Severance (2006)

Well folks, I didn't quite make it back on-line yesterday after the exhaustions of FrightFest (16 movies plus various shorts between Friday and Monday -- and I did actually skip an additional six); reports will follow over the next few days (I hope).  The jollities started on Thursday evening with a charity premiere for the above British flick which is now on general release.  Directed by Chris Smith whose "Creep" was a real nerve-jangler, this one is an uneasy mix of humour and serious gore which went down better with the younger fan-boys in the audience than with me.  Seven staff of a munitions company go on a team-building weekend in Romania and when their driver refuses to take the bus further on, they take to foot -- always a bad mistake in the dark woods.  There they find some murderous rebels seeking revenge (who these adversaries are and what they really want is unknown.)  One by one our stellar cast bites the dust in occasionally imaginative ways with various quips to lighten the procedings.  Toby Stephens, a fine actor who deserves better, is one of the early casualties.  Tim NcInnery of Blackadder fame is the team leader -- while he lasts.  The nominal hero is slacker Danny Dyer who hardly deserves to survive -- if I'd written the script, he'd be the first to go -- an annoying twit -- and if you hear that his last line is worthy of "Some Like it Hot", don't believe it!