An associate of mine once told me that a quality reviewer is an artist in his own right. I’m hetant to agree with that statement, and perhaps my tentative attitude stems from the fact that I’m certainly not the best at what I do. What I am certain of, however, is the fact that filmmaking is certainly a legitimate art form, and I can say without trepidation that Srdjan Spasojevic is a brilliant filmmaker, who has managed to master the platform, despite a rather limited résumé.
Here comes the conundrum; While Spasojevic has shot a technically flawless piece of work in, A Serbian Film, I cannot in good conscious tell you that it’s an enjoyable film. It’s really rather deplorable. The picture pushes every boundary known to not only the industry, but man. If Forrest Gump was made with the goal of enlightening viewers, A Serbian Film was made with the goal of inducing complete and utter hopelessness. And, it works, sadly, all too well.
I cannot dive directly in to the deep end of the pool in terms of plot details, but I can craft a rough sketch, should serve as a fair warning of what lies in store. The story follows Milos, a washed up porn star who battles serious financial issues while attempting to play head of household. An opportunity is afforded him to shoot an adult film that will pay a large enough sum of cash to ensure not only he, but his son will die a rich man. The hitch lies in the fact that Milos must a gn a contract, without having any knowledge of the material to be shot. It’s a setup that screams terror, but Milos, in a bind climbs aboard, and thus begins a journey into the darkest depths imaginable of the adult industry.
Traditionally you’d find my rating of the film right about here, but I’m not going to rate this picture, because I’m unbelievably conflicted, quite frankly. It’s a brilliant film, but it’s so disgusting I don’t want to urge anyone to clamor for a copy. If you’re addicted to the extreme, seek it out; if you’re alright with knowing that pure unadulterated evil does indeed find its way to production and eventually the mass market, than believe all the things you’ve ever read about this film, and avoid it at all costs.
Matt_Molgaard
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 08:01 PM | 85882
This helped my decion to see it or not. After reading the review I think I'm gonna skip it. Your review pretty much told me everything i needed to know good job Matt.
DoubleshotJ
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 08:16 PM | 85883
A friend of mine gave me a copy, and so far I have only sat through the first thirty minutes.I've read about what happens, and am sort of wondering if I can go all the way.
KiKiKiKiAhAhAhAh
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 08:24 PM | 85885
Noe you know how I feel whenever I watch Cannibal Holocaust. I wasn't going to see this in the first place, but now, I'm going out of my way to avoid a viewing.
ObscureCinema101
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 08:30 PM | 85886
yeah, i can really only recommend this to those who "must see every horror movie ever made!" (yeah right lol). Highly, highly, highly disturbing.
Makes movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Oldboy look extremely tame.
Matt_Molgaard
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 09:19 PM | 85888
As I get older I'm beginning to realize there are some images that I just do not need floating around in my head. Thank you for the warning, definitely going to avoid accordingly.
allycat2488
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 10:26 PM | 85895
Yeah my girlfriend and myself had the "privilege" of seeing the original uncut veron, and for the next 3 days we couldn't really talk to each other or feel comfortable, and I agree this movie made Cannibal Holocaust look like it was Ron Howard film.
WRATHCHILD78
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 10:34 PM | 85896
Yeah my girlfriend and myself had the "privilege" of seeing the original uncut veron, and for the next 3 days we couldn't really talk to each other or feel comfortable, and I agree this movie made Cannibal Holocaust look like it was Ron Howard film.very well said
Matt_Molgaard
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 10:37 PM | 85898
this was hardly the most disturbing film in cinematic history. It was so ridiculous it came off completely anine than upsetting. The plot was contrived and not even artfully shot.
As a viewer you were never even given a chance to give a damn about the characters.
It was 100% shock value for people looking for 2 hours of "omg no they wouldn't dare"
Just a terrible movie period.
BloodAndRibbons
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 10:48 PM | 85901
this was hardly the most disturbing film in cinematic history. It was so ridiculous it came off completely anine than upsetting. The plot was contrived and not even artfully shot.
As a viewer you were never even given a chance to give a damn about the characters.
It was 100% shock value for people looking for 2 hours of "omg no they wouldn't dare"
Just a terrible movie period.
the plot is very plauble, given the known shady and illegal workings of the underground porn industry; the setup to potion milos in the middle of the madness was perfectly executed, as he was clearly "ted", and a deluonal "artist" saw the talent he brought to the industry that others didn't. Damn near every shot of Milos away from "action" features him, in a mentally tormented state, attempting to uphold some level of potive appearance for his family. He also has some great moments in which he connects with both his wife and son. And the film certainly has an artsy element to it, and is shot wonderfully with some awesome lighting and eerie set pieces.
