How ‘A Serbian Film’ Became One of the Most Banned Horror Movies Ever

Editor’s Note: The following mentions the topics of sexual violence and sexual violence against children.

If you’re reading this, you likely consider yourself a hardcore horror fan. Scenes of gore, torture, and brutal kills probably don’t bother you. I’m sure you don’t have an issue with jump scares and your stomach is likely iron-clad and can handle any blood or guts that might appear on screen. As true as all of that might be, there is still a horror film out there that is so inhumane and disturbing that even the toughest can’t handle watching until the end. The one horror movie that likely comes to the top of everyone’s mind is A Serbian Film. If you have seen it, yikes. If you haven’t, you might be better served to keep it that way.

A Serbian Film was directed by Srdjan Spasojevic in 2010 as a way to project his feelings about political correctness under a rotten facade,he told IndieWire. The premise of the movie is about an aging porn star, Milos (Srdjan Todorovic), who agrees to participate in an art film directed by a small-time pornographer named Vukmir (Sergej Trifunović) because he is struggling to make ends meet for his family. Participating in it would set him up with money for life and, of course, no one ever uses common sense when there’s money involved! Too good to be true… in this economy? No way! This project would allow him to break free from the porn industry entirely, so he eagerly takes the role. Unfortunately for him, the art film in question is a little too underground, surpassing an X-rating and taking it straight to hell.

The snuff film featured acts of necrophilia and pedophilia and the worst part is that Milos signs a Faustian pact that doesn’t allow him to decline to participate in particular scenes. Vukmir, a former psychologist who worked in children’s television and state security, uses his knowledge to abuse, intimidate, and force Milos to continue as the scenes become more and more extreme. Milos’ desperate attempt to provide eventually ruins his family and his entire life in what is perhaps the movie’s most vile scene, in which Milos and a masked man — later revealed to be Milos’ sadistic and corrupt brother Marko (Slobodan Beštić) — sexually assault two people covered by a sheet. It is revealed that Marko was assaulting Milos’ wife, and Milos was assaulting his own six-year-old son. There’s not enough therapy in the world to recover Milos from what he goes through in this movie, and perhaps that’s why it ends with Milos taking not only his own life, but the lives of his wife, Marija (Jelena Gavrilović), and son, Petar. It all ends with the three of them on the bed as a film crew comes in and instructs a man with them to “start with the little one.” Are you sick yet? Well, you aren’t alone.

As mentioned previously, the director said he was using this film as an allegory for how he feels about the state of Serbia and politics as a whole. In the same IndieWire interview, Spasojevic explains further. Overall, he feels like where he lives, the television stars are politicians and everyone is motivated by money, power, and fame. He continues to say he made the film from his gut with recessed feelings he had regarding the Serbia wars and political climate. It sounds like he had the most massive stomach ache in the history of all time if his gut is what created A Serbian Film. Though, we can absolutely see what he means throughout the film.

Serbia saw multiple economic depressions throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, with one of the hardest coming in 2008, a year before production began on the film, and was still feeling the effects of the Yugoslav Wars of 1991-2001. Milos is meant to be a representation of the effects of war on people, particularly financially, and how it often forces people to do the unthinkable to survive. Vukmir is not only a symbol of the sad state of film, but also of the corruption of those who should resist corruption the most, as he worked as state security and in children’s programming, but now spends his days drugging, beating, and sexually assaulting people for entertainment and somehow calls it “art.”

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In a 2018 interview with Morbidly Beautiful, Spasojevic reflected and even went as far as to say that the film is too “soft” now. Spasojevic also states that he feels he is speaking a movie language that Americans can understand as well. However, the response to his film doesn’t reflect that anyone speaks that language. There are many ways to produce an allegory for a country’s politics, and honestly, A Serbian Film is not a typical representation of that. Maybe that was the point. Splatter and exploitation films didn’t become popular in America until the early 2000s, so this film released in 2010 would make sense to try and slip in under the radar and join the subgenre, but even Americans have their boundaries. We want gratuitous violence and gore, but not any that involves such explicit content.

A Serbian Film, though, has had the luck of being touted as a movie so disturbing that it will make you sick and has been featured on iceberg charts far and wide that have been covered by a couple of notable YouTubers. It’s almost become a weird badge of honor for horror fans who have seen it, though it’s not often that the political ideas of the film are discussed. It’s just the nastiness of it. And if it’s nastiness you want, it’s hard to get worse than this. Unless you want to venture a little further outside the box, that is. Salo, 120 Days of Sodom, and the August Underground trilogy will give you a run for your money. The BBFC didn’t even give August Underground a classification!

