Severed: Forest of the Dead addresses
the dangers of genetic experimentation, but it also highlights the need
for communal action and a biotic community to overcome its
repercussions. Overhead shots of a massive dense forest establish the
setting and introduce the film’s first conflict between environmental
activists and loggers. Shots of protesting activists are juxtaposed with
footage of loggers cutting down and preparing timber, illustrating the
whole lumbering process from forest to truck to processing. Activists
chain themselves to trees while loggers work. A banner shows us that
these young environmentalists represent the Forest Action Committee.
Their signs declare, “Greed will not clean our air” and argue against
depleting natural resources. They shout at the loggers, “get out of our
forest!” Trailer
Mac, the logger boss (Julian Christopher) at
first confronts the environmentalists, warning his men to be careful
because the protesters are too close. But he also opposes the company
bosses for whom he works. When he sees two company research scientists
taking samples from an enormous tree, he tells them to come down for
“less talk and more chop.” One of these researchers, Carter (J.R.
Bourne), notices extra thick sap and announces, “Something isn’t right…
I’ve never seen this volume of sap before,” but he tells Mac there’s no
cause for alarm instead of revealing its source: the company is testing
GX1144, a new GMO product the company believes will accelerate growth
and increase yields.
To address the board’s concerns, its members send
the CEO’s son Tyler (Paul Campbell) to the camp. Although representing
the enemy, Tyler ultimately becomes part of a biotic community that also
includes loggers and environmentalists. His entrance in the camp also
shows us what happens when we disturb the natural order: monsters. When
Tyler drives his truck off the ferry, the logging camp is deserted and
in shambles. Undead loggers feed on corpses, but Tyler escapes into a
forest and hides in a shed with unscathed logger Luke (Michael Teigen),
environmental activist Rita, logging boss Mac and company man Carter.
Rita tells Tyler he has been “raping the earth” and the GMO-induced
infection supports her claim. This secret GX1144 testing area must be
quarantined to maintain stock prices, and their survival depends on
collectively battling monstrous results of bad science.
“Gene flow could create considerable species displacement and ecosystem disruption”
The report supports these concerns with examples
from experimental plantings in China (Terry Project, 2015). In a
briefing paper issued by the Global Justice Ecology Project (2015), Dr.
D. Suzuki agrees, declaring transgenic trees have
“the potential to transfer pollen for hundreds of miles carrying genes for traits including insect resistance, herbicide resistance, sterility and reduced lignin [supportive structural plant materials].”
These transgenic trees “have the potential to
wreak ecological havoc throughout the world’s national forests.”
Transgenic trees may not produce zombies, but they may “increase human
exposure to hazardous chemicals” (Global Justice, 2015). Severed may illustrate an extreme consequence of planting transgenic trees, but its horror themes are based in science.
If a GMO tree crisis occurs, however, the
solution is communal rather than individual. Carter and the company are
clearly painted as enemies in the film, as greedy exploiters of both
human and nonhuman nature. Rita is also culpable in the infestation,
since she and her environmental group spiked the tree that infected the
logger. Because she alone survives, however, the film suggests her
crimes are minor compared to those of Carter and the company men who
would let even their own children die. Ultimately, environmentalists
must team up with at least some loggers to overcome the corrupt company
battling them both.
