Severed: Forest Of The Dead

I always suspect that somethings wrong with a movie when it has to alter it’s title. It’s almost like when you hear that a movie has gone into reshoots, you tend to think that they’re fixing something that they didn’t notice before the production. Well, that’s the issue I had right out of the gate with Severed: Forest Of The Dead, because the original title is just Severed. The ‘Forest’ part was tagged on there to help sell the movie. And, I’ll freely admit, sometimes I can be wrong, this time I was…mostly.



Severed: Forest Of The Dead is your standard issue zombie movie…almost. Here’s the story: A logging company, who is at odds with environmental activists, is using genetics to help trees reach ‘old growth’ stage in a mere three years. The problem comes when a logger who saws into a spiked tree is injured and the sap from the genetically altered tree gets into his bloodstream, turning him into an undead flesh eater. From there on, the horror is on! The logging company sends in a man (the bosses son) to check out why they haven’t been in touch with the camp (which is said to be 200 miles from civilization), he finds a small group of people desperately trying to stay ahead of the zombies while finding a way out of the forest.

The real problem with Severed is that it takes elements from too many other zombie movies. This feels sort of like Dawn Of The Dead, with the logging camp taking the place of the mall, there’s your standard issue characters, the seasoned vet who keeps a level head, the tragically doomed hero, the hot chick who’s also tough and the ever present sniveling coward who gets people around him killed. After a while, this feels like a movie in a loop, it’s all running and staying alive and a lot of the zombie action is done in the ‘shaky cam’ style, which adds a tension to the movie, but also can be confusing at times, I lost what was going on in fights a few times throughout the movie. Then, about half way through, our group of survivors comes across another logging camp, and the movie takes a page from 28 Days Later, the loggers in this camp are sadistic weirdos who enjoy letting zombies into a pen and then killing them in a strange game. And, Severed features the almost-required downer ending, I won’t give it away, but don’t expect to leave the movie happy!

Given the problems I had with Severed, I still enjoyed it, it’s a different take on an established theme, almost like listening to a cover of a song you already like. I’m giving Severed: Forest Of The Dead three out of four cigars because a lot of what happens I can see coming a mile away, there are few surprises, but the ones that are there are very welcome and unique! So, until next time, when I’ll wonder which I’d less like to run into in the woods, zombies or that Blair Witch chick, remember that the best movies are bad movies!