A Serbian Film (2010)

This has been on the back-burner for me for quite some time; the film's sordid reputation initially drew me to it, but its fans pushed me away. "Man, some guy totally rapes a baby, hurr hurr hurr, sick, bro". A Serbian Film has become a piece of work that has become known for its graphic content, and not for its "artistic" vision or even for its plot, which is fine if you want to wear your heart on your sleeve and create a gory, depraved movie, but if you are - like the creators of this film - hiding behind some paper thin meta / political message to justify your motivation to depict such heinous acts as "entertainment", then I'm sure that this legacy must be pretty infuriating, no?

Anyway, all that artsy shit aside, A Serbian Film also fails on the face value of it being a shocking exploitation film. It draws out all the stops - and then some - yet fails to be entertaining, or repulsive, or even hilarious in its own failure. The film is cold and completely devoid of atmosphere or dread; even the flat-out exploitative moments fail due to them being re-cast in a harsh, "artistic" light that pretends to have a message. Cap that off with the half baked ending, and I would classify this as the worst - and most over-rated - "horror" film that I have seen so far.

So, to clarify: A Serbian Film is 100% shock value tripe for plebs who think the Saw movies are the pinnacle of horror cinema, and is completely undeserving of its rancid reputation. Avoid.  - 17/11/2017