With the exception of Piranha 3D, the past three horror films I've watched (Dead Snow, The Human Centipede, and Severance) have all taken about people getting stranded in the woods in Europe. I've been trying to find a greater meaning to this pattern but it's probably just a coincidence. For starters, I don't watch a lot of horror. For whatever reason, the horror movies I do watch happen to be from Europe (REC, which I've also seen in the past year, falls outside the "lost in the woods" parameter but it is from Spain). And even Piranha 3D took place in an outdoors setting. It does seem like most horror movies take place either in the suburbs or the boondocks and shy away from cities, especially large urban cores. Is it because the big bad city, with its gangbangers and druggies, is scary enough already? I dunno.
But I'm burying the lede. Severance isn't on the level of Shaun of the Dead but it does convince me that the Brits need to make more satirical horror comedies. The plot is simple enough - a group of pencil pushers for a multinational defense company gets lost during a corporate retreat in the Balkans, and soon they realize they're being stalked. But James Moran's script and Christopher Smith's direction contain enough wry humor and misdirection to keep things fresh, although their imagination peters out by the climax. They're also capable of some very effective scares, including a set piece with a bear trap that's still in my head. It's funny, it's icky, and it's breezily paced. A solid night's diversion.
Side note: one of the characters is an American but I noticed her accent was a little off. I assumed the actress was a Brit altering her voice, but as it turns out, she's Canadian. Nice try, England. You can't fool me.
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