Severance
| Year: | 2006 |
| Production Co: | Qwerty Films |
| Director: | Christopher Smith |
| Producer: | Christopher Smith |
| Cast: | Toby Stephens, Laura Harris, Danny Dyer, Andy Nyman |
It's unusual that this film hasn't made more noise, riffing on the success of both Hostel and the work of Neil Marshall and giving it plenty of gore and some great characters in the bargain.
The UK contingent of a big American defense multinational take a team-building trip to the wilds of eastern Europe, bound for a luxury rural lodge where paint balling and pep talks await them.
When their path takes them through a land their coach driver doesn't want to enter, he abandons them to walk the rest of the way.
They find their way to a dilapidated mansion that can't possibly be the luxury lodge they've been promised, but hunker down to make the best of it, bickering all the while.
Things turns nasty with the snap of a bear trap on the leg of nebbish yes-man Gordon, and the secret comes to life around them - ex Soviet era strongmen who have it in for the defense industry and make it their mission to hunt down and horribly kill all its agents.
The film makes the most of a well-worn picked-off-in-the-dark template by the use of some realistic dialogue between very real and funny people, particularly druggie Steve.
The English film sensibility injects an extra credibility into the proceedings, and the characters carry the movie through the few spots where the plot feels flimsy or goes off the rails somewhat.
The UK contingent of a big American defense multinational take a team-building trip to the wilds of eastern Europe, bound for a luxury rural lodge where paint balling and pep talks await them.
When their path takes them through a land their coach driver doesn't want to enter, he abandons them to walk the rest of the way.
They find their way to a dilapidated mansion that can't possibly be the luxury lodge they've been promised, but hunker down to make the best of it, bickering all the while.
Things turns nasty with the snap of a bear trap on the leg of nebbish yes-man Gordon, and the secret comes to life around them - ex Soviet era strongmen who have it in for the defense industry and make it their mission to hunt down and horribly kill all its agents.
The film makes the most of a well-worn picked-off-in-the-dark template by the use of some realistic dialogue between very real and funny people, particularly druggie Steve.
The English film sensibility injects an extra credibility into the proceedings, and the characters carry the movie through the few spots where the plot feels flimsy or goes off the rails somewhat.