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.

"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

Yes, it was an extremely well made movie considering the age of Filipovic, the lack of funds and resources in Serbia. But 7.9/10 for the current average vote!?! Voting for IMDb is not to be taken from the standpoint of someone following the state of current Serbian cinema. Give it a more realistic mark compared to ALL the movies available. It really deserves about the 3/10 I gave it - I would've given it a 2/10, but not for the fact that I need to respect the fact that it was made with great difficulty. The movie did display some excellent hope for the future of Serbian movie-making (and Filipovic's next projects), but it doesn't help that the nationalists won elections the other day... Can't wait for the next round of anti-Western propaganda!... What a waste of a good country - when will they finally wake up and smell the roses?...

I've just come back from cinema, and I must say I'm delighted. I had been told this movie was remarkable, but I didn't except so much. It's great, really you should definitely see it. Not something revolutionary that will change the history of film, but surely a great step for Serbian cinema. I'm proud of this project. There are nice interesting bits from Serbian history, and I have to mention that scenes in school were filmed in MY SCHOOL. :D

As I already said, the film is a lot of fun, has a nice creepy atmosphere, it laughs at some parts of our society. Tension increases as the time passes, everything is done as I would do it myself.

I will probably watch it one more time, it's worth it, and I'm sure no less fun than the 1st time.

That's all. Enjoy watching Sheitan's Warrior!

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.