Severed (2005)

To me, this movie is perfection.

People are voting emotionally.

A Masterpiece!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This isn't the worst zombie film made in the US, it just tries to be. The movie starts out on an island where there is a battle between loggers and environmentalists. One of the loggers hits a spike while cutting down a tree. The recoil from the chainsaw cuts his shoulder. Some of the sap from the experimental tree gets in the wound and BINGO! You suddenly have a flesh eating zombie.The scene quickly moves to a board of director scene who haven't heard from the logging camp. There is a long dialogue scene between the owner of the company and his son while they are playing snooker. It is badly written, badly acted, and badly directed, pretty much like the rest of the movie. The owner wants his son to learn the business so he goes out to the camp, which he finds deserted and he is chased by zombies, who at times can run fast, and other times move like they have a broken leg. Go Figure.Meanwhile back in the lab a clumsy bio-chemist cuts himself and gets some of the evil sap in his blood. He goes on to bite the neck out of his partner. Then we have the lab covered in plastic. A man in protective gear is taking pictures of the scene at the same time two guys in suits are standing there. Dad decides his son is in danger and the decision is made to lock down the logging camp, even though no one really knows what is going on.Anyway the plot at this point becomes even more pointless. Zombies do not require head shots to kill...so are they really zombies?

I watched Severed on you-tube, on a Sunday to cure my boredom. Before I started watching the movie, I guessed that it was going to be cheesy and low budget. I was surprised by this movie, 6 out of 10.If your a fan of zombie movies this movie is for you! You don't see to many zombie films taking place in a forest. The film was shot very well and had a good actors. None of the cast is recognizable though. The only thing I had a problem with was that a lot of scenes dragged out, mostly towards the end. The film has a pretty good gore level but not too extreme. The zombies seem pretty legit and well played, good make-up effects.I say check out Severed if you have the time, don't rush though.

A genetic breakthrough which can produce large trees at a quicker rate has an unfortunate side-effect..the sap, once entered into the human bloodstream, turns humans into flesh-eating zombies, whose bite produces the same effect.Tyler(Paul Campbell)doesn't wish to follow in his Chairman father's footsteps, but is coerced into going to a logging site whose production has grown silent. Once there, Tyler finds that the workers, and environmentalist protesters, are raving zombies munching on mutilated bodies. Finding a logger, Luke(Michael Teigen), who saves his life, they make for a makeshift shack of temporary safety containing a small motley group of frightened survivors. Rita(Sarah Lind), the mastermind of the major protest against the logging company's cutting down trees, is one of the few who made it to shack, along with fellow protester Stacey(Leanne Adachi). Mac(Julian Christopher, a fatherly, trustworthy, wise, & heroic presence)is the foreman whose men were plagued by the zombie virus thanks to a horrifying chainsaw mishap, caused by a spiked tree(..planted by the protesters), which mixes the genetically enhanced sap into a worker's wounded shoulder. Carter(JR Bourne), is a wimpy, pathetic scientist, working for the company taking samples of the sap, testing it for possible dangers with the results, good or bad, sent back to the research center. Carter perhaps knows what is causing the zombie plague. Together, on foot, Tyler will lead the motley group to his truck hoping to escape with their lives intact. Rita, however, has plans to save her boyfriend, Greg(John Reardon)which separates them temporarily. Problems arise even when they make it to the truck, and the group find themselves, thanks to the board who forces Tyler's father to sign a decree for confinement, trapped in the camp with only a back road as a possible escape route. Things get even worse when those who somehow survive multiple zombie attacks, find themselves in the camp of another logging company, led by the massive, imposing Anderson(Patrick Gallagher)whose presence over the men offers just as much a threat to them as the bloodthirsty undead.This zombie film is rife with stupid human behavior, particularly by the cowardly scientist Carter, played by JR Bourne as if he were Dr. Smith of LOST IN SPACE. He quivers like a little scared child, always cowering and shaking. He is the type who doesn't help others in need, despite the rescuing he receives(..like when Luke saves him from an attack only to be left by Carter to fend for himself). Tyler makes two really dumb decisions(..one, obviously because without making it there wouldn't be a movie, his leaving the truck as zombies come toward him, opting instead to flee into the forest, and a second, instead of leaving with Rita when escape is possible, decides to try and help Carter who was completely surrounded by zombies with no hope, it seems, of escaping a sinister fate)which will have you screaming at the screen. The film is shot in a frenzy, using grainy stock it seems, never keeping the camera still when the zombies make their appearances. Blood spurts in slow motion, but rarely is the true violence(..like our characters bludgeoning the zombies with weapons)ever shown on screen. The zombie virus works like in the 28 DAYS/WEEKS LATER with those infected convulsing not too long after being bit. They rampage their victims just as feverishly as in Zack Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. Actually, this film is shot very similar to Snyder's film, giving those infected little time on screen, instead almost completely focusing on the characters and their plight. This film, despite how the zombie virus starts, isn't really any different than the films that have came before it. I do think many zombie fans will like it..many will be game for zombies in a forest, even if we rarely see true carnage(..there is some flesh-eating, but most of it is more implied than shown in depth). The cast, for the exception of Bourne, who I thought was dreadful, is actually pretty decent. I really thought Christopher, as the foreman who becomes the rock everyone leans on to stay alive, was especially good.

