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It's official..."A Serbian Film" is the first movie ever that's truly, deeply and eternally broken me...You know that feeling like you'll never be happy like you were as a kid? That feeling when you're walking around in public trying to enjoy yourself in a Halloween store and families are around and you think to yourself..."Wow...I have seen the abyss, I have seen a movie that literally has killed me on the inside...I can never relate to these people ever again..."
I never really gave this movie a proper review, but I feel like if I do now perhaps it could help spill out whatever poisoned blood there is, even if it's inescapable and Red Letter Media seems to keep me in touch with reality thanks to the heavenly laughter of Rich Evans.
!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!! Also this will get political....
So, A Serbian Film, it was the biggest fuckin' mistake I ever made to watch in order to get back into horror while working onto SLAUGHTER HORSE, because before hand for 3 years I've been working on my graphic novel The Fake Horse which despite how horrific that book is it's more light-hearted than most of what I've done as an artist that I still am and will always be to explore the unknown and find enjoyment within the darkness that lurks around us and inside us.
I should have watched the Phantasm series instead, that whole series of horror films are incredible, great budget horror movies that give you the thrill to want to make a movie with likable characters, a memorable villain and a great theme.
Wait, what were we talking about? Oh...
So yeah, it was a movie I watched one day early this year, why you may ask? Because I felt like if I watched a horror movie that had everyone talking about it when it first came out, and I heard a shocking scene of a guy taking out a newborn baby and using it as a fleshlight...
I thought it would look funny-cheesy and I saw some clips of it from a review that made me kind of morbidly fascinated with it specifically a scene where our lead protagonist is fucking a naked chick handcuffed to a bed and he chops her head off with a machete that looked creepy and awesome at the same time...and that was probably the only highlight to this movie...
Ho gawds...help me...
The movie's plot is this, a retired pornstar who is a husband to a beautiful wife and a father to a good son, misses the life of the adult film world, one day an old friend of his invites him to come meet a filmmaker who is also a child psychologist who wants to make a ground-breaking artsy porn film, but he never tells our lead what the film is about, no script or anything just using an ear-piece to listen and do whatever the director tells him to do while two crew members follow him around with video cameras...as things progress, the star of the film starts to unravel how incredibly fucked up the movie is and wants out but he gets in too deep to where they drug him and film him doing scenes against his will, he then back-tracks to figure out what happened (Hangover style) and realizes he's done things that will scar him for life, as well as myself the viewer.
First, I'll give the positives, because despite what I have to say about this movie it at least deserves some credit where credit is due: The cinematography is very good, the way in which it's shot is very good too, the camera work and look of the film deserve applause, add to that the acting is very good as well, everyone plays their parts as wonderfully as possible and they make the film in all of its grotesque authenticity.
We good? Okay, let's get to the bad stuff.
Okay, so if you haven't guessed from the description of one of the most fucked up scenes there are, the artsy-porn film this maniac is making consists of necrophilia, rape, murder and the spotlight attraction and the biggest "FUCK YOU!" center of the whole movie is....-drum roll-...PEDOPHILIA!
Of all the things in this movie, why in all of the fucktards unsacred green earth did it HAVE to be one of the most controversial and most cringe-worthy, soul-crushing of reality?
Okay, let me clear this up right away, from one artist to another, I defend the right of any artist making whatever movie or piece of art they want to make, if they have something to say with their work to give audiences something to think or discuss about or if it's something they needed to get out for their own therapeutic means, I fully support and defend the right and will of any artist to do so. Art is not safe, censorship is shitty.
That being said...
The film's escalating themes of child-molesting in which they were filmed had caused my internal soul, heart, brain or whatever my sad excuse of an existence amounts to, to become as deader than dead than ever before, A Serbian Film reminds me that I will die one day and it will never matter when I die and my existence will be meaningless.
Atonement can beat the shit out of this movie.
That was probably the biggest issue I took with the movie is that it lacks subtlety with the excessive content it showcases to its viewers, from what I gather those defending the film debate that it's a political film that exposes the truth of what happens in the porn industry of Serbia that the Serbian government is failing to shutdown, which is super fucked up...Saying the movie is important to inform everyone this kind of shit is still going on today.
Political or not, its lack in subtlety makes it a little bit of a hateful movie, where it hates its audience enough to say "FUCK YOU! You're all apart of this! You let this shit happen! And you're all fucked up for even watching this!", which i personally take offense to and while it's only my opinion in that regard, I say "FUCK YOU TOO, A SERBIAN FILM!"
I will share the ending with all of you, and I'm going to warn you, this scene is the most absolutely fucked up thing I could ever conceive in the history of both film and existence I regret to this day ever witnessing, yet I didn't want to stop watching the film out of respect to judge the film without ignorance. So if you don't want to be scarred for life like I am, please skip down to the rating of the film at the very bottom or go do something worth while...
Ready? Because I don't think I am, but it has to be said...
Towards the end of the film, the drugged pornstar is lead to the finale of his drugged experience where he's lead into a warehouse, there's a bed in the middle of the room with two naked people on it face down and both heads covered with towels (supposedly they're women), the crazed director, his camera crew and a masked creeper that joins in are all there recording the drugged porn actor and the masked creeper both going doggy-style on both the "women"...oh gawds...so as the director is filming, he takes the mask off the creeper which is revealed to be the porn star's creepy brother...then the director unveils the two women who are revealed to be...the pornstar's wife and son! :O The brother having sex with his wife, and the pornstar having sex with his son....Why? Was this a twisted punchline to "fun for the whole family"?
