EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

MyjavaGurl 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.

trashgang Munsters out there already know that I am not into zombie flicks, some are good but mostly it's zombie after human again and again. Here we have the same, zombies keep attacking, and it's the new breed of zombies, the fast ones, although they cripple they are fast. But for me there isn't much in Severed. Especially on the end when they ran into another bunch of survivors. You could see the love between the son and the activist coming miles away, but would you fall in love the day after your boyfriend was killed, the slut! It isn't even gory, oh yeah, the blood splatters allover the screen but off camera. The only gory parts are the parts when the zombies rip open some humans and eat their intestines. But it's better done years ago, you know, the living dead trilogy. And by using the same affect on the camera as in 28 days/weeks later doesn't help the movie too. But still I gave it a 4 the editing. If you are into zombies this is for you, otherwise don't bother.

DigitalRevenantX7 When contact with their workers on an island is lost, the CEO of a logging company sends his inexperienced son Tyler to the island to solve the problem. Tyler arrives at the camp, only to be attacked by flesh-eating "zombies". Falling in with a few terrified survivors, comprised of loggers & activists, Tyler learns that a logger was exposed to genetically engineered tree sap after being injured by a spiked tree, causing him to turn into a flesh-eating creature. The survivors attempt to escape, only to find that all exits have been closed. They find another group of loggers, who have built a stockade & who present a much bigger problem than the infected.Before I begin this review, let me point out that "Severed", a low-budget Canadian horror film, is a third-generation zombie film, that is a film ripping off another film (in this case the British zombie film 28 DAYS LATER) which in turn was a rip-off of a third film (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). "Severed", for all intensive purposes, follows the plot of 28 DAYS LATER quite closely, with a group of environmental activists unleashing a virus that turns all exposed into flesh-eating monsters (technically they are not undead, so the word "zombie" cannot be used… oh what the hell, I guess it's okay). The survivors then fall in with a group of organized survivors, who then pose as a much bigger threat than the "zombies", hell, they even do the same thing that their counterparts in 28 DAYS LATER do for fun, inventing a blood sport that involves some poor sap (sorry, bad pun) locked in a cage with the creatures & having to shoot his way out.While it copies its source material so much as to the extent that Danny Boyle would have a strong case if he ever decided to sue, "Severed" does have some things going for it. The acting is surprisingly good, with the actors giving performances that are realistic & engaging. This is no doubt helped by the script, which throws a unique spin on the survivors' characterizations – you can't go too far wrong with a hero who is not a scientist, a cop or even a soldier, but an experienced lumberjack whose only goal is to return to his family.That said, the film does have its faults. There are numerous plot holes – why does the CEO send his son, who doesn't have any skills, to the camp when he has much better suited people on his payroll? Plus there are some clichés that frequently appear in these sorts of films & don't make any real sense: first the "infected" (filmed in a jerky motion so bad you'll expect Michael Jackson to appear & pull off some slick dance moves) move about in a spastic fashion yet manage to "teleport" when you least expect it & show up in large numbers to surprise the humans & overcome them; all of the characters cannot take a few steps without falling down; Paul Campbell, who plays Tyler, parks his truck, gets out, gets attacked by one of the infected, & RUNS AWAY FROM HIS TRUCK; the survivors escape in the truck but are stopped by a metre-high gate (this happens not once but twice); & split up.Not to mention the fact that the infected are not zombies & can be killed with little-to-no-effort on the survivors' part, yet overcome them; the fact that the tree sap induces a metabolic change in just a few seconds (as is the case in 28 DAYS LATER) is ridiculous, from a medical point of view; & the infection can be spread through bites but not through the spraying of infected blood into people's mouths.Taking all that into account, "Severed" is a film, that for all its attempts to create a different slant on the old zombie film, is nothing more than a passable way to spend an hour-&-a-half.

Scarecrow-88 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.