A Serbian Film - Notoriously Disgusting

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm going to be in a pretty great minority here but I didn't think it was that horrific. It tried to be and that's why it wasn't. To elaborate further - because it so obviously tries to be disgusting and shocking to an absolute extreme ("newborn porn" scene for instance) it ended up being hilariously bad that I just couldn't take any part of it even remotely seriously.

As someone who hasn't read ASOIAF books at the time, I find scenes like the Red Wedding in GoT to be genuinely shocking. I was actually shaking and I couldn't watch anything for days after that episode. I need an emotional attachment in order to care and to feel. And goddamn it that episode made me feel all kinds of sick and uncomfortable. I almost stopped watching the show. And I saw A Serbian film well before GoT so it's not like my senses are dulled.

A Serbian film didn't make me feel anything. No shock, no disgust. Nothing. The only thing it did is make me ask myself why on god's green earth did someone think that this was a good idea.

It's a bad movie and you shouldn't see it because it's bad and because it's one of those movies that tries to cash in on its shock factor, not because it's genuinely shocking. So just tell it to go fuck itself and move on with your life.

However, the actors are actually really good. Good enough that I was interested in looking up other Serbian and Yugoslavian movies. Some of their WW2 movies and pretty much all of the comedies that I've seen are REALLY FUCKIN' GOOD. It's not that easy to fully understand their comedy because of the language barrier (some of the language can't be properly translated but luckily my gf is from Croatia so she helped me understand it all), but they do seem to share similarities with the British humor.

 

[josemlopes]

I havent seen the movie, but I know the meat of it, and on paper it looked good, especially the ending.

Maybe it really is the sort of thing that on paper looks good but to actually watch it ends up feeling more like it only exists for shock value.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

While you're at it, any opinions on Salo? One of the only films I had to snap in half to avoid ever feeling compelled to finish it.

 

[pookie101]

im another one wondering where the review came from.. its a very left field review of a very nihilistic film

 

[ritchards]

Seen this. Some of the elements feel like "we're ticking this off because no-one would dare to do this in a movie", but mostly it, to me, read as really black comedy.

 

[90sgamer]

This will keep details vague.

I wasn't aware of this movie until I read this review. Naturally, I had to watch it, because this review, and many others, told me not to. So, I watched it and walked away pretty untouched by the whole thing. The first thirty minutes of the film got me interested in the cast. They felt like people, and I found myself dreading the inevitable downward spiral that would befall them. Then the drama begins and my suspension of disbelief dissolved almost instantly. It was around the time "new**** porn" was coined where I became acutely aware I was watching a movie, and that the movie was trying too hard to shock me. The antagonists were cartoonishly villainous, with no clear motive for some of them other than inexplicable gratification and sadism; and the protagonist found himself with an annoyingly convenient lack of agency. After that, it almost became a comedy. There was one moment where the movie almost got me on board again. Milo appears to be considering doing something terrible, being egged on by an inexplicable vile person who should be protective rather than exploitative, and I was on edge wondering if I could possibly watch the expected outcome. Then the film jumps out the window, so to speak. It never got me engaged again, except for a brief moment of gratification following the big twist, which an idiot would have seen from one million miles away.

If I could identify one thing that prevents this movie from working, it is the way it avoids putting any sort of strain on Milo. Sure, he did some things, but it wasn't really him. There was no persuasion, or temptation, or any kind of reason why he could be found at fault. Watching a good man willingly do bad things would have made for a more persuasive story, and probably would have touched me in the way the director intended. It would have better served to supposed parallel the director wanted to make with the apparent victimization of the Serbian people from themselves.

 

[Chuppi]

"A Serbian Film deserves its reputation as a revolting film."

No, it does not.
It?s just a plain stupid movie, that tries so hard to be shocking, that it becomes rather ridiculous.
You can?t really compare it to a movie like "Martyrs" (The Original) that really feels like a fist to the stomach, but features genuinely good acting and makes you care for the protagonists, while Serbian Film just tries to be as gross as possible and achieves the complete opposite.

So what?s the intention behind doing a special about a dumb "dare you to watch it" phenomenon, from more than half a centurie ago ?

 

[pookie101]

Anytime people tell me that they're badass hardcore horror movie fans, I ask them if they've seen "Salo or 120 Days of Sodom", "Martyrs" or "A Serbian Film." Just to more accurately gauge their level of "stamina".

I haven't watched any of them end to end and I don't plan to (turned off Salo rather quickly). However, knowledge of their existence makes me better able to watch other, lesser disturbing media, like "regular" horror or a Game of Thrones.

