One of the problems I have with modern horror is that it tends to rely heavily on shock and visceral special effects to deliver its message. What started out as merely a subset of the genre, the “slasher film” has grown to become a staple of the industry and seems to make up the majority of the fright flicks being produced today.

Worse still is the fact that this new breed of slasher has amped up the carnage to ludicrous levels and morphed into “torture porn”, whose only rule seems to be the more gore the better. The recent spate of films that have come out over the last few years are completely interchangeable to me and I find this trend disheartening and disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for blood and guts in horror, but I guess I’d like to think that the genre has more to offer than simply turning stomachs. More than anything I just want to be entertained and simply being grossed out doesn’t do it for me. There has to be something more for me to connect to, be it the characters, the setting, the story or preferably all of the above.

Which brings us to our feature presentation.

Severance is a dyed-in-the-wool slasher film, which revels in its body count every bit as much as the Hostel and Saw franchises do. What makes this film work is the heavy dose of black humor that accompanies the machete mutilations and axe decapitations.

Minor Spoilers Ahead

The film opens with a group of employees off on a mandatory work retreat. It’s the typical wilderness excursion that offices all around the globe participate in where coworkers help each other across rope bridges and engage in matches of capture the flag in order to promote leadership and teamwork.

One key difference with our merry band of cubicle dwellers is that they happen to work for Palisade Defense, a military weapons contractor that, not surprisingly, has made more than a few enemies in the name of supplying land mines and mortars to the oppositions of various warring factions.

On the bus ride to their destination we get to meet our protagonists who are all pretty familiar templates of workplace comedies. You’ve got the earnest, but haggard, boss who still believes in the company, the office beauty that’s the object of constant unwanted advances, the sycophantic brown-noser, the overenthusiastic go-getter, the burned-out lifer, the foreign-exchange coworker and the drug-indulgent, perpetually-partying slacker. These characters may seem rather stock, but the actors do a nice job with the roles and the archetypes get amusingly twisted as our story unfolds

When the group arrives at the “luxury rustic resort” it turns out to be a rundown, old cabin that appears as though it hasn’t been inhabited in several decades. Everyone aside from the boss, sycophant and go-getter are understandably disappointed and when our intrepid band of travelers further investigate their humble abode that disappointment begins to turn to dread as they uncover evidence of the dwelling’s sinister past.

I won’t go into too much detail beyond this point as describing any of the specific scenes would serve to ruin the surprise and this movie is full of surprises. I will say that our heroes find themselves in a great deal of peril and that these situations are simultaneously gruesome and hilarious. That’s not to say that every dramatic moment has a joke planted in it, but the tension is nicely undercut with humor.

For me the comedy was not only my favorite part of the film, but its saving grace. I honestly cannot withstand scene after scene of visceral gore even if the story I’m watching warrants it. At some point I just shut off, not so much because I’m disturbed by the imagery, but because I start to disconnect from it. I think my reaction comes from the fact that I no longer see a character in trouble, just a victim waiting to die and I really have no interest in that kind of exploitation.

The humor in Severance helped me grow attached to the protagonists and it kept me rooting for them. Even the less sympathetic characters still have reasons you want them to stick around. When one of the leads is trapped in a room with a madman on the other side pounding on the door and in the midst of this nail-bitter a funny little moment occurs that hearkens back to an earlier scene it makes the whole thing turn on its head for a second and that’s a wonderful feeling.

The scenario I described above doesn’t actually occur in the film, I told you I wasn’t going to spoil it, but you get the idea. This type of thing happens over and over in the movie and it makes the piece compelling.

A lot of comparisons have been made to another British horror-comedy film, the oft and rightly hailed Shaun of the Dead. While I adore that film, and pretty much everything done by the comedic dream-team of Wright, Pegg and Frost, I feel the need to point out that Severance is a different breed altogether.

As I stated earlier, this is a tried and true gore fest so those expecting a couple of slightly bloody scenes mixed in with their off-beat comedy might find themselves covering their mouths when things start to get gruesome. People squeamish of or easily offended by the current style and intensity of horror films need not apply. You’ve been warned.

For those like me who enjoy horror, but don’t like the mindless brutality that seems to dominate most of the current crop of films, then I heartily recommend you give this one a try. It’s definitely worth the price of admission.

Overall I give Severance 4 out of 5 feathers.

That’s right, I’ve got a ratings system...that I just came up with...right this instant.....dammit now I have to go and make some feather graphics.

Updated: Added feather graphics.

-Quoth the Raven

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