Severance (2006)

Icon are releasing SEVERANCE, the horror comedy Bristol-born film-maker Christopher Smith made in between CREEP (2004) and TRIANGLE (2009), on 4K in a limited edition dual disc UHD and Blu-ray set with extras, a poster and four art cards.

A group of office workers from the Palisade weapons company are off on a team-building weekend in Hungary. They get lost in a forest and end up having to deal with areas filled with landmines, huge mantraps, and psychotic guerrillas armed with flamethrowers, machine guns, and very big knives who have vowed to kill anyone connected with Palisade. 

So far, so we’ve-seen-it-all-before, but SEVERANCE has several things going for it that many of its predecessors in the being-chased-around-the-woods subgenre have lacked. Firstly the acting is very good right across the board. Characters are fleshed out well and quickly endear themselves to the audience. Tim McInnerney does a great job as the unpleasant, ineffectual leader of the group whose exit scène nevertheless elicits genuine sympathy, Laura Harris (probably best known for TV series Dead Like Me and Robert Rodriguez's THE FACULTY) shows she can do more than be the brittle blonde, and Danny Dyer is actually very good as the dope head with a constant supply of spliffs and ecstasy who’s never quite sure if what is happening to him is real or not. 

        The direction is right on the button, which is all the more of an achievement when you take into account that the script veers between hilarity and out and out horror, yet Smith never makes a mistake – this is one of the few films where you will be chortling merrily one minute and then be genuinely horrified the next. And by the time the characters meet their demise you’re truly sorry (and in at least one case really upset) to see them go. 

On its original release SEVERANCE was plugged as another SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It isn't. Whereas Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright’s film was essentially a comedy with gory bits, SEVERANCE is a genuine horror film that manages to seamlessly include bits that really make you laugh. If you're of a disposition to enjoy such things, you'll find your spine tingling quite a few times with the sheer deliciousness of the whole endeavour.

Icon's release comes with a ported over commentary track with the cast and crew (present on both the UHD and Blu-ray disc). Unique to the Blu-ray (and not provided for review) are eight featurettes, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes and out-takes and two new interviews for this edition - one with director Christopher Smith and the other with star Andy Nyman. 

Christopher Smith's SEVERANCE is out in a limited edition dual format 4K UHD and Blu-ray edition from Icon on Monday 20th October 2025