Sejtanov ratnik

Sheitan's Warrior is a total mess, and whole hype and praise it receive is a little bit annoying. The movie is lame mix of futile teen comedy and horror. That's truly awful enough for a start, but the director goes even further with lameness as throwing in various right-wing/patriotic lines in such already disastrous mix. There's lots of urban "humor" combined with suggestive nationalist pseudo-mythology and there's so many desperate tries with even more fails at giving this garbage some kind of social commentary value. There's some people who praise it for it's camp value, but guess what? There's no fun, the movie just plods from fail to fail. The acting is so forgettable and unconvincing, as there's not even a single scene with deep or even real emotions or expressiveness, so the characters are defined just visually. Cool camera and professional mainstream production can't save this movie, as it's totally dire and pointless in itself.

The movie is very funny. If you are an advanced war crime humor enjoyer you will like this film a lot. The cuts between scenes with completely different atmospheres can be so funny, plus adding the plot sometimes just doesn't make sense. If you know a bit of Serbian history (nisi stranac niko vam Srbije ovo ne gleda) you will find it very funny when the Knez of Serbia Karadjordje fights a Turkish demon sheitan that the film is based on. The acting is top-notch and you sometimes forget you are watching a movie. Best enjoyed with a drink or two. You will tear your stomach muscles by just laughing.

"Sheitan Warrior" is Serbian homage to teenage slasher-horror-comedy movies from the eighties and, if you are at least a bit familiar with this genre, there's no need for me to describe you the story itself. The movie combines elements typical of high school comedies from the '80s and '90s with a slasher-horror story in the style of Freddy Krueger or Jason, but does it in the Serbian way. Here you will find a comedy based on a social critique of the society, characters who are representatives of various classes and groups that the local audience will easily recognize, especially if they grew up in the nineties, but also interesting pseudo-historical/mythological elements that we have not met before in domestic cinema. In terms of effects and production, "Warrior" is lagging behind the world, but it is also quite ahead of what we are accustomed in the domestic film and its flaws are quite covered by good directing and acting. The cast is mostly amateur, but in minor roles there are also many great names of domestic cinema and theater, such as Petar Bozovic, Svetlana Bojkovic, Marko Nikolic (for the third time in his career in the role of Karadjordje), Branislav Lecic, Dragan Nikolic, Irfan Mensur, Teofil Pancic, Eva Ras, as well as Bora Djordjevic. The amateur part of the cast is occasionally over-the-top, with several shame-transfers, but it is possible that it is deliberate. Most of the kids very convincingly play typical representatives of various teenage groups, and Vladimir Tesovic is simply hilarious in the role of nerd who is constantly bullied, which drives him to utter madness and makes him turn to the forces of evil.

Objectively, in terms of world cinema, this is not a particularly good movie, and probably does not deserve the rating I gave it, but considering that, for this climate, the film is quite genuine and brings a breeze of freshness to the stale Serbian scene, as well as the fact that it is made by inexperienced students with a budget ridiculous for such a project, as well as invested effort worth every respect, from this point of view rating seven is an insultingly low.

7/10

Got it recently on DVD and couldn't wait to watch it. But after 15 minutes of watching it I was so disappointed and bored! Maybe I expected too much by watching a trailer (big mistake). I think this movie is boring and bad. All good about it is that it has special audio/visual effects unseen in Serbian cinematography, and that it's a work of a young enthusiasts. OK, so they got some fancy equipment and they know how to use a Mac G5, but that's not most important thing, because everything else, the acting (except the acting of older Serbian actors), the plot, etc. is bad. The main actors are young and unexperienced (mostly still on academy). A mixture of urban Belgrade life and fairytale with monsters just doesn't work! It just proved my statement that newest Serbian cinematography is definitely not worth watching.

Although it was advertised as a horror, this movie is actually a very decent comedy. People who dislike it, usually don't understand the idea behind it. I'd say it's one of those movies with the spirit (like Minje!).

If taken seriously, the story is (although watchable) nothing special or unseen before. I enjoyed watching the stereotypical "Serbian Bad Guy" comments on supernatural and terrifying situations. It is also notable that this movie is done mostly by young talents from the academy and that it features the best visual effect in Serbian cinematography yet. Way to go people!

All in all, I enjoyed the movie, and I consider it one of my favorites. I would recommend it to everyone.