Editorials
Looking Back at the Corporate Horror of Christopher Smith’s ‘Severance’ 20 Years Later
A few years back, I remember being surprised by the number of people discussing the corporate horror of Severance on social media. For a while there, I honestly thought that folks were somehow rediscovering Christopher Smith’s 2006 horror comedy that I’d been recommending to friends for so long. Naturally, I was quite disappointed when I found out that what internet users were actually talking about was Ben Stiller’s “Severance“ TV show.
However, with Aaron Fisher’s Corporate Retreat releasing in theaters this Friday and exposing audiences to brand new forms of workplace terror – and with Smith’s film celebrating its 20th anniversary this year – I believe that this is the perfect moment to finally look back on the original Severance and explore exactly why it’s such an underrated piece of corporate satire.
With that in mind, I’d advise readers to strap in, as this is going to be one hell of a team-building exercise!
Crafting a Corporate Retreat Nightmare
Christopher Smith had already established himself as a celebrated genre director by the time he became attached to Severance, with the success of his 2004 slasher Creep (another one of his films that was later overshadowed by a different movie with the same name) allowing the filmmaker and his team to secure more funds for a sophomore production. This next project would end up being a satirical horror comedy co-written by Smith and fellow British screenwriter James Moran.
Moran, who some of you may know from his work on Doctor Who and The Borderlands/Final Prayer, documented much of the writing process on his personal blog back in the day. He would often comment on the real-world frustrations that inspired the story and even provided fans with a peek behind the curtain by explaining some of the changes that Smith had to make to the script in order to make it more practical to shoot.
Filming took place in both Hungary and the Isle of Man after an intensive casting process where the filmmakers spent four months trying to find actors who could convincingly make these characters entertaining even in an awful situation. Funnily enough, the actors wound up experiencing the shoot as something of a real-world team-building exercise since they were filming in remote locations with little outside company – at least of the English-speaking variety. Smith was also impressed with the Hungarian stunt team and their tendency to put themselves at risk in order to guarantee a better shot, something that you can see in the film during a thrilling bus crash that was originally scripted to be much less dramatic.
Severance Skewers Corporate Evil with a Unique Sense of Humor
In the finished film, which was released in August of 2006, we follow an ensemble of office workers employed by Palisade Defence as they travel to Hungary for a weekend of team-building exercises at a luxury lodge. Unfortunately for the disgruntled sales team and their bumbling boss (played to irritating perfection by Tim McInnerny), an ill-advised detour leads them to a different and much creepier lodge located in an area said to be stalked by homicidal holdovers from the Soviet Union. As the weekend goes on, the workers soon realize that they really have to learn how to work together if they’re going to survive this business trip from hell.
While this sounds like a great premise for a crowd-pleasing horror comedy, the creativity behind Severance didn’t necessarily translate to box office success. The film garnered something of a cult following over the years, but its peculiar setup (which can be best described as Wrong Turn meets The Office) was a bit too strange for mainstream audiences – especially overseas, where filmgoers expected something more akin to the playful direction of Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead.
However, now that we’re two decades removed from the expectations surrounding British genre films during the mid-2000s, it’s a lot easier to enjoy Smith’s underrated comedy on its own merits. Sure, the overall effectiveness of the flick’s understated sense of humor depends on your tolerance for an unapologetically British kind of comedic timing, but I personally had a blast with all the throwaway conversations that secretly set up ironic deaths and easy-to-miss punchlines. I also appreciate how the movie never loses sight of its initial objective of poking fun at workplace stereotypes and the banality of corporate evil, an idea that’s especially poignant when you remember that these characters work for a weapons company.
Of course, the most impressive element here is just how memorable the ensemble is despite (or perhaps because of) their quirky personalities. You genuinely feel bad for even the worst of them once the horror starts to set in, and while this is partially due to excellent performances by actors like Andy Nyman as the toxically positive Gordon or even Laura Harris as the sensitive designer of “humane mines”, a lot of it comes back to the writing. Moran and Smith know exactly how to develop the group in such a way that you’re aware of their shortcomings (like Danny Dyer’s unreliable slacker persona) while still caring about their workplace crushes and personal feuds.
This attention to detail only makes the horror of the flick stand out more as the team waltzes right into the Eastern European equivalent of The Hills Have Eyes. I especially enjoy the meta-aspect of the genre presentation as our characters recount different versions of the legends surrounding the area (with the Nosferatu-inspired silent film era gag standing out as a highlight of the experience). That being said, I agree with critics who point out how the sadistic Soviet villains feel like they came from a completely different film.
Take it Up with HR If You Don’t Like Gory Kills and Dry Humor
After all, Smith appears to treat the antagonists’ murderous rampage completely seriously, with nearly all of the humor being reserved for our main characters. Despite several jokes about preserving severed legs and watching an annoying boss get his explosive comeuppance, Severance never depicts the villains’ actions as anything less than monstrous. Not only that, but even the most annoying side characters are still treated like vulnerable human beings when the time comes to finally execute them in proper horror movie fashion, a decision that makes these moments more genuinely off-putting rather than “fun”.
I think these frequent and jarring shifts in the story are responsible for the film’s divisive reputation, as I can understand why some audiences would see this as a narrative flaw rather than an intentional choice by the filmmakers. Personally, however, I love how the movie refuses to dilute either its humor or its scares in order to cater to any particular audience. While it makes sense that not everyone can handle this absurd level of tonal whiplash, I think being able to watch coworkers bicker in one scene only to have them being cruelly set on fire in the next is precisely what makes Smith’s film so unique in the first place.
Severance may be something of an acquired taste, with its extremely dry brand of British humor and unflinchingly brutal death scenes making for an unusual combination, but I’d argue that the flick has aged incredibly well. That’s why I’d still recommend this corporate holiday from hell to genre fans who don’t mind it when their horror comedies get a little bit mean-spirited.
Of course, if that bothers you, you can always take it up with HR!
Described as “a gory mix of The Menu and Saw,” Corporate Retreat centers around a group of young executives whose luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader.
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters this Friday; get tickets now.
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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