A list of works that may have influenced and inspired the writers, designers, and creators of the TV show, Severance.

Influence listings should be labeled as Confirmed or Unconfirmed and include a link to a source that verifies the confirmation.

If you are looking for shows, movies, books, and other works in the style of Severance or with a Severance “vibe”, please see the page, Shows and Movies like Severance.

Lead characters are named Peter and June. A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.

Unconfirmed. Mentioned to Dan Erickson in AMA here: (link) Erickson did not confirm or deny the influence.

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), he meets the woman from his daydream (Kim Greist), and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Confirmed by Dan Erickson Inverse April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Confirmed by Dan Erickson April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Confirmed by Ben Stiller.

TODO: Source needed. (Variety interview)

• Confirmed by Ben Stiller.NBC News
• Confirmed by Jeremy Hindle. NBC News Gold Derby

Confirmed by Dan Erickson Slashfilm April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Stated by Dan Erickson Slashfilm. Inverse April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Confirmed by Dan Erickson April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Confirmed by Dan Erickson SlashfilmGame Rant Inverse April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

Confirmed by Dan Erickson April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

A creepypasta online urban legend and one of the most well-known examples of the Internet aesthetic of liminal spaces, which depicts usually busy locations as unnaturally empty,

Confirmed by Dan Erickson. Game Rant Inverse

A 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. It begins with three characters who find themselves waiting in a mysterious room. It is a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters are punished by being locked into a room together for eternity. It is the source of Sartre's especially famous phrase “L'enfer, c'est les autres” or “Hell is other people.”

Confirmed by Dan Erickson April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

A first person adventure game. When a simple-minded individual named Stanley discovers that the co-workers in his office have mysteriously vanished, he sets off to find answers. You play as Stanley, and you do not play as Stanley.You make a choice, and you have your choices taken from you. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. You are not there to win. The Stanley Parable is a game that plays you.

Confirmed by Dan Erickson Inverse April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

One of Kafka's best-known works, Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. Confirmed by Dan Erickson April 21 Reddit AMA with Dan Erickson

• Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk's deadpan portraits of austere cubicle spaces
• Photographer Lynne Cohen
• Photographer Bill Owens.

Confirmed by Jessica Lee Gagné NBC News

• Frank Lloyd Wright & Usonian architecture
• Kevin Roche's John Deere offices
• Eero Saarinen's Bell Labs Holmdel office
• Brutalism

Confirmed Jeremy Hindle Gold Derby Signal Horizon

Confirmed by Dan Erickson Inverse