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This blog has been contributed by Kieran Masterton, who convinced me to buy this film last year.

Arguably, British comedy's most successful export to North America in recent years has been The Office. Now, as usual, you Yanks had to remake it into something rather less funny and somewhat less cringe-worthy, thereby taking the edge off it and making something special into something that was just alright.  However, it's obvious, in part that you "get it" and for that, you have won some praise on this side of the pond.  With the success of the American The Office in mind, this week's Across the Pond focuses upon the funny but gloriously bloody horror-comedy Severance.

Severance stars Brit-flick-regular Danny Dyer (The Football Factory) and American blonde bomb shell Laura Harris. Dyer is his normal cheeky-chappy self, with elements of his Football Factory character shining through.  Harris on the other hand is rather more one-dimensional, but plays her role as Final Girl very well.  The film opens with the manager of a large international arms dealer taking his five best employees into the mountains of Eastern Europe to enjoy a weekend of team building in the luxury of the company's newly built corporate lodge, to which, needless to say, the co-workers never make it.  After their coach driver abandons them in fear they set out into the woods on foot while being stalked by an unseen presence.

Dyer, the joker of the piece, has eaten a bag of magic mushrooms and is in the thralls of hallucination as the group stumbles through the woods, eventually coming upon a shabby, broken down and practically unlivable shack they mistake for the lodge. After their first night in the house the film ramps up into a different gear altogether as the body count begins to rise courtesy of a "geezer in a balaclava with a travel bag" who begins to slaughter the work mates one by one.  As the narrative progresses and we discover more about the shack and the killer(s) outside (Russian prison camp, anyone?) the incessant pressure builds and builds; never giving us any respite from the horrific events that occur, until all that remains is Dyer, Harris and two Eastern European prostitutes (don't ask, just see it).  The second and third acts of Severance are fantastically crafted with a delicious mingling of office buffoonery and beautifully dark humour as the film descends into a chasm of blood, guts and fear.

Personally, I love Severance and could watch it time and time again, but if I'm to be honest, it doesn't deliver on all fronts.  The flick is billed as "The Office meets Deliverance" and while it does indeed mix British work-place humour with a Deliverance style aesthetic and narrative it doesn't quite live up to either of those great pieces of work.  There are what I'd call “chilling moments” but never does the film properly frighten the crap out of you.  As a horror aficionado I suppose this desensitization is to be expected.  To be fair, there are cringe-worthy moments of torture that make up for the lack of shit-the-bed scares, but I would have liked to have been properly frightened once of twice.  That being said, I think the flick does successful establish and continue to build the stress and tension felt by the colleagues during the chase sequences and torture scenes. 

There are exceptionally funny moments that are in no small part shouldered by both Dyer and Tim McInnerny (Notting Hill), who plays the team’s manager.  Both actors have brilliant comedic timing and, combined with a very well crafted script from first-time screenwriter James Moran, they manage to produce a wonderful tonal juxtaposition between the horrific scenes of violence and the humour.  Now, it may be easy for some to hear the words "British," "horror" and "comedy" and immediately think of popular crossover success Shaun of the Dead.  However, with the exception of national origin and shared subgenre, the similarities between the two films end there.  While the horror in Edgar Wright's exceptional film plays second fiddle to the comedic stylings of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Severance is moodier and darker with an ominous sense of dread hanging over the entire film.  The humour acts as more of a means of coping with the inescapable atmosphere of grey skies and bloodshed and sometimes, this results in a diluting of both the comedy and horror elements.  Much more often than not though, the film delivers.

What does this film say about Britain and the British film industry?  Well, we can do horror, but you knew that (28 Days Later, Peeping Tom, The Wicker Man, The Legend of Hell House, Hammer Films), and we can do humour, but you knew that too (The Office, Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Peep Show).  What you didn't know, is the power of the UK Film Council.  The Council, which financed Severance, takes National Lottery and other money and injects it directly into filmic cultural efforts.  Without the likes of the UK Film Council, our national cinema would be nothing, frankly.  Now, you can decide for yourself what that says about the commercial viability of our industry, but what it does do, is give a voice to filmmakers and screenwriters that would otherwise be unheard.

Severance is available on region 1 DVD from Amazon.com and if you know what's good for you, you'll check it out....or else (Editor's Note: that is an empty threat).

Kieran Masterton is a postgraduate research student who has taught Film and Media at the University of Gloucestershire, UK.  His research interests include screenwriting, neo-noir, genre theory and the slasher genre.

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