Severance

This is the third horror movie I've seen at the festival this year, apparently it is already available on DVD, but probably better seen at a cinema. It follows the pattern of a group of people (who don't get on that well -- in this case workmates) who are stuck in the middle of nowhere and are being hunted down and killed gruesomely by homicidal crazies for no obvious reason except to entertain us. It is our job to workout what order people will be bumped off, jump out of our skin and laugh at the right moments.

A sales team for multi-national Palisade Defense is sent on a team building exercise in a Hungarian forest. The coach driver takes fright at a fallen tree, unloads their luggage, turns around and drives off without them. They eventually discover the lodge, which is dilapidated and empty. Poking around they find some old Palisade Defense files written in Russian and start telling each other horror stories about Palisade's murky past. The next morning one member of the team gets his leg caught in a bear trap, and things start to go bad. From here on the film follows formula and we go along for the ride.

Ian's rating: 3/5