Greetings from Leicester Square!
August bank holiday weekend saw the annual ritual of the Frightfest descend on London's west end to bring horror, humour, gore, fear and depravity to a grateful bunch of horror fans. As in the previous three years, I was a proud bearer of the much coveted Frightfest weekend pass. So now I've recovered from both the Frightfest and Steve's wedding in Portugal, I'll be posting my impressions of the festival, with film reviews and news of the big screening on Sunday 27th. Yes, the director's cut of "Snatching Time" (produced, directed and co-written by yours truly) had its UK premiere at 11.15am in the Odeon West End cinema, screening before the feature "Broken".
Now, with the introductions out of the way - let's begin:
Thurday 24th - Day Zero
I rush to get out of work in time but thankfully I make it. 6.30pm is the special charity pre-Frightfest screening of "Severance", a new British Horror/Comedy I heard good things about at the Cannes film ferstival earlier this year, but didn't get a chance to see at the time. I say hi to the organisers Alan, Ian and Paul then sit down in my seat - row F seat 28. It's the same seat as I'll be occupying throughout the rest of the Frightfest. After a screening of the top three Zone Horror Cut! short films (more on these later), the director, writer and key cast members of "Severance" introduce their film and then it's showtime!
Severance (2006) dir. Chris Smith
[minor spoilers only]
A disparate group of people walk into the woods where they encounter unspeakable horror and start dying one-by-one as they are killed off by a monster/maniac/evil force (delete as applicable). This is a well worn template that has yielded many fine horror films, as well as inumerable 'spam-in-a-cabin' hack jobs. From "The Evil Dead" to "The Blair Witch Project" and beyond; it's tough to come up with a new twist to this form. I know because Rob and I have been writing one: "Roleslay". We think we've come up with some new tricks for this old dog, but it's tough. So it was with some relief that I discovered that "Severance" a) did have a new approach to this subgenre, and b) that they hadn't stolen our thunder.
"Severance" twists the formula by having the people in the woods be employees of a US/multinational arms manufacturer on a team building works outing in the forests of Eastern Europe. So we get a mismatched group of employees reluctantly dragged into the woods for some paintballing by their ineffectual boss Richard (Tim McInnerny). Left isolated at a lodge in the forest, the team soon begin to realise that something is very wrong as the past sins of their employer Pallisade Defense, catch up with them in a very bloody way.
I wasn't a fan of Chris Smith's previous horror "Creep", but thankfully "Severance" is a far superior film. The main reason is the superior script by James Moran (with Chris Smith) which is very funny. This is a comedy horror with the emphasis put mainly on the comedy. The ensemble cast handle both sides very well, with standout turns by Andy Nyman as Gordon (look out for the swimming pool scene) and the aforementioned Tim McInnerny who gets the best scene of the film. The leads Laura Harris and Danny Dyer both give likable performances and (unlike "Creep") get you rooting for them.
"Severance" works best when it's grounded in the petty jealousy and flirting of the office. The attempt at anti-arms industry satire is less successful, with the character of the American C.E.O. too broad a caricature to say anything insightful about either the arms industry or US foreign policy. However, even in it's least successful patches "Severance" remains great fun and you'd have to be either very stuffy or very sensitive to take issue with it's gleefully sick sense of humour (I'm thinking of one one particular moment, which to avoid spoilers I'll just call the 9/11 bit). As is often the case when you pile on the gore, it's not that scary, but it does deliver thrills and action. Great last line too.
I stay for the Q&A and walk out of the cinema enthused and looking forward to Friday's treats...
Next: It's Hammer time!
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