t like about this film. Throughout its duration, there is a motif of the arms manufacturing company Palisade Defence. Although Smith’s intention was probably to satirize the arms trade, for me, all of this boils down to a clichéd moral that it’s better not to sell weapons because someone might use them against you someday. Perhaps if the boss’s storyline were handled differently, if the film’s moral were that in the end, only those with a bigger gun matter…

And that’s it. Severance is enjoyable entertainment without aspirations to be something more. Well-made, decently acted, sometimes funny, sometimes suspenseful. However, there’s no edge in this film, whether in characters or scenes, that would make us remember it for a longer time. On the other hand, it may also have its good sides – today, we can watch it and forget, and when we borrow it again next year, it will take a while to realize that we’ve already seen it…