filip_gajic

I have to say this movie is not for those who want some dumb fun. It's a very serious tale of envy, despair, superstition, and ruin; that takes itself seriously.

The acting is superb, and plenty is said with dialogue that is trimmed down of anything unnecessary and it lacks exposition dumps, thankfully.

For the budget this movie had, I was shocked at how good it looked. The scenography will surely make you forget you're watching a non-Hollywood budget movie and the music is noticeable yet subtle to not take away from the experience but add to it.

The acting is simply amazing so that some actors who only have a line or not even a line, say more with that than some actors say with a book-worth of lines. One of the main actors, Andrew Howard, looks so much like a Serbian man that it comes out as a shock he's actually Welsh. The other main actor, Philip Brodie, wonderfully portrays the "prodigal son returns" role, and the rest of the cast well... if you've ever been to a Balkan village, you'd sworn you've seen these people there by how good they portray their roles.

Lastly, the story itself. The writer borrows enough from Slavic folklore and real life to intrigue you but leaves enough as a mystery for you to understand and unravel as you go along. There are "plot twists" but not in the typical sense you might be used to, rather it clicks in your mind as you watch ''til the end.

The only flaw of this movie, if I can even call it a flaw, would be that it's marketed as a typical horror movie. No, it's not a horror in the sense of jumpscares, CGI monsters and gore, it's a horror in a more personal sense, and I would rather call this movie a family horror-drama.

This movie is the first of its kind of these kinds of movies in Serbia. It has a great pace; the background lore is given in moderation; the characters are believable and you easily love the and cheer for the heroes, and hate and boo the villains, without anyone coming off as comical; character motivations are there, and every reaction makes sense from an internal logic standpoint.

The movie tells a classic hero's journey tale: a farm guy leaves his home behind to embark on a quest to save the ones he love, gets the girl, fights the bad guy minions to have an epic showdown with the main bad guy at the end, and returning to the starting places, having changed in the process.

The movie blends Serbian culture, style, and folklore elements with modern and more "Western" style, resulting in a very unique blend. It might be wrongully called "Serbian Mad Max" or "Serbian Fallout", but the comparison is only superficial: a post-apocalyptic setting. This is where the similarities end. It's a thing of its own, with its own identity, and a possibility of a wider story with future installments.

If this is the first of these kinds of modern epics to come, then it is a bright future for sure!