Mudbrick

If you want HORROR, you won't get it here. This is an unwatchably drawn-out, all-talk no-bite family drama in which annoying characters wallow in endless scenes of rural misery, quarrels, torment, suffering, and misfortune.

If you want FOLK horror - you won't get that here either, at least not in a satisfactory form. The story is absurd: in a village in Eastern Serbia, the villagers worship ancient god Veles by praying to a wooden totem on a field, but also to a random tree outside the village, they keep wooden carvings with something they call Veles in their mudhouses, and they constantly repeat Glory to Veles!

If you want SERBIAN horror - you won't get that here either. The film is 95% in English, and 5% in MACEDONIAN, which is not spoken in the part of Serbia where this was shot.

Everything here is offensively fake, forced and unconvincing, starting from the very premise: namely, the father of a man who lived in London dies, and leaves him - a wretched mud hut in a dying Easter European village. And this guy comes from London to Serbia, to that wretched village, and decides to inherit that cottage, to live in it, even though his brother Jakov had always lived there with his wife and daughter!

The film is supposedly inspired by a true event - the only problem is that it happened after World War II, 80 years ago! In a time of post-war misery in some remote village, it made sense for two brothers to have a fierce and tragic quarrel over the inheritance of their father's mud house. Why would a Londoner in the 21st century fight with his own brother in some shithole in the mountains about some mudbrick house - the film doesn't even hint at that. It's taken for granted!

Various things are thrown in this muddled plot, but the execution is unskillful and confusing, so that they produce frustration and alienation, rather than mystery and involvement of the viewer. Instead of horror, we have an unconvincing, rambling and repetitive drama without any receptive elements. Instead of drama we have motivational and character confusion where people do unmotivated and STUPID things all the time, with no consequences.

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 film is so cryptic that it doesn't even tell you what country it's taking place in. It doesn't tell you anything, really. There's also a lot of whispering and mumbling so you won't understand what little is being said either. Something about pagan worship amidst traditionally Christian people, which makes as little sense as the conflict regarding ownership over a worthless house. There are no scares in this film, there is no suspense to speak of, and there is no payoff for enduring the minimalist and confusing plot. The characters are poorly developed and annoying, making any emotional involvement impossible. Random surreal waste of time.

I do believe that "Mudbrick" might very well be the very first Serbian movie that I have watched.

When I stumbled upon the 2023 movie "Mudbrick" here in 2025 and seeing that it was a horror movie, then of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance, as I enjoy all things horror. Sure, I had never heard bout the movie prior to watching it, so I had no expectations. And in a sense, I suppose, writer and director Nikola Petrovic had every chance to entertain and impress me.

However, I have to say that I found the narrative and the script to be really boring, and I ended up tossing the towel in the ring and giving up on "Mudbrick" 56 minutes into the 87 minutes runtime. I was just simply bored senseless at that point. The script that writer and director Nikola Petrovic put together here utterly and completely failed to entertain me, much less capture my interest.

The only familiar face on the screen, for me at least, was actor Andrew Howard.

As for "Mudbrick" being a horror movie, well, don't get your hopes up. This was, at best, a slow paced dark drama.

If you enjoy horror movies, as I do, I would not recommend you to waste 87 minutes on watching this movie.

My rating of writer and director Nikola Petrovic's 2023 movie "Mudbrick" lands on a generous one out of ten stars.

Mudbrick is a 2024 indie horror film, directed by Nikola Petrovic, about Paul, a man who inherits a crumbling old house in his family's Eastern European village. When he returns to check it out, he starts to uncover disturbing secrets tied to an ancient pagan cult and his own family history. As things unravel, Paul has to face the eerie past lurking in the walls of the house and his own family.

What a trip this movie was! I checked it out after seeing it recommended by Hyped on Horror, and I'm so glad I did. I also took their advice and looked up some of the history and lore beforehand, which I highly recommend-it makes the story way easier to follow. The cinematography really stood out for me. It's super simple and natural but somehow adds so much to the overall vibe as the movie goes on. Philip Brodie and Andrew Howard absolutely killed it, and their screen chemistry was on point. It's definitely a slow burn, but not in a painful way-it keeps you hooked all the way through and wraps up with a really satisfying ending.