I can understand loathing the film (as I said in my review, I'll never watch it again), but don't flat out lie about the technical work behind the film: it's highly refined, and while it's a disgusting flick, it's wrong to do the filmmaker injustice by reducing this to a mple shock value film; there's far more to it than that.
And if you don't feel this is a front runner for most disturbing film in history, I'd absolutely LOVE to see what you would conder worthy of that despicable title.
Matt_Molgaard
Wednesday 10/26/2011 at 11:37 PM | 85908
I just watched it... You weren't kiddin. That was a pretty fucked up movie. And I thought Bloodsucking Freaks was bad...This one definitely topped it.
Also definitely agree - Not a movie I'll be seeing again.
Jonny Sicko
Thursday 10/27/2011 at 02:49 AM | 85929
Hello Guys,
I know this movie fully disturb the human nature. If any human watch it first time he will feel very uncomfortable.
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roxywatson001
Thursday 10/27/2011 at 06:01 AM | 85943
Good review, very true words. As someone who isn't a father I have to admit I didn't really have much of a tough time watching it (maybe I'm a little TOO desensatised) but frankly I actually found the animal cruelty scenes in Cannibal Holocaust worse than the scenes in this. I think it's because I literally just say to myself 'this isn't real, this is just a movie'.
But this film is genius and although I wasn't as disturbed by it as most, I can still safely say it's not a film I'm going to watch much...
joshk1986
Thursday 10/27/2011 at 11:11 AM | 85951
this was hardly the most disturbing film in cinematic history. It was so ridiculous it came off completely anine than upsetting. The plot was contrived and not even artfully shot.
As a viewer you were never even given a chance to give a damn about the characters.
It was 100% shock value for people looking for 2 hours of "omg no they wouldn't dare"
Just a terrible movie period.
the plot is very plauble, given the known shady and illegal workings of the underground porn industry; the setup to potion milos in the middle of the madness was perfectly executed, as he was clearly "ted", and a deluonal "artist" saw the talent he brought to the industry that others didn't. Damn near every shot of Milos away from "action" features him, in a mentally tormented state, attempting to uphold some level of potive appearance for his family. He also has some great moments in which he connects with both his wife and son. And the film certainly has an artsy element to it, and is shot wonderfully with some awesome lighting and eerie set pieces.
I can understand loathing the film (as I said in my review, I'll never watch it again), but don't flat out lie about the technical work behind the film: it's highly refined, and while it's a disgusting flick, it's wrong to do the filmmaker injustice by reducing this to a mple shock value film; there's far more to it than that.
And if you don't feel this is a front runner for most disturbing film in history, I'd absolutely LOVE to see what you would conder worthy of that despicable title.
I understand there are shady workings to the porn industry. The film also implicates that not only is Milo's brother Marko
a corrupt cop, but there is further corruption within the rest of the police.
Personally just because many scenes were shot erratically with different filters and edited to be choppy, does not resonate as artful to me.
That mply came up messy. Especially, as I said, nce we didn't really get a chance to know the characters.
We get brief snippets into Milo's life and his "extra blesngs" and that he is strapped for cash.
No back story, nothing.
We find out even less about his wife and son, and are given only one real sequence to find out about Marko's jealousy.
Therefore in my opinion, the movie is lacking in both a fluid story as well as any real character development.
And I think it is completely justified to say the filmmaker was going for shock value.
Newborn porn? Shoving an erect penis in an eye socket? Injecting Milo's with a combination of drugs to make him aggresve and aroused constently?
The only thing misng was Milo's trying to f*ck a horse.
It was all ridiculous, and nce all of the "horrid" scenes could not be shown for obvious reasons, the movie itself is half left to each individual viewers level of ck imagination.
Disturbing movies, with gnificant back story that immediately come to mind. Bastard Out Of Carolina, or Garden's Of The Night.
I could come up with more, but I only just woke up.
BloodAndRibbons
Thursday 10/27/2011 at 03:34 PM | 85958
im not sure what you expected? were you hoping they'd tack on another 30 minutes so we could get a clearer idea of who the characters are? I got a FULL understanding of our focal characters.
The brother is shady from the jump, and its made apparent in more than ONE scene.
We learn plenty of the wife: shes not ecstatic about her husbands past, but shes willing to deal with issues because of the financial troubles. We learn plenty about her
the son isnt fleshed out extremely well, but hes what, like 6? Should we be diving into his school routine?
Honestly, it sounds like you missed every ngle layer of this film BUT the "shock scenes".
Matt_Molgaard
Saturday 10/29/2011 at 03:12 AM | 86058