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THE MOVIE: Severence

THE STARS:
Laura Harris • Danny Dyer • Tim McInnerny • Toby Stephens
DIRECTOR: Christopher Smith

THE CONCEPT:
Seven employees of an international weapons manufacturer are being treated to a team-building weekend at the company’s newly-built luxury spa lodge by their president, but they soon discover that working nine to five is a real killer…

U.S. RELEASE: May 18 2007, Limited • Rated: R

THE COMMENTS:

Where did the idea for the movie originate?
CHRISTOPHER SMITH:
“The original writer, James Moran, came up with the idea. He was traveling home from work one day on the tube, and there was a bunch of stockbrokers all around him drunk on a Friday night, and he said, ‘I’m gonna go home and kill me some yuppies.’ He literally got home and started writing and came up with this whole thing about six months later.”

This film really knows its stuff about all the Horror movie clichés from the '80s. How prevalent was that genre in England?
SMITH:
So much. Not just for my kind of morbid taste, but for a whole generation of kids that grew up in the early ‘80s, going to video parties, this was before the video nasties bill was passed. When I was in secondary school we used to have parties and we’d all watch I Spit on Your Grave or Nightmares in a Cabbage Brain.”

Why do you think no one before this every thought of doing this kind of film casting adults?
SMITH:
"To put older people in the movie? I said to someone the other day that this group of misfits are about as good looking a crowd as you can get out of England. We couldn’t have everybody being super young in the movie because of what they’re supposed to do for a living. But we’ve managed to get a few lookers in there.”

Can you talk about something that’s very important in a film like this: the kills?
SMITH:
"What’s on the page is what’s we had on the (screen), but I think little touches got added to it. For example, the leg trap scene. In the script he gets his leg taken off by a trap, and when I looked at it I thought that’s not going to take anyone’s leg off. So I just came up with a whole thing of clang, clang, clang, clang and eventually it came off, because I didn’t want the audience not to believe it. And we got one of the funniest scenes in the film because of it.”

Would you describe this movie more as a horrific comedy or a comedic Horror film?
SMITH:
“I used to say that it’s right down the middle. But when people hear comedy, they think comedy and it’s not. It’s just a Horror movie that’s got some really funny characters and some funny bits, and I think that’s the way it’s best to say what it is. It’s very much a horror movie. A horrific comedy!”

Written by Fred Topel. Back to top

Visit the official Severence site
Images above © Magnolia Pictures
Feature © 2007 Visual Imagination Limited.
Not for reproduction.

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