Then after the reveal, all hell breaks lose, there's mass carnage, lives are forever ruined, the viewer is traumatized for life over a piece of fiction, then at the very end, the dad, his wife and son lay in bed together and the dad uses a gun to shoot through all three of them to die....and after ALL that, there's some other fucked up director and fucked up film crew who were RECORDING THE ENTIRE MOVIE YOU JUST WATCHED and they were filming the whole scene where one of the director tells one of his crew to have sex with the dead son first and then it ends.
Oooooooooooooohhhhh Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy GAAAAAAWWWDD!!!!!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH
MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
GAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDD!!!
WHAT THE FUCK!?
Somebody made this! SOMEBODY MADE THIS MOVIE AND THEY'RE SELLING IT RIGHT NOW!
Oh my fucking gawd....
Why did I watch it?
After i witnessed the horror that it was, it made me hate myself as a human being for watching it and then it made me hate all of humanity in general, it made me feel dirty for even watching it like it's a movie that made me feel like a child-molester for just watching it, unable to prevent the horrors that happened in it and while it's only a fictional, fake, fake movie, the way in how it's excessively mean-spirited and so over-the-line, it was like a movie that was made by fuck-headed extremists on the internet be on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube Commenters they all came together and made this movie to show how fucked up pedophilia is, which it obviously is, but this is like them smothering it into people's faces...
...and they wonder why most of us don't give a fuck as much.
Life is not so easily defined nor answered by extremism, extremism whether you or someone else you know who does it as a means to inform and inspire people, extremism will never ever resolve anything except to encourage more apathy and ignorance even from those who will get very aggressive with their apathy, who can you blame after that?
Life in of itself is not always a happy one, you can't have happiness without sadness, but that is in no way of me saying I encourage, nor condone or support any terrible person to commit terrible things to anyone, this is shit should NEVER happen. I'm not an extremist, I can only abide by reason and emotions in balance even if that might disappoint my peers and make them feel all the more detached from me. I want to believe in the best in people, and when serious topics like "pedophilia" comes up no body even wants to talk about it not only because like "rape" it's too horrible to contemplate and discussing such topics dare I say "rationally" often brings about a flood of people who will only treat those rationalists discussing these things with nothing but scorn, extremist hate and down-right even offensive things to discard their opinions should it not go the extremist route like every other fuck-head extremist of America or anywhere wants to do.
I understand where the extremism comes from, I know everyone gets emotionally passionate when serious issues like these are often met with that hard truth that when something bad happens there's nothing we can do about it, we don't have the power to bend the laws of reality to our liking, as much as I am one of those people that wishes things like A Serbian Film showcased did not exist, and deep down part of me wants to see those who do terrible things to get the same back at them, but I can't and would never want that in reality because then it makes me no better than them.
Murder and Rape in general is wrong, I don't think I have to clarify that for anyone. I do not support things like the death penalty and while I agree for people to express their hatred towards a thing that deserves the hate I only hope poisoned blood is being spilled out and that at the end we should not dwell on the extremism inside but rather for once, in order to help those who were hurt to be a dear friend to them, and to care for them and in hopes we can all find our happiness that is taken from us.
No one can predict the actions of terrible people who deserve to be locked up and given humane treatment in hopes they do learn the error of their ways and repay their debt to society and those they have harmed if they have any sympathy left at all...and at the end of the day the biggest favor we could ever do to heal in terrible situations like these are the victims who were affected, those who often commit crimes like these were likely to have been abused themselves, but those abused do not always take that extra step to do horrible things.
We all have our dark fantasies and part of having fantasies for the safety of ourselves and the innocent lives around us is to obviously never commit those dark fantasies, that much I also don't think I have to clarify, but who doesn't need a healthy reminder?
At the end of the day, A Serbian Film really did make me feel broken and torn up, to the point where all life around me seemed more bleak and more depressing and awful, except for the dearest friends in my life, my dearest family, the horses, all animals, nature, my artistic creativity that all keep me sane and giving me reminders that my life is worth living even after watching something that wasn't even a horror movie, it was a hateful movie.
Topics expressed in A Serbian Film can never be so easily taken in or defined because of how horrible the subject matter, to which it succeeds in expressing how deeply corrupt the world can be should it go too far in this regard, I believe subtlety will get this kind of message across and be remembered, but for now it's a movie that is just pure exploitation for the sake of exploitation and nothing more.
If you are curious about watching this movie, don't do it. If you're someone like me who loves to have fun while also enjoying the darkness within life, don't fucking watch it.
If you watch this by yourself, you're a masochist.
If you watch this with your friends, you're a sadomasochist.
If you share this movie with anyone knowing how much it will fuck them up, you're an asshole.
I know it's all fake, even if it looks realistic as fuck, but this what shows how art in general can mean to a person, I'm not going to say A Serbian Film is an important film or anything, it's art but not one I particularly care for nor condone for its existence, it's a bad movie that isn't about anything, which I wouldn't mind, had the subject matter not been as cringe-worthily awful as it was.
You should watch Stanley Kubrick's Lolita instead or A Clockwork Orange or Atonement or anything for that matter.
I give this movie a disgusted 3/10
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Originally Posted by bravenewworld1
