Severe Team Building
The other night a friend of mine recommended a movie called Severance (links to trailer on IMDB)– starring no one in particular, and with roughly zero mass appeal. I was curious enough to check it out, since I enjoyed Hostel (the first one only, though), and of course Shaun of the Dead. Since Netflix categorized Severance as a dark-comedy-horror, not to mention “suggested” the two aforementioned titles in lieu of Severance, I decided to give it a try.
This is the story of a handful of employees, working for a major warfare manufacturing company. They are vacationing in the German countryside for a “team building” retreat. (A big part of my liking this movie came from the fact that a majority of the cast is British — the only American being a pretty little blond girl; call me male.) Naturally they’re rerouted by a downed tree in the road, and they find themselves on foot, only to arrive at the wrong “luxury hotel.” Here they’re stalked by mysterious masked men, and the coworkers bite the dust one-by-one. Yawn, you might say. But hold on a second.
It’s amazing to me how sometimes a not-so-great movie and not-so-redeeming special effects can sometimes be watched at just the right moment in a person’s life. I was in that particular mindset the other evening, it seemed, to enjoy the tongue-in-cheek approach to an overdone story. The very fact that you can tell they aren’t taking much seriously is a huge draw and excellent pay-off for this film. And — gasp! — they somehow managed to pull a few original twists out of a musty moth-eaten bag.
For anyone who enjoys the A-side of B-cinema, Severance is a fun, sometimes disgusting, way to spend 90 minutes of your life. Say what you like about bad movies, sometimes a good bad movie is just what you need!
Tags: B Movies, campy movies, gorey movies, Severance
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