Customer Reviews

Severed - Forest of the Dead

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Forests remind me of oceans for they cover such a vast part of our planet yet we know so little about everything that goes on in them. Hidden species lurk in deep trees and slither at night as scientists only scratch the surface of the life on this planet, a life as we know of today, being a blink of an eye in the total life span of planet Earth, filed with wonders and apparently even zombies!

Severed is a very interesting movie, one I have never heard of before but as it caught my curiosity and I was in the mood for some ooey gooey horror I decided to give it a go. I have always loved forests and growing up in Europe as a kid I enjoyed many sun filled days and some nice camping, but a few more movies such as this one and I don't know if I will ever see them the same way again. Zombie movies make me think of malls and shopping centers, as hazard, death and destruction are in crowded areas, where the surviving group cans plumage through sporting good stores, cafes and sleep in furniture stores as they try to escape that darn flesh obsessed Zombies. This movie is different, because all you see is trees and more trees and there are no hotels and log cabins, no supermarkets and no save havens where one can get his strength and sanity recovered long enough to survive. Severed is filled with hungry, realistic looking zombies that jump out from the most innocent looking tree patches and who are quite relentless in their pursuit of the next warm meal.

In a nutshell this movie is pretty simple, there is some bio engineering which is meant to turn tree cutting into a lucrative business for one man, who upon losing contact with his working crew sends his son Tyler to personally check out the situation, to a remote place, accessible by a ferry and requiring a long drive though dark, creepy woods. Unknowns to anyone there is an accident which causes infection spread from the engineered trees to one of the workers, who in classic Zombie fashion can't resist lunching on his fellow friends, turning a whole crowd of lumberjacks into fearless walking corpses. Combine that with a group of activists who protested tree cutting in the same area and you have a goulash of opposing sides who hate one another reunited in the same pursuit of flesh once bitten and changed and who pose a real threat on Tyler. When I was watching this movie I knew the slim chances the characters had of making out alive and I loved the twists and surprises when people who looked safe suddenly transformed and betrayed their friends and it reminded me of 28 Days Later, with the shaky and realistic camera work but it was just as gruesome and still felt fresh.

What I liked about Severed was the lack of Hollywood and pretentiousness which are big horror movie spoilers; where editing and trying to appeal to a wide audience ruins many movies. Horror is horror, not something I think kids over 13 should be able to see so the movie studio can lower the pg rating and therefore slash the gore and scares. I felt this movie stayed true to what the director wanted it to be and even though on a budget I enjoyed it. The best part was the bittersweet ending, something I didn't see coming, as I felt it made the movie a rewarding experience to watch. Sure this is not Oscar material but it provided an afternoon of thrills and chills as I love random campy horrors and I still like the woods, as long as they are not booby trapped with lumberjack zombies. Overall this is better than I expected and was a great rental.

-Kasia S.

I know, I know a forest full of the undead running around eating people doesn't exactly sound like the greatest plot for a movie. Judging by hollywoods latest attempts at making zombie movies I wasn't all that thrilled going into this one. I'd all but given up on any hope of any more good zombie pictures being made any time soon. I figured since "Lions Gate" & "Anchorbay" had raped, stomped & shat all over what little new hype that'd been sparked for the genre that we'd be waiting another 10 to 20 years for someone to care enough to write another descent script like "Shaun", "28", "Undead", or "Land".

Well, I'm pleased to let all you zombie fans out there know that this one's actually a pretty good one. I'll admit, there are still some plot holes, but all & all this one's a keeper. Ghoul make up & effects are spot on, although everytime some one would get eaten or really chewed up in a violent way it would tend to happen off camera(that was a little annoying if you really pay attention to it). Don't get me wrong though the movie is still plenty bloody/gory, you just didn't get to see the initial impact, just blood & guts spraying everywhere. The acting is also well done(except for the horrendously bad acting coming from the butch asian chick, I saw her in "Vampire Wars too, how is this woman getting work, she's horrible?). Don't get me wrong, "Severed" isn't without it's flaws, it's definately not a Romero movie. At the same time though, this is gonna seem like "Empire Strikes Back" compared to "Return 4", "HOTD 1 & 2", "Zombiez", "DOTD 2"... you get the picture. This is definately worth a rental, might even be worth putting on your shelf if you're a hardcore collector

A big corporation uses genetic experimental chemicals to increase the tree size and logging yeild for their logging company in a remote section of forest. But the chemicals have a disasterous effect on the loggers and the enviornmental activists protesting. The CEO's son is sent in to see what has happened and learns that most of the people have turned into zombies. For a low budget film this isn't too bad. The story is fairly solid, and the acting also holds up. There are no great performances, but none that are absolutely terrible. The directing is good, and I would be interested in seeing what he could do with a decent budget. The zombie makeup is good. The effects themselves are mostly off camera, and when blood is needed on camera, it is a misty spray. They must have liked the effect because it occurs many times throughout the film. I don't know if I would tell you to buy this one, but if you are a zombie picture fan this one isn't a waste of your time to check out.

