Murder comes with the job in ‘Severance’

Any slasher film that opens with the chipper ‘60s pop hit “Itchycoo Park” isn’t going to be your typical genre outing and, on that score, “Severance” doesn’t disappoint -- at least for a while. Along with lots of pitch-dark humor, James Moran’s often clever script is peppered with winks and nudges about the war on terror that helps distinguish the film from the recent spate of torture flicks. Its game, mostly British cast and BBC sensibility also give the movie a leg up (which, trust me, is a phrase you won’t bandy about after seeing this picture).

If only the characters were more than types, “Severance” might have really felt like something new. But despite chances to give the players a bit of history and dimension, once again we get “instant people” who are forced together under what becomes the worst of circumstances. In this case, it’s the motley sales crew of an international arms supplier off on a reluctant team-building weekend in the Hungarian backwoods.

Adding to the group’s misery, it ends up stranded in creepy digs instead of the posh corporate lodge promised by gung-ho company head (David Gilliam). The shabby chalet’s bad lighting and rotting floorboards are the least of the staffers’ problems, though, as one by one, they fall prey to a vicious band of robotic killers who are either vengeful war criminals or escaped mental patients (or both).

It all comes down, of course, to which of our seven marketeers will meet their grisly end -- and in what order. Will it be party guy Steve (Danny Dyer), geeky Gordon (Andy Nyman), bookish Jill (Claudie Blakley), arrogant sales exec Harris (Toby Stephens), take-charge American Maggie (Laura Harris), repressed assistant Billy (Babou Ceesay), or their spineless boss, Richard (Tim McInnerny)? One clue: That’s not the order.

Director Christopher Smith ratchets up the thrills along the way, even if the film is more unsettling than outright frightening (though the bear trap scene is a corker). And while the spiral of vividly, uh, executed murders eclipses the humor midway, Smith manages a few amusing third-act bits involving a wayward rocket launcher, some exasperating Muzak, and a pair of pneumatic call girls.

They say, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” but this cheeky gore fest proves that balancing the two is the trickiest act of all.

“Severance.” MPAA rating: R for strong bloody violence, language, drug content and some sexuality/nudity. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. Exclusively at Landmark’s Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. (310) 281-8223;