SEVERANCE

UK, 2006, 96 minutes, Colour.
Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim Mc Inerney, Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Andy Nyman, Babou Ceesay.
Directed by Christopher Smith.

Yet another version of the hunter and the hunted and a gradually diminishing cast. The 2005 film Wilderness had something of the same plot but this one is better written, acted and crafted.

There is also a satiric point behind the killings. A group of seven travel from the UK to Hungary to a chalet to work on team-building activities. Eastern Europe is still seen as menacing (after all, they might also be on the border of Transylvania), gloomy mountain terrain and forests – and some very strange characters (which remind horror fans of the ugliness of Hostel which was set in Slovakia). The point is that the seven work for an arms manufacturing company – and they are being pursued by maniacal soldiers with weapons the firm has produced!

Severance (chopped heads as well as the group receiving the worst kind of work severance package) spends some time and interesting dialogue in setting up the characters before sending them into the woods and dispatching them (sometimes with some gory brutality).

On the whole, the film works well within its genre, macabre touches, sardonic humour, though the cursorily accidental blowing up of a passenger plane over Hungary is in dubious taste – and the arbitrary selection of who should survive and the final over-flip jokes undermines the intensity. With Danny Dyer who specialises in larrikin roles (Football Factory, The Business) and prestigious actors like Tim McI nerny and Toby Stephens, Severance has much going for it. It was written and directed by Christopher Smith whose previous film was horror in the tunnels of the London Underground, Creep.

1.The impact of this kind of horror film? The familiar story of the hunters and the hunted? The gradual elimination of the group? How well treated? Originality? Using the conventions?

2.The locations both in Hungary and on the Isle of Man? Credible scenery and locations for eastern Europe? Hungary, the forests, the roads? The musical score, its atmosphere, reverberations?

3.The title, heads being cut? Members of a company being severed from their jobs?

4.The focus on the company, Palisades and their arms deals? The irony of the background of an arms company? Sales to various customers? The group working for Palisade? Associated therefore by guilt? Jill and her reaction against the inhuman weapons?

5.The background stories and imagination: Harris and his story about the lunatics taking over the asylum, using the silent movie technique? Steve and his imagination of the sex therapy? Jill and her story about the military, the excessive killers, their being banded together and imprisoned? The reality of the armed hunters, their brutality, their Palisade weapons? The big depot and the firm buildings for Palisade? The film’s critique of the weapons industry? The good or bad taste of George firing the rocket – and its hitting a passenger plane?

6.The characters as a group, the company, on the bus, how well did the film establish each of the characters, given plenty of time before the killings? Their work as a group?

7.The bus driver, the blocking of the road, the refusal to go on the side road, Richard and his ineffectual demands? Being goaded by Harris and the others? Their decision to leave the bus, walking, the sounds, the bear? Their arriving at the house, thinking it was a dump, presuming it was the right place? Their going in, the squalor inside, the files giving the information about the soldiers? The pie – and the later discovery of the tooth? The beginnings of fear, the telling of the different stories?

8.Jill, getting up in the night, the spider – and her friendliness with it? Her screams because of the masked man at the window, the search outside? The upset, Richard trying to be in control, Gordon and his trying to be the yes-man? Decisions about leaving? The morning, Richard and his allegedly making decisions? Harris and Jill going to test the phones? The rest of the group and their involvement in the paintball fight, the shooting, Gordon and the rules?

9.Gordon and his leg being caught in the trap, their trying to extricate it, his pulling it out? Going to the bus, putting his leg in the freezer? Leaving it when the bus turned over? Harris and Jill finding the bus, driving it back, everybody getting on? The soldiers putting spikes on the road, the overturning of the bus?

10.The beginning of the deaths? Harris and his story about Marie Antoinette, the guillotine, her head still registering that she had been executed minutes after her death? His surliness, his clashes with Richard? His decapitation – and his head verifying his theory?

11.Jill, against the weapons? Her fears? Her being strong-minded? Captured, tied up, the matches not lighting – and the soldier using the flamethrower?

12.The return to the house, the noise in the basement, Gordon and his being dragged away after having the Ecstasy tablet, declaring his love for Maggie? The brutality of his death?

13.Billy, the discussions with Steve about his attraction towards Maggie? Steve and his offhand remarks? Billy and his serious-mindedness? His being shot, his wanting to comfort Maggie and not endanger her? The mainly sympathetic character?

14.Richard, pompous, cowardly? His fears, handling the situation with Gordon? His running out of the house, standing on the mine? The soldiers taunting him? His fears, his helping Maggie and Steve, his decision to blow himself up with some of the soldiers?

15.Maggie, American, strong-minded? Her relationship with Steve, Billy’s attentions? Her not eating? The dream – and Richard accosting her, and it being Harris in the dream? In reality, strong, her supporting Steve, downstairs, the confrontation with the soldiers, the shooting? Steve saving her? The escape from the house, the encounter with Richard? Finding the mansion, George and the escort girls? Escaping, her being strung up, being rescued by Steve? Her going along the track, finding the munitions, trying to ring for help? The final confrontation and her being saved by the girls and Steve?

16.Steve, drugs, his offhand manner – and his later apology to Maggie and his explanation saying the wrong things? His place in the group, the paintball war? Giving advice to Billy? His handling of Gordon’s situation, giving him the Ecstasy pill? The fright in the house, hiding in the cupboard, rescuing and saving Maggie? Their escape, the encounter with Richard, going through the woods, the fights, his using his knives? Maggie and her escape, after being brutalised by the soldier? His catching up with her after rescuing the girls from the pit?

17.The girls, Steve booking them up on the internet? Seeing them in the prologue, in the pit, George and his being killed?

18.George, the boss, with the girls, shooting the rocket, the plane exploding? His escape – and the audience having seen him disembowelled at the beginning?

19.The end – the arbitrary nature of who survived? The particularly flip jokes at the end – appropriate for this film?