Director: Christopher Smith, UK, 15, 95min
Stars: Toby Stephens, Danny Dyer, Tim McInnerny

On general release

The high concept of this British horror picture is The Office meets Hostel, though it also evokes The Most Dangerous Game in premise and The Comic Strip Presents . . . in tone (with Stephens, bizarrely, seeming to channel Rik Mayall).

A busload of employees of an arms company are driven into the Hungarian woods for a bonding weekend, and get dropped in the middle of nowhere — worrying about dangerous bears (a mild- looking creature ambles across the road unnoticed in one of the best jokes) but eventually stalked by a gang of mysterious killers.

Dyer is a touch too obnoxious to be funny, especially since his character gets a free pass from the horrible death parade, but McInnerny wins man of the match as the chinless team-leader who tries desperately to keep things going even as the corpses start piling up. He finally finds himself standing on one of the company’s own pressure-release mines.

Smith, following up the more serious Creep, manages the stalking and splattering scenes well, alternating comedy chillls with wonderful straight-on nastiness.

KIM NEWMAN