SEVERED

In a forest in the northern United States, a timber multinational is conducting experiments on plants, into which a particular growth hormone is injected. A group of loggers working in the same area comes into contact with the resin of the genetically modified plants and mutates into ferocious zombies hungry for human flesh. A group of environmentalists, some surviving loggers, and the owner of the forested area himself find themselves together fighting for survival. It is appropriate to clarify immediately one issue: « The House of the deads 2 » is not the sequel to the film based on the eponymous video game and that Uwe Boll has unfortunately brought to the screen in 2005. This deceptive title, provided with article (the) and plural noun (deads), was imposed by Mediafilm, the Italian distributor of the film that holds the rights to Boll's film, to distribute a low-budget American horror film that in its original version is titled « Severed – Forest of the dead »; while the real « House of the dead 2 » was distributed in our country under the title « Cacciatori di zombie »… in short, a mess to which the Italian distribution is not new! That said, let's move on to the film. « Severed » (I prefer to identify it with this title) presents itself as an honest and solid zombie movie that mixes in 95 minutes elements shamelessly taken from the classic Romero saga with a narrative structure that brings to mind « 28 Days Later » by Boyle. From Romero's films comes the look of the zombies, their behavior, and their slow pace; from Boyle's film, instead, the entire « rub » of the film's development, in fact between the two films an evident parallelism can be identified: in both we have an introductory scene showing the triggering causes of the contagion and the beginning of the epidemic; in both we follow a character who, after clashing with the monsters, meets a group of survivors to whom he joins; finally, in both films, the protagonists arrive at a place that seems like a safe refuge but turns out to be populated by individuals even less human than the living dead. The references to « 28 Days Later » are therefore glaring and completely compromise the originality of the film, despite the element that this time triggers the epidemic appearing original. The direction of Carl Bessai is of good quality, sometimes classic, but mostly nervous and with a frenetic editing, capable of emphasizing with effectiveness the moments of violent action. Equally convincing is the realistic, almost documentary, photography that paints the images of « Severed » with the colors of mud and blood. The performers are not always up to par, and it is also surprising to see a very low dose of gore, usually a strong point of zombie movies, but here almost totally absent. In conclusion, « Severed » is simply a good zombie movie, not very original and sometimes not very fluid, but it is appreciated for the results achieved despite the low budget. A touch of originality would have certainly earned it half a pumpkin!