Severance is one of the biggest TV shows around right now, with its mind-blowing mysteries compelling water cooler conversations in a way that few series have been able to do in recent years. Ben Stiller’s Apple TV+ sensation, led by Adam Scott, just concluded its Season 2 run and is more popular than ever before. People are looking for as much Severance as they can possibly handle, and those searches will probably lead them to the knowledge that a movie called Severance just started streaming on Max this week.
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Originally released in 2006, this Severance movie actually shares some thematic DNA with Apple’s smash-hit TV series, but the two are not connected in any tangible way. Like the show, the Severance movie puts a dark and chilling spin on the idea of the “normal” workplace. That, however, is about where the connections end.
Instead of slowly uncovering layers of a hidden world, the Severance movie follows a group of co-workers on a business retreat up in the woods. The dark comedy takes a turn when people start getting killed off, forcing the rest of the group into fight or flight mode.
There are also the differences in both budget and style that allude to just how little the two Severance titles have in common. The Severance TV series is expensive, sleek, and refined. The 2006 Severance movie is a low budget slasher in the woods, focusing a lot more energy on its writing and performances than impressive sets or technical mastery.
Still, if you’ve watched all the Severance that there is to watch and you’re already having trouble waiting for Season 3, this new discovery on Max might be a great way to pass a little time. There’s enough shared DNA there that it’s easy to create some mental links between the two while you’re watching. Maybe there’s a great fan-fiction idea that can somehow connect to the stories of the two projects together.
[RELATED: Did Parks & Rec Actually Predict Severance?]
The timing of Severance hitting Max is what makes things so interesting, because its arrival may not have been very noticeable a couple of months ago. But the word “Severance” appearing on Max’s latest newsletter, announcing the long list of the streamer’s April additions, right as the show’s second season was ending made it stick out like a sore thumb. It felt almost impossible not to do a double-take at the name when browsing through the lineup April arrivals.
Maybe that was intentional on the part of Max. A movie that few people have heard of or seen is suddenly on a ton of radars, solely because it shares its name with TV’s current smash success. Ultimately, if it gets people interested in a fun indie thriller they probably wouldn’t have otherwise noticed, it feels like a win for all involved.
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