EPISODE ONE: YOU GOT SERBED
A SERBIAN FILM (2010)
Ok, I’ll admit, I’m a jaded and cynical lover of all things Exploitation. Still, I expected A Serbian Film to be more of the bold political statement it was marketed as, and less of a pornographer’s lament on how disturbingly extreme porn has gotten.
Our hero is a retired porno stud who has settled into a stable family life with his wife (who subtitles porn for a living) and his son (who has just found out about his dad’s past). Money is tight, so he takes a job with a filmmaker who endlessly laments on the current state of porn in today’s world. (The adjectives boring, pointless, and crap, are thrown around with some authority, and I loved this statement from the bottom of my jaded heart). It turns out our Director is making extreme films for those who have become desensitized to modern erotica thanks to the Internet. (Considering some of the dreck I’ve seen online in the past few years, I can’t say I’m opposed).
This is where all the blood and gore comes in as the filmmakers gleefully try to top themselves with each new scene. My favorite part is the bit where our hero refuses to continue with a serious S&M scene, but the girl he’s making it with bites him on the willie because he stops. I took that as an awesome statement on culpability: no matter how scared these girls look in their bondage scenes, make no mistake, they’re not being victimized or demoralized; they’re into it, either for the cash or the kicks.
There’s a notorious rape scene involving an infant, but it seems to be there for shock value and little else. Yes, it shows how hardcore these filmmakers are, but it plays out like a scene from one of Rob Black’s “extreme” low budget pornos. You can tell it’s faked (thankfully), but that only makes it feel more pointless. The last 20 minutes are so over-the-top that they venture into the realm of stupidity. After our hero blacks out for 3 days, he wakes up raping his son while his wife is being raped by his brother (who had previously been shown to have a sexual obsession with her).
The end shot has been commented upon endlessly, but to me it only seems to exist because the rape on the boy wasn’t finished and The Director needed insert shots. That may sound horrible, but it’s probably the truth. A Serbian Film is a good little sleaze picture, but not one to watch more than a few times. I’m not going to condemn it to Hell like many have, but I’m not going to praise it either. In the end, it’s just another extreme Exploitation movie with a few valid points to make about the porn industry.
Until next time, keep it sleazy! – Steven
