I mean I’d survived the pregnancy scene and the numerous hideous scenes with children, but then the one-eyed guy? Come on! Talk about taking things too far.

Once upon a time I was nearly fired from a job I had when I started laughing as my boss was shouting at me – laughing at inappropriate times is something of a speciality of mine – and by the end of A Serbian Film some of the scenes were just so excessive and so repugnant that laughing was about all I could do. Martyrs however, has much more emotional involvement – it’s a film about empathy and philosophy and if you are appreciative of that rather than just someone watching for the shocks and the gore then Martyrs is a far, far more potent film. I suppose I should point out that A Serbian Film is not really trying to be a film like Martyrs – there are a lot of comparisons floating around but essentially: A Serbian Film is far more graphic and has more disgusting and shocking imagery. Sure, I feel a bit queasy but I also ate quite a lot of Easter chocolate so it could be that. I finished watching it about 20 minutes ago and I am not shaking in a corner or staring wide-eyed into space. How can anyone resist that sort of marketing hype?įirst things first – A Serbian Film is no Martyrs. A film where the lab that developed the prints burned them when they saw what they had printed and which is completely banned in Australia.

It’s the most cut film in the UK in 16 years, with over 4 minutes of cuts, and which was actually seized by police at a Blockbuster store (they still exist?). Now I am much more cautious about this sort of warning though not so cautious I could resist watching A Serbian Film, a film that is apparently more traumatising than Martyrs according to some. But that was before I watched Martyrs and couldn’t sleep for a month. Once upon a time I was blasé about this sort of warning, I thought I was immune to gore and violence and that there wasn’t really anything that could shock me to such an extent that it would haunt me once the movie had finished. You just think you do.’ – And that’s a dedicated horror website. As Bloody Disgusting put it: ‘You don’t want to see A Serbian Film. I’ve been putting off watching A Serbian Film for a while now because it is often described as a film so horrific that it goes beyond being an effective horror/torture film and becomes a traumatic experience.

A serbian film 2011