‘A Serbian Film’ Just Barely Made the Cut To Be Rated NC-17

The first time A Serbian Film was seen was in March 2010 in the US at the South by Southwest festival. The film left audiences shocked, disgusted, and appalled. However, there are some people who find the movie to be brilliant. Tim League, co-founder of Fantastic Fest, is someone who feels that way. He said that just as long as you’re not showing it to your mother or wife (because, you know, women can’t handle this stuff!!), it’s a wonderful film for those diving deep into the genre that tackles the “dark and disturbing” very well. “Dark and disturbing” is the understatement of a century in regard to this film. Before being released, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) reviewed the film and exercised its right to make cuts to the film before approving it. The BBFC required 49 cuts, which totaled up to three minutes and 48 seconds being removed from the film to even receive an NC-17 rating. Though, it doesn’t beat the record of Cannibal Holocaust, which originally required 5 minutes and 44 seconds of cuts to receive an 18 rating in 2001.

The BBFC was required to come in and review the film because it was about to be featured at the London Fright Fest. Typically, Fright Fest isn’t required to have any of their films screened before playing them, but with all the rumors surfacing about the graphic nature of A Serbian Film, the Westminster Council felt it necessary. Many of the scenes that were removed were due to sexualized violence, specifically against children. Numerous cuts seemed daunting for distributors but could be done. Nevertheless, Fright Fest decided against playing the film entirely if they had to play a censored version. The event’s co-director, Ian Jones, felt the film should be shown in its entirety as the director intended it. According to the BBFC, they received complaints from both sides. Some complained that the movie shouldn’t have passed regardless of the cuts, and some complaints strangely were angry that there were any cuts made at all. What was left in the film begs the question of how grotesque the parts they cut could have been.

There’s a certain irony in the film being censored, though, given the political commentary of it. After all, the aforementioned Salò was given an 18 rating by the BBFC despite also depicting torture and sexual violence towards children and featuring a number of scenes that many would find depraved. However, Salò was ultimately given an 18 rating with no cuts because the film board looked at the political, social, and historical context of the film and decided it needed to be shown in its intended form to preserve the themes of power and corruption. However, the same organization made pretty hefty cuts to A Serbian Film, though they tried to only make the necessary cuts that would preserve the themes and ideas of the scene and the film as a whole. It can be argued that in this case, Salo‘s depictions of sexual violence and A Serbian Film‘s depiction of it are different, with Salò being rather detached and unsexualized while A Serbian Film is about pornography and thus inherently sexualized, but this brings up an issue about where the lines are drawn. What is “valid” political commentary? How far is too far to make a point?

A Film Festival Director Almost Faced Jail Time for ‘A Serbian Film’

A Serbian Film is one of the most banned horror films of all time, and it has been labeled a monstrosity by many movie critics. According to Fangoria, the film has been banned in 46 countries entirely, including Spain, Australia, and Malaysia. The BBC’s film critic, Mark Kermode, labeled it as a “nasty piece of exploitation trash” on BBC Radio Live 5. There seems to be no gray area with how people feel about this film. They either appreciate the “art” of the film and what it is meant to represent, or they feel very similar to Kermode. When A Serbian Film was shown at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain, things got pretty intense. The director of the international film festival, Angel Sala, almost faced prison time for showing A Serbian Film at his festival. In October 2010, at the adult-only fantasy and horror festival, the film was shown and Sala was almost immediately charged with exhibiting child pornography. According to the New York Times, Spasojevic couldn’t be charged because of logistical issues, so prosecutors came for Sala instead. The charges were eventually dropped, but at one point, Sala could’ve faced up to a year in prison as well as a fine for the showing.

While some will argue that the censorship of A Serbian Film goes against creative rights and free speech, the nature of the film makes it extremely challenging to be okay with it for the sake of creativity. It is a disturbing and vile film that even the most hardcore horror fans struggle to sit through until the end. Because of its notoriety, it has almost reached a cult-like status and has become an urban legend for testing your mental and probably even your digestive fortitude. There’s even an uncut and uncensored version that you can watch as if the edited version wasn’t bad enough. Surprisingly, you can stream A Serbian Film, but just because you can, should you?

A Serbian Film is available to stream on Vudu in the U.S.

Watch on Vudu