Srdjan Todorovic in 'A Serbian Film'. Courtesy Contrafilm.

I had heard so much about the sadistic nature of A Serbian Film that the lead-up to watching it was far worse than the film itself (someone even told me that watching it would rot my soul). No question, it’s sick and twisted (two scenes in particular shattered me) but compared to “torture porn” films like Hostel or Martyrs, or classic exploitation flicks like Salo and the original I Spit on Your Grave, it’s really not that shocking, and the uneasy feeling it left inside of me wore off fast and didn’t haunt me the way those other titles did.

When retired porn star Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is offered an undisclosed amount of money to appear in an “art film”, he accepts the offer without fully knowing the concept of the project. After a few days of shooting, the director, Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), begins to push him to do horrifically violent things towards women and starts to include children in scenes. This is not cool with Milos and he wants out of the deal. Vukmir has a better idea of how his movie is going to end, and so begins a trip into cinema madness.

Although it takes well over an hour before anything remotely shocking to happen, the film is cold and emotionless from the opening. The relationship Milos has with his wife, son, and brother is almost dream-like, as if he was a stranger or ghost. There’s also a high level of anxiety created with the style of shooting and the soundtrack, which is very gritty and industrial. I’d compare the overall vibe of A Serbian Film to something David Lynch might make (Eraserhead or Lost Highway comes to mind) rather than to a horror film like Hostel or Martyrs.

Director Srdjan Spasojevic may never make another movie in his life but he’s definitely left his mark. Whether he strictly wanted to mess people up with a twisted exploitation movie or make a political statement about the way the Serbian government has treated its people (which was something he hinted at during a Q&A at the South By Southwest film festival earlier this year) is up to you to decide. If you absolutely must see A Serbian Film just keep in mind during the third act (which features multiple scenes of violent sex and rape, a brutal decapitation, and other disgusting imagery that gives Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist a run for its money) that it’s only a movie and it will all be over in under two hours.

SPOILER ALERT: I should point out the two scenes that destroyed me dealt with children and sex (one a newborn baby and one a small boy). It’s not that the scenes were even that graphic either — they are both shot without showing much of anything. It’s the idea of what was happening that was grotesque and made me wonder what the point of it all was. If you don’t think you can handle material like that don’t bother attempting to watch A Serbian Film at all.

Rue Morgue presents A Serbian Film as part of their Cinemacbre Movie Nights at the Bloor Cinema on Thursday, October 21 at 9:30 p.m.

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