Municipal employees on a team-building retreat are targeted by a killer in this Swedish horror/comedy they should have called Parks and Mutilation.

Patrik Eklund’s satirical slasher plays out like a holiday special of a sitcom where the characters go on a work trip, but end up at risk of being permanently written out. This lends real stakes to the workplace japes, as the group prepares to break ground on a new shopping mall – despite protests from locals whose land has been sold at cut-throat rates.

This hint of corruption among the highly dysfunctional team makes The Conference tense before the killing even starts. And while the local government setting provides satirical specifics, The Office-like comedy will be painfully familiar to anyone who has had to endure a work retreat or team-building activities.

Visually the picture conforms to the usual Netflix look, but distinguishes itself with Hot Fuzz-style editing. Like the characters, the first half finds the feature at odds with itself in trying to strike that Hot Fuzz balance between the parochial and pathological – but when the colleagues come together in an ironic display of team-building, the movie rallies for a pulse-racing second half.

The film pulls no punches in its gory backlash against ecological corruption, using makeshift weapons found in the woodland environment that put the chop in mall. But the sardonic flick is surprisingly sweet too, a true ensemble piece where every character plays an equal part.

While it may not break new ground, The Conference hits all its targets – even if the scariest part is the idea of getting in a hot tub with your co-workers.