I've seen Salo and Martyrs. They're good movies. Martyrs feels more pretentious, though. Salo tried to make a point with its violence. The ending is kind of beautiful. In Martyrs, the spiritual implications in the second half feel like an excuse for the violence. It's the most disturbing movie I've seen.

WHAT DID SHE SAY???? im still asking that years later

 

[Malpraxis]

As someone who works with realistic (as in real) gore on a daily basis (ER Doc), but is also an horror fan. I saw that movie ages ago, and despite I couldn't roll my eyes harder at the most 'shocking' scenes put the just for edgy shock's sake (newborn pooooorn!), it wasn't a bad little flick. It had structure, pacing, narrative, context, scares, twists, and it was entertaining. Shallow entertainment, mind you, but we're not looking for Citizen Kane in this genre. I'd tell people to watch it, as the imagination is a worse tool than watching the thing itself.

And it's not on even the same stadium as Salo, which was senseless gore and disturbing scenes, with a classic director and a point. I know I sound like a hipster douche, so I'll stop.

TLR: Watch the damn movie, Salo is better.

 

[Chewster]

I've watched nearly all of Miike's filmography. Would you say this film is more shocking?

Not really. /b/ levels of edginess at best.

Some of Miike's and Park Chan Wook's Vengeance Trillogy has plausable elements to make it more gut-wrenching in my opinion. A Serbian Film went past that.

I've just mentioned it in another thread but have you seen I Saw the Devil? Because you should watch that, if you're a fan of Park Chan-Wook.

As someone who hasn't read ASOIAF books at the time, I find scenes like the Red Wedding in GoT to be genuinely shocking. I was actually shaking and I couldn't watch anything for days after that episode. I need an emotional attachment in order to care and to feel. And goddamn it that episode made me feel all kinds of sick and uncomfortable. I almost stopped watching the show. And I saw A Serbian film well before GoT so it's not like my senses are dulled.

This. Say whatever negative you want about The Walking Dead because it probably has it coming but that first scene of season seven was the first time in quite a while that I've had my stomach turn while watching a show or film. If you don't have that connection with the characters, what's the point? You won't care what happens to any of them.

Anyway, haven't seen this, probably won't, judging from the comments here and the plot synopsis. I'll take Funny Games or something similar if I want to be really shocked. At least that film was trying to make a point.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Boo. Would have been funnier sugarcoated.

Honestly, from all the talk I expected worse than that. I was expecting stuff like... well really horrible stuff that I don't even want to write down.

I've never watched the film, but I do know at least 1 person who has watched it and 2 more who claim to have watched it

but I think describing scenes in text like that don't quite properly represent the real horror of the scenes
mostly because you miss out on the actors, which if Marter is to be believed, would have made a 4chan style gross out scene actually horrifying to watch

and I'm sure the vfx for the brains blowing out would have been incredibly gory and likely resulted in more mutilation than would have really happened for the sake of the horror

Oh, I have no doubt it's extremely horrible to watch and would give me nightmares for a year, but with all of Marter's secrecy I was expecting like, stuff worse than I could even imagine. Like:

Spoiler

rough cuddling of big owwies after Mr. Winkie got a boo boo all in a big mess of lemon and chocolate pudding.

Or something like that.

Well, kind of.

The way the main character ends one of the bad guys is by impaling him in the eye with his "Mr. Winkie".

OT: Never seen the film, never will. Read a plot synopsis a while ago and that was enough.

It's pretty much just snuff. If you like snuff and have no desire to actually do any of that crap in real life, go wild. Otherwise, it's as Marter says. The film is just trash being shocking for the sake of it.

 

[Padwolf]

I watched this film a few years ago after seeing someone talking about it on here. I am a huge fan of horror, so I decided to give it a go.

Tis a silly film. Yes, the content of it is vile, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to really watch it. It's just a shit and boring film. I was shocked that the makers of the film were daring enough to jump right in there and do that. You don't form any attachment to any character because the film doesn't really let you. I just ended up like most others who have commented here, eyerolling at it.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

When in doubt, aim for incest and/or peodophilia. Some easy low hanging shock fruits there. The problem is trying to find the reason behind the writing that isnt something along the lines of 'what would others find shocking and how can I justify it with the least amount of effort?' Tetsuo was unpleasant intentionally, but at least its' ambitions have less shallow readings. Also Antichrist, there are different goals that explore more on the messy side of the human psyche instead of stock characters going through shock motions.