Severance
(2006/British/Magnolia/DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C-
In an
attempt to imitate the likes of Shawn Of
The Dead and Hot Fuzz,
Christopher Smith’s Severance (2006)
attempts to turn those films into some kind of British Horror cycle, but the
beginning of this 96 minutes torture test is awful, awkward and the film never
recovers when it suddenly flashes back and tries to assume a more standard
narrative.
Once
again, we get an Agatha Christie …and then there were none scenario
where each person is picked off. At
least Christie knew how to develop suspense and character. Here, even with a fairly good cast (with Toby
Stephens the only recognizable face) the film fails as the combination of
excessive gore to the point of stupidity and pedestrian script by Smith &
James Moran are just awful and awfully boring.
If you love excessive gore, you can do much better.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad, but detail issues, color and
some depth problems are typical of the bad Horror genre works we have seen
lately all over the place. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix is better, with somewhat active surrounds throughout, but
nothing special or distinct. Extras
include deleted scenes/outtakes, audio commentary with cast/crew/director,
alternate ending storyboards showing they did not know how to end this mess and
five featurettes. All in all, they only
prolong a very long, tired affair. Sever
this from your screening list.
- Nicholas Sheffo
