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DVD Tuesday: Severance and Workplace Hell
Severence DVD box art courtesy Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Tuesday: Severance demonstrates that corporate team-building retreats aren't just wastes of time and an excuse to squander money on high-priced consultants — they're honest-to-God murder!
Halloween is almost over, and how could I let it pass without recommending just one more scary movie? But non-horror buffs take heart: Severance, like three other recent favorites of mine, Shaun of the Dead (2004), Slither (2006) and Black Sheep (2006), is both genuinely funny and genuinely scary. Contrary to what many filmmakers seem to think, it's a tough mix to pull off... but when you get it right, it's magic.
The setup is a horror-movie standard: Strand a squabbling cross-section of humanity in the middle of nowhere (old dark house, uncharted island, lost space scow, desert shack, unmapped cave complex et al) and unleash hell on them. And who better to unleash hell on than a pack of slick sales-and-marketing types, say, the seven-person team responsible for putting a kinder, gentler face on amoral multinational arms manufacturer Palisades Defense while helping launch the company's initiative to fatten its coffers by arming Eastern Europe's most volatile hot spots? The team leader is a pompous tool, and his underlings include all the standard types: The arrogant beta dog snapping at the boss' heels, the idealist (female), the computer whiz, the one with qualms (also female), and a couple of slackers, one of whom is high on magic mushrooms before they get to their destination, a "luxury lodge" deep in the forests of Hungary… you know, somewhere in the same general area as Slovakia and its fantastic hostels.
The bus driver manning their luxury caravan freaks out when he finds a tree blocking the main road and wisely refuses to take the detour, so the group is forced to walk the rest of the way to a gloomy dump chockablock with nasty surprises.
U.K. cowriter and director Christopher Smith's pointed digs at office politics and the transparent exercises that are supposed to build team spirit and teach cooperation and trust are dead-on, and the trap-them-and-kill-them shocks don't pull any punches.
Even the none-too-subtle irony of the pencil pushers getting a taste of what their products do in real life plays remarkably well. I'll refrain from the kind of "you'll die laughing" clichés much loved by quote whores and simply say that for my money, Severance delivers on the promise of its deadpan U.K. ad tagline: "Another bloody office outing."
Things to consider:
Humor and horror: Examples of films that mix the two successfully?
Worst examples of films that try but fail?
Given how much time we spend at work and how many of us work in office jobs, movies — especially good ones — about the nine-to-five are relatively rare. My favorites include Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Clockwatchers (1998), How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) and the ultra low-budget The New Guy (2003)… I must confess that I've never seen Office Space (1999), which I know regularly tops lists. Your favorites?
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
Hear Maitland on the weekly podcast TV Guide Talk.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast.
Previously in DVD Tuesday:
Sweet Smell of Success
Daughters of Darkness
The Crazies
Blade Runner
Zodiac
Manhunter
A Simple Plan
Taxi Driver
Renaissance
Blowup
Hot Fuzz
300
Ace in the Hole
Eyes Without a Face
Apocalypto
Citizen Kane
La Jetée
Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
Bob le Flambeur
Near Dark
Perfect Blue
Pan's Labyrinth
Les Girls
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
The Queen
Expresso Bongo
I'm Not Scared
Shocking Grindhouse Double Bill! — Scanners and The Candy Snatchers
Don't Look Now
Re-Animator
Casino Royale
http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=800073953#comments">Pi
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick
Also: This week's new DVD releases
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Oct 29, 2007 6:18 PM
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Humor and horror best:
Creepshow
Fright Night
Shaun of the Dead
Return of the Living Dead
Tremors
Evil Dead II
Re-Animator
Gremlins
An American Werewolf in London
The Fearless Vampire Killers
Bubba Ho-tep
(some are more humorous that out-and-out knee slappers)
Worst?
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Any one of those Gremlins knock-offs.
Forrest Gump (hey, I was scared)
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Oct 30, 2007 12:26 PM
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I haven't seen the four movies you mentioned (they're in my Netflix queue), but Scream remains one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It mixes the two perfectly!
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Oct 30, 2007 12:52 PM
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I don't think you're legally allowed to write about this topic until you've seen Office Space. Go watch it. At this point, people probably have quoted all the good bits to you a thousand times, but it's your professional duty. Go!
I like Shaun of the Dead and Slither, as well as Undead (a zombie comedy from New Zealand, made in the past few years), and Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. I haven't seen Black Sheep or Severance yet, but I've heard good things about them.
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Oct 30, 2007 12:52 PM
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Another funny horror flick is Innocent Blood. I laughed out loud during the scene on the steps, outside of the morgue.
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Oct 30, 2007 1:40 PM
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Everything already mentioned-
Plus
Little Shop of Horrors,(original)
And how can anyone forget possibly the granddaddy of them all-
Peter Jacksons'
Dead/Alive! (aka Brain Dead)
Definitely the inspiration behind Shaun of the Dead, and
probably the best at taking both horror and comedy to the extreme!!!
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Oct 30, 2007 3:31 PM
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American Werewolf in London and The Lost Boys are my favorite movies in this genre. This is also one of my favorite movie genres so thanks for the recommendation of Severance, I'll be watching that as soon as possible.
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Oct 31, 2007 1:36 PM
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