Severance (2006) Review: Don’t Go to Eastern Europe
“Another bloody office outing.”Synopsis: During a team-building retreat in the mountains a group of sales representatives are hunted down one by one. | ![]() Watch now on Amazon |
Calamity Brains:
Severance takes the standard “diverse group stuck somewhere facing murderers” trope and tries to make it clever by adding in that the diverse group is made up of employees on a work retreat. It’s… not that clever, guys.
The plot is fairly generic, despite the *~*SuPeR cOoL tWiSt*~* on the trope. But Severance does at least put a little more thought into the backstory for the situation than most movies of this type do. No, nothing is fully explained, but there’s actually some logic behind the murders. (As much as movie murders are ever logical.)
Most of the first half of the movie relies heavily on the interpersonal relations between the characters. Problem is, they aren’t very interesting. There’s a moment here and there (the diving board scene was cute), but mostly it’s about as banal as you’d expect a group of coworkers talking to be. Not enough wit or humor to really carry the movie or make us care very strongly about the people involved.
Once the murders start, things do pick up a bit. The psychopaths are fairly creative, and I was impressed by the acting skills of the victims. (Claudie Blakley in particular did an amazing job.) The “final girl” is actually useful, unlike others I could name, despite having no real weapons at hand. But ultimately, the good and clever moments aren’t quite enough to outweigh the rest of the movie.
Calamity Brains’ Rating: B-
Watch now on Amazon
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |