Review of A Serbian Film (2010) by Phillipé S — 22 Aug 2012

What allows A Serbian Film to be successful (if a 39% critic rating and 46% user rating can be considered a "success") is that upon stripping away a handful of controversial scenes, you're left with a compelling story that requires just about as much gestational fortitude as a Saw movie. Heck, unlike Saw, A Serbian Film isn't violence porn from purely a gore standpoint, but from a sexual standpoint as well.

Like Saw there is a Jigsaw-type character overseeing the rounds Milos has to go through--unlike Saw this character (Vukmir) spouts off about his theories of art in porn, which (thankfully) makes him the exact opposite of a sympathetic character.

The ending is really quite poetic and I'm sure those images will stay with me for a long time. Not the gore or the blurring of lines between kids and pornography (though the message is quite clear), but the way, even in escape, there may still be another body that should be claimed.

The combination of sex and violence, with a frightening kiddy twist, make this a hard film to recommend. And I'm not sure I could ever see it a second time. But the punch it delivers cannot be denied.