Severed is set in a logging camp somewhere in Canada, there a logger named Eric (Hrothgar Mathews) has an accident while sawing a tree & cuts his shoulder & quickly turns into a flesh eating zombie. Back in the big city & the boss of the logging company sends his son Tyler (Paul Campbell) to drive out there & see why they have lost all contact with the camp, once there Tyler quickly finds out why. It seems that company scientists developed a chemical called GX-11-34 which would increase the growth of the trees but also has the unwanted side effect of turning anyone who gets it in their blood stream into a flesh eating zombie. The logging camp is quarantined off & the few survivors including Tyler must fight the zombies to stay alive & somehow find a way out of the camp confines without becoming zombie food...This Canadian production was co-written & directed by Carl Bessai & one has to say it's pretty bad, I mean it's not Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) bad but it's still pretty bad. The script by Bessai & Travis McDonald takes itself very seriously & rips-off loads of other, much better, zombie flicks in all sorts of ways. Severed is like some horrible mix of The Night of the Living Dead (1968), Day of the Dead (1985) & 28 Days Later... (2002). The character's are awful, they do all the stupid things that make you shout at the screen, they don't seem to arm themselves (they are in a logging camp for Christs sake, I'd have picked me up one of those chainsaws!), they don't seem to want to protect themselves, they don't stay put where it's safe & why didn't the group of survivors not try to escape in one of the trucks before Tyler arrived? Wouldn't that have been the logical thing to do? Also they come up against a flimsy metal gate & no-one thinks to go back for one of the huge logging cranes to crush it or crash through it after which they could get in their nice 4X4 & reach the next town in comfort? Is this really rocket science? Could these people really not have made a better fist of escaping the zombies? The zombies themselves are of the slow shuffling kind & the fast running spastic sort as well with no real reason for either, the dialogue is dull, people just do stupid things like letting all the zombies into the only safe place in the area so they can kill everyone & the film is also rather slow going & it felt like it went on forever. Severed is the sort of film you can pick holes in all day long, the final twist revelation where the environmental protester says that she 'spiked the trees' makes no sense at all to me. What did she spike them with? The scientists had already admitted they created the chemical which caused the zombie outbreak so what was she on about? Is she a part time genetic scientist as well as a environmental protester?Director Bessai turns in an absolute eyesore of a film, the cinematography is purposely dark, colourless & grainy which on it's own is alright but the cameraman had the shakes. The camera shakes & zooms in & out & goes blurry so much it's often impossible to understand what's going on & to make matters worse it's usually during the horror scenes with zombies, I hate the way Severed looks, I hate the whole pointless shaky camera thing & I hate the way Severence looks. Gore wise things aren't great, the zombies look alright & there are a few scenes involving intestine eating but otherwise it's just blood splatter, overall very disappointing. It's not scary, there's no atmosphere & it's an absolute eyesore.Technically the film is OK, apart from the horrible, horrible photography which annoys & irritates. The special effects are limited to splashing blood over people, a couple of bullet wounds & a few fake guts. Shot on location in Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. The acting isn't too bad & at least they try.Severed is an awful zombie film, it steals all it's ideas from better films, it has virtually zero gore, huge plot holes, stupid character's & is absolutely horrible to watch because of the out of focus & shaky cinematography. Could have been better but it couldn't have been much worse.