'SEVERANCE' CUTS DEEP AS A FUNNIER 'SAW'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp

Film Critic

The makers of "Severance" are selling the horror-comedy as a cross between "Deliverance" and "The Office" (the Ricky Gervais version).

But since its target audience probably knows Burt Reynolds only from an ironic vantage point, it might be more useful to describe this nutty movie as "Hostel" with humor or, to be even more precise, as a torture horror flick for people who would never consider buying a ticket to "Saw."

"Severance" isn't nearly as smart or fun as Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead," and it certainly can't hold a candle to the character-based comedy of "The Office" (British or Yank). However, it does possess an enjoyably English gallows humor along with a strong visual style and a knack for making its bloody mayhem both creepy and droll.

Case in point: The movie's great flash-forward opening where two barely clad blond women and a self-serving twit scamper through the woods followed by a man brandishing a serrated knife. Director Christopher Smith gradually, intriguingly reveals more and more information and sets the whole thing to the Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park," which gives the scene a jaunty sensibility ("It's all too beautiful," the song repeats) that stands in stark contrast to the rather dire circumstances flashing before us.

"Severance" is full of such cheeky calamity. True, the low-level employees of international weapons manufacturer Palisade Defense weren't exactly looking forward to their "team-building" (ugh) retreat in the Hungarian borderlands (double ugh). But they weren't expecting their luxury lodge to turn out to be a hell hole that may have once served as either a lunatic asylum or detention center for war criminals who "liked killing too much."

It isn't long before teeth starting turning up in pies, spiders on nightgowns and lumbering murderers on doorsteps. Palisade's pompous David Brent stand-in (Tim McInnerny) insists on sticking to the schedule, so it's up to the American girl (Laura Harris) to make sure that all this aggression will not stand.

Smith, who co-wrote the movie with James Moran, gives "Severance" a vague political context, but it's the gore and witty, visual set pieces that stand out and give the film its most lasting impact. In a summer of explosions, "Severance" might have the biggest -- certainly the funniest -- in a scene involving an eager-beaver weapons specialist and a wayward missile. Its boom produces booming laughter, no small trick in this genre.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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SEVERANCE - Three stars

(R: strong bloody violence, language, drug content, some sexuality)

Starring: Danny Dyer, Tim McInnerny, Laura Harris.

Director: Christopher Smith.

Running time: 1 hr. 36 min.

Playing: Landmark's Nuart Theater in West L.A., Irvine University Town Center 6.

In a nutshell: Torture horror flick for people who wish "Saw" had more laughs.

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If you can get past the gore, "Severance," with Danny Dyer and Laura Harris, offers some droll fun.