Recent Reviews
Film Review: Severed - Forest of the Dead
By John Marrone
Sep 13, 2006, 20:27

Directed by:  Carl Bessai
Running Time:  95 minutes
Body Count:  12

- trailer (flash)

Severed - Forest of the Dead KICKED ASS!  This isnt the old days - when straight to video was synonymous with substandard, or "likely to let down".  DVDs, Surround Sound, and HDTV have brought the movies home, and while box office flicks are taking hits, the DVD market is flourishing.  Why do I bring this up?  Because Severed - Forest of the Dead is another zombie flick that bypassed theaters and went right to the shelf.  Its low budget and has no eye catching names in the cast.  But Im tellin ya - if youre a bit sick of your undead "starting to think", being politcally analyzed, running around very un-Romero like, or admist a hundred tongue in cheek jokes and cheap thrills - this is the effort you've been waiting for.

Severed, which sometimes calls itself Forest of the Dead, takes itself very seriously, doesn't joke around, and gives a lot of old-fashioned zombie fans what they've been missing.  Respect to the undead - zombies taken seriously, red eyed and lumbering (no pun intended), and hungry for flesh.  Period.  If this was low-budget, it doesn't come across that way.  The plot was well told, the story was interesting and fresh (as far as zombie flicks go), it takes off quick, and the blood is in gallons.  Whats not available in mass special FX is made up for with jerky cameras and quick editing, but theres never a lack of gore.  Wound detail is often left to the imagination, which is a fresh modest take as opposed to cheap rubber heads - and the scenes that do contain flesh ripping and disembowling are chock full of mangled meat and stretchy sinew.

This zombie film centers on a section of forest 200 miles from civilization, deep in the mountains.  There, activists protest logging personnel, while the loggers cut down trees.  Unfortunately, someones been fucking around with genetics in the interest of profit, and has developed a syrum for trees.  A genetically altered hormone called GX1134, which is injected into the fungal base of the tree, resulting in super secondary growth - to the point where board members are forcasting a great increase in production.  Unfortunately, contact is lost with the logging camp.  The company assumes its activist trouble, so the Chairman of the Board sends his unworldly son Tyler in to see if he can quietly perform damage control.

Tyler arrives to find the place deserted - until he finds a man feasting on another's innards!  Ten zombies emerge from the woodwork (no pun intended), and he escapes, running into the forest.  There he finds a small group of survivors - Mac (Julian Christopher), and some others, including the main activist woman in the film, Stacey (Leanne Adachi).  From there its a run for survival with interesting twists along the way, some predictable, some not.  The final half hour of the movie is a bit odd - as if this other band of people they come across kind of hijack the whole film - but aside from this anomoly, Severed rocks.

Final analysis:  There's a lot of zombie movies out there.  This is good, if you know how to fish among them.  Weve had honeymoons, political parties, societal implications.  Listen - if you like your zombies Romero-like, taken seriously and out for blood, with a band of well acted characters trying to survive in the forest?  Director Carl Bessai freakin' delivers! 

CLICK HERE to pick up Severed - Forest of the Dead from Amazon.com