Severed -2005

Director : Carl Bessai
Producer(s): Andrew Boutilier, Cynthia Chapman

Writer : Julian Clarke, Travis Mcdonald, Carl Bessai

Cinematography : James Liston

Genre : horror//zombie/

Rating: R for violence,Nudity

Running time: 91 mins
Cast: Paul Cambell, Amber Rothwell, Jerry Wasserman

          I really had high hopes for this film, the Artwork and trailer was great looking, but overall heres what you get. Take George A. Romero's horror classic "Day of the Dead", simply replace the brainless macho military men with brainless tree loggers and, ta-da, you've got , yep you guessed it! "Severed". Oh but wait it gets better, because the zombie-virus here is inflicted by genetically altered trees that got injected with a growth juice that clearly doesn't function very well. This is a watchable new Zombie movie with tons of splatter and gore and a handful of effective filming locations, this film surprisingly has some very good young actors in it. The character development however is awful, and one is left feeling that you just don't "feel" for any of the characters. Good production is wasted by poor and often cliche'd dialogue, and melodramatic lines. I don't mind watching a film that isn't firing on all cylinders, this one doesn't spark most of them at all. It Drags alot, then drags some more.

         This film is basically 28 Days later........just in the woods. And miles away from being a great movie production. "Severed" completely lacks originality and tension, and I wonder if writer/director Carl Bessai deliberately endeavored to insert every possible cliché of the genre! Any cliché, you name it and "Severed" has it! From the cowardly scientist, to the un-effective team-leader with a heart of gold which of courese leads to a completely implausible romance sub plot, it's all there!

          Tyler, the son of a forestry company tycoon, is reluctantly sent to a remote testing area to find out why the tree-cutting business has stopped there. Shortly after his arrival there, he vividly discovers that the company's brand new & unethical invention to make trees grow faster turned the majority of lumberjacks into drooling zombies. Before he properly realizes it, the area is hermetically sealed of with Tyler, the remaining cutters and a handful of tree-huggers still in it. There are hundreds of zombie movies out there, and "Severed" simply isn't very memorable. It drags very quick and just when you think the movie is almost over, director Bessai suddenly comes up with a whole new plot about another community of survivors that spend their days aiming guns at the zombies. Then it drags more. The amount of gore and bloodshed is pretty satisfying though. Since we're dealing with lumberjacks here, the undead opponents are attacked with chainsaws, large industrial band saws and, of course, axes. For some reason, the camera makes wild spastic moves whenever there's a massacre going on and, as to be expected, there are no real shock-moments throughout the entire film. The ending is just stupid,  "Severed" is a pretty weak film, but enthusiast fans of nowadays horror zombie flicks might consider it worth the price of a rental.

4/10 Stars