Movies
UK Trailer for Controversial ‘A Serbian Film’, Neutered
Revolver Entertainment is the first with the gusto and balls (or maybe not as I was just informed that ALL of their cuts are neutered) to release Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial A Serbian Film (review) as they’ll be bringing the shocker to UK cinemas on December 10, with a January 3 Blu-ray/DVD date also locked in. If you haven’t been keeping tabs, the official UK trailer posted inside can fill you in — and don’t forget, some things you witness can never be unseen. Are you one of the desensitized horror fans desperately looking for shocking? Look no further.
One of the most talked about films of the year, A Serbian Film comes to the UK riding an international wave of notoriety that has seen it overtly praised by some, the Montreal Gazette called it “A tortured film from a tortured collective psyche… a near-perfect portrait of torment.” – 4 Stars, and yet utterly condemned by others.
Scripted by Serbian horror film critic Aleksandar Radivojevic (screenwriter of the award winning ‘Tears For Sale’), the debut feature from director Srdjan Spasojevic is an allegorical, taboo shattering film that “follows French cinema pioneers Gaspar Noe (Irreversible) and Virginie Despentes (Baise-moi) in destroying the status quo regarding on-screen violence and sexuality” (Tim Anderson, BloodyDisgusting.com). A twisted tale of an adult film star’s horrifying descent into an almost unimaginable hell, Radivojevic himself describes the film as “a diary of our molestation by the Serbian government… It’s about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotize you to do things you don’t want to do.”
Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is a retired porn star leading a normal family life with his wife Maria (Jelena Gavrilovic) and six-year old son Petar in tumultuous Serbia, trying to make ends meet.
Aware of his problems, Layla (Katarina Zutic), a former co-star, introduces Milos to Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), a mysterious, menacing and politically powerful figure in the porn business who wants Milos to star in his latest project and is willing to pay him a fee that will provide financial support to Milos and his family for the rest of their lives. The only condition is that Milos signs a contract insisting on his absolute unawareness of the scripted scenes they are about to shoot.
Encouraged by his wife to accept the job, Milos turns up for the first day of shooting and is immediately drawn into a maelstrom of unbelievable cruelty and mayhem devised by his employer, the ‘director’ of his destiny.
It soon becomes apparent that Vukmir and his crew will stop at nothing to complete his insane vision. The only way for Milos to escape the living cinematic hell he’s entered and to save his family life is to sacrifice everything to Vukmir’s art – his pride, his morality, his sanity, and maybe even his own life.
Confrontational, shocking, uncompromising, with hints of dark humour and absolutely unforgettable, A Serbian Film is “a well crafted, immensely indecent smut-slasher” (Variety) featuring a “remarkable performance by [Srdjan] Todorovic” (Fangoria) and is an affecting and thought provoking work of cinema that ranks alongside the likes of “Requiem For A Dream”, “Videodrome”, “Irreversible” and “Antichrist” as one of the most provocative films of its time.
A Serbian Film (cert 18) will open at UK cinemas on 10th December 2010.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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