"Severed" is an okay low budget Canadian zombie movie that gets better as it goes along. The standard bioenginneered rogue chemical compound thingy, designed as a growth hormone for trees, instead creates zombies that terrorize both lumberjacks and protestors in a remote logging camp. The first fifteen or twenty minutes are a bit slow, but once the zombie action starts, it actually gets pretty involving. Lots of blood, but not actually as gory as other zombie movies you've probably seen. The acting is uneven, but then the actors are frequently required to deliver some pretty bad dialogue, Sarah Lind, as one of the protestors, in particular. Paul Campbell, who plays the son of a corporate executive sent to check out the camp, actually makes the best impression with his role. The zombies, while effectively used in some scenes, are a bit of a liability. They seem impossibly slow and awkward, to the point where you start to wonder why the heroes don't just stay in place and then just conk the zombies on the heads when they get close. Also, it's not completely clear how the zombie infection is passed. It seems to be through a bite or an open wound, but there are a number of scenes where the heroes get soaked with blood beating down a zombie. Why didn't they get infected? All in all, though, a pretty decent low budget zombie flick. I even liked the end, which goes in an unexpected direction.

Wow! I htought I had seen it all when it came to zombies. Something about it made me want to buy it (ok it was the price.)
But to my amazement this one is really good. Holds nothing back! The spfx are top notch and the subject matter is timely. Great acting (really) and a good direction move this opus along at a good clip. If youre a gore hound you wont be disappointed. This is soaked, caked, baked and deep fried in blood. A great tribute to Evil Dead, Day of the Dead, 28 Days Lster, and Night of the Living Dead, with a dash of Return of the Living Dead thrown in. Its a great mix, and it has some genuine scares. A treat for any Halloween!

I found "SEVERED" for a very cheap price & after reading a few good reviews here at amazon & also in fangoria buying it was a no-brainer. After watching it,I will have to agree with all the good reviews that I had read. It is nowhere near a great zombie film but it is also nowhere near a bad zombie film. While it has a handful of flaws it also has alot going for it-a good story,some good actors,good make-up/efx,plenty of chunky splattering blood & most impotantly some of the best tension I've ever seen in a zombie flick. The ending could have been much better & it is one of the most flawful parts of the movie but really the flaws can't out-weigh all the good there is in this flick,so in this horror/zombie fans opinion "SEVERED:forest of the dead" is a definite keeper & also one of the better indy zombie flicks to come out in recent years.

I am a fan of most horror flicks, especially zombie flicks. And this one did not disappoint. The premise is good, and the movie, overall, was creepy and chilling. Filled with a lot of substance.
--review from the author of The Shadow God and Spiritual Sorrow.

This film COULD have been an excellent independent zombie flick that did a better job of capturing the mood of foreboding doom IF the makers had done one thing differently.............. A word to modern filmakers........ STOP trying to generate excitement in films with that choppy, strobelight-like editing that is SUPPOSED to (in the minds of some) add tension, but instead makes watching the film annoying and detracts from the visual effectiveness of the film.

Severed: Forest Of The Dead (2005) is a low budget B zombie splatter movie that takes elements of past zombie movies and mixes them together to create its own unique feel. Once in a great while I like to watch zombie movies and zombie splatter movies. These types of movies are fun to watch simply because they usually have a thin plot, are visually entertaining (gorey) and even funny to a certain extent. This movie is a perfect example.

The plot basically is this: A logging company is genetically altering trees in hopes of increasing lumber production. A group of environmental activists and the loggers clash with their opposing views on logging and the environment. At one point a lumberjack gets injured while he's using a chain saw while cutting a tree that has been tree spiked by the environmentalists. The tree sap, which has been genetically modified, causes him to turn into a zombie. Soon all hell breaks loose as this group of environmental activists and loggers become infected by zombies and turn into zombies themselves. The environmentalists and the loggers must work together to survive the infestation of zombies.

This movie's camerawork is horrendous. It's very shakey for most of the movie. It reminds me of camcorder movies like The Blair Witch Project, The Last Exorcism, and Paranormal Activity. My rating of this movie took a hit because of this alone. If it wasn't for this, then I'd rate this an average zombie movie, which would be 3 stars.

The forest where this movie takes place provides pretty good atmosphere and there is lots of blood and gore. But as with most zombie movies, the plot is thin and rather ridiculous. When you're dealing with zombies, the plot almost HAS to be silly, because zombies themselves are creatures that are on the silly side.

Overall, this is about what I expected from a B zombie splatter movie. Again, the camerawork lowers my rating down to 2 stars.

I like zombie films and I like forests and I like the people who try to protect forests. OK OK so this film was rather campy BUT they were trying to make a good point. Too bad some of the protesters had to die. I like it better when just the bad guys get it but realistically this is not to be.