A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division of the multi-national weapons company Palisade Defence when they become the victims of a group of crazed killers who will stop at nothing to see them dead.

I recall this film coming out in 2006 and getting a lot of positive buzz from horror fans. For one reason or another, I never ended up watching it until now (March 2013). And I must say, the buzz was probably correct -- while not among the best horror films out there, it sure is well above average.

The trick of this film is that it is a horror film, but only in its feeling. Terrorists, a bus flipping over, guns and bombs... that is an action film. This should be an action comedy. But the style is definitely in the horror vein, with the way certain things are presented (particularly the bear trap). What makes a horror film a horror film? That question has been asked many times, and I think this film definitely makes you wonder.

Although many of the references were lost on me, I now know (from looking into the production) that many of the scenes were evoking Kubrick ("2001", "Strangelove" and "Clockwork Orange") and other notable directors. I love it. I love the subtlety of these homages... the "Clockwork" scene was clear to me, but I also am probably most familiar with that Kubrick film (although I have seen them all at least once).

I would need to see this again to fully review it, but my initial impression is that it is a great blend of action, humor and horror. Well worth a look.

I went into this film expecting a zombie movie for some reason, but actually Severance is more like a British version of Eli Roth's successful 'Hostel', albeit with a bit more humour. There have been a few good British horror movies over the past few years, including most notably the likes of Dog Soldiers, Shaun of the Dead, Wilderness and The Descent. I wouldn't say this one really lives up to the best of them; but Severance is good comedic and bloodthirsty fun, and there's certainly enough about it to ensure that the film stands tall as another feather in the cap of modern British horror. The film starts off in a truly nightmarish fashion; we are introduced to a bunch of office workers going on a 'team building' trip in the middle of nowhere. The prospect of this alone is enough to make me not want to sleep tonight, but it gets (arguably) worse for these guys it when it turns out that they're not the only ones in the middle of nowhere - a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs turn out to be doing a bit of team building too!

The film is pretty slow to start, with the first half of the film merely seeing us being introduced to the cast of snivelling office workers. However, once the violence starts, the film really hots up as we get treated to a whole load of grisly sequences that see things such as decapitations and limbs being lopped off. The location is put to good use as our cast of characters finds themselves in the middle of an Eastern European country and director Christopher Smith does an excellent job of ensuring the tone of the film is always hopeless. The cast isn't anything to write home about, although Danny Dyer, who you might remember from the very decent British gangster flick The Business, does a good job of holding the film together. The humour doesn't blend as well with the horror as the director obviously thought it would, and this is where the film falls down for me. Severance would have been a better movie if the director could have made his mind up about exactly where he wanted to take it. As it happens, Severance is an entertaining mix of gore and laughs; but it's not at the cutting edge of modern horror.

SEVERANCE is nothing new. I'll admit that from the outset. Its thrills, spills, and chills are a jumble of themes, with references to THE EVIL DEAD and DELIVERANCE in the plotting and scenes straight out of HOSTEL amongst other films. There's nothing you haven't seen here before. Instead, this is part of a modern sub-genre of British cinema which throws a group of people into an isolated natural setting and gives them an enemy to battle. We had soldiers vs. werewolves in DOG SOLDIERS; cavers vs. mutants in THE DESCENT and juvenile delinquents vs. a maniac in WILDERNESS. SEVERANCE, with its tale of office workers battling Eastern European criminals in the woods, fits easily into this mould. It doesn't really try hard to be anything else or to offer much in the way of surprise. But I loved it to bits anyway.

The script is a definite plus, offering a ton of black comedy mixed in with the horror. Scenes such as the bear trap sequence are a perfect mix of laughs and chills, and the gore level in this movie is spot on. My favourite moment is the smiling severed head, one of the best jokes I've seen done in a comic horror. It's little touches like this which make the film that much more enjoyable – the rocket launcher moment is another nice surprise. The action is well-handled and the traditional pacing, with a slow build-up and frenetic climax, works a treat. Another big highlight is the cast. I don't care much for Danny Dyer but even he does well in this one, what with his magic mushroom ride. Laura Harris is another in a long line of ass-kicking heroines, while Toby Stephens shows why it's wrong to typecast him as a villain. Tim McInnerny is also outstanding as the stuffy boss. SEVERANCE won't set the world alight, and it's occasionally lazy in its plotting, but for the most part it's an engaging little movie, and one you can watch more than once.