Bloodtype Online
For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
Severed - Forest of the Dead (2005)
One of the things that I find highly annoying with the whole state of horror is all of the crappy direct to video titles that seem to flood the video shelf in every store you go into. So you could imagine how much happyness crawls into my horror loving heart when I find one good or even watchable. I would have to throw Severed in that category. It’s more of an outbreak film congruent to something like 28 days later, mixed in with a good ol zombie flick. This was my first time checking out anything from this movies director Carl Bessai, but I hope if this movie shows what he can do with a small budget hopefully we’ll see more. Severed is centred in the story of a forestry company that is fooling around with genetic experimentation to increase logging in a company owned section of forest. Well one thing turns into another and the next thing you know there are flesh eating creatures flooding this forest. The owner of the corporation sends his son to take over the family business and to check out why production has stopped. There he finds everything from environmentalists, loggers, and ZOMBIES! Overall I would say that the cast did fine without even carrying any actors of name but you may recogzine a few from some other horror films here and there (Even though none of them had MAJOR parts in them....). For the most part the film is effective with decent F/X, good locations, and good zombies. The story is at least attempting to do something different and probably doing it with very little cash. Bottom line with this film is that not everything that goes direct to video these days is crap. Also, it should be noted that this DVD is basically a barebones edition with the film so sorry if you were expecting trailors, or commentary of any sort. Still good zombie fare......Highly recommended for zombie enthusiasts, but I would say it’s worth a chance to any fan of horror in general. Recommended.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
