Severance (film)
| Severance | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Christopher Smith |
| Produced by | Jason Newmark Finola Dwyer |
| Screenplay by |
James Moran Christopher Smith |
| Story by | James Moran |
| Starring |
Danny Dyer Laura Harris Tim McInnerny Toby Stephens Claudie Blakley Andy Nyman Babou Ceesay |
| Music by | Christian Henson |
| Cinematography | Ed Wild |
| Edited by | Stuart Gazzard |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Pathé (United Kingdom) Magnolia Pictures (United States) |
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Release date
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25 August 2006 |
|
Running time
|
95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom Germany |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $5,377,942 |
Severance is a 2006 British-German comedy horror film co-written and directed by Christopher Smith. Co-written with James Moran, it stars Danny Dyer and Laura Harris. The film tells a story of group of co-workers who go to a remote mountain forest in Hungary, where they become victims of murderous attacks.
Severance received mostly positive reviews. In 2009, media interest in the film was revived following the alleged copycat murder of a UK teenager.
The film opens with George (David Gilliam) and two women (Juli Drajkó and Judit Viktor) running through the woods. The women fall into a large pit trap while George is caught by a snare. As he hangs helplessly, a masked man approaches and disembowels him with a knife.
What is later revealed as some days prior to this, the European Sales division of Palisade Defence military arms corporation are on a bus to a team-building weekend at a "luxury lodge" in the Mátra Mountains of Hungary. When a fallen tree blocking the road halts the bus's progress, the driver (Sándor Boros) refuses to take a dirt road through the woods and, after an argument, drives off leaving the group to walk the remaining distance to the lodge.
Eventually the group reaches the lodge, which is old and in serious disrepair, but the manager Richard (Tim McInnerny) convinces the wary but tired group to enter. Inside, Harris (Toby Stephens) discovers a file cabinet full of cryptic Palisade documents, written in Russian. The group discusses the documents, leading Harris to relate a story he'd heard about the lodge: the lodge was previously a mental institution, and in the early 20th century a Palisade-made nerve gas was used to clear it out after the inmates took over. Jill (Claudie Blakley) responds with the story she'd heard: the lodge was a "reeducation center" for Russian war criminals, and after an escape a Palisade-made nerve gas was used to clear escapees out of nearby buildings. Both mention a lone survivor who swore revenge on Palisade. Steve (Danny Dyer) starts to tell his own story about the lodge's past as a clinic staffed by busty nurses when he finds a human tooth in the meat pie the group is eating for dinner. Chastising Gordon (Andy Nyman) for serving a pie he just found in the kitchen, everyone goes to bed.
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