Mudbrick

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.

This slowburn dark folk (not really a) horror tale plays out in a small, derelict village in a pleasant but rather impoverished part of southeastern Serbia, in southeastern Europe. Through nice photography we are witnessing this family drama basically, encompassed by tacked-on pagan/Slavic symbolism and mythology, even some kind of a ''pagan'' cult (which doesn't make too much sense since the Orthodox Christianity in Serbia is already inherently merged with the old Serb/Slavic faith through Saint-Savaism).

Anyway, the decrepit village and eponymous mudbrick house look authentic here, since this ancient type of house-building (with mud as a binder) - can still be seen - or are refurbished for modern rural living, - in different parts of the country. What isn't too realistic though, is the family's grip on this grandfathers run-down old house in the countryside, and to see the brother (Paul) coming down from london like he inherited a castle, makes for a bit dubious premise, and the movie doesn't really offer a secret reason why the house is so much important to them. The other brother (Jakov) is played averagely by Andrew Howard (from a nice little film Mr InBetween, and here he looks and speaks like Niko Belic for some reason, which is fine by me). The rest of the cast, whom I've only seen for the first time here, are equally average.

Film's early promising, but ultimately unfulfilled vague 70's folk horror-reminiscent/pagan aesthetic doesn't offer much, and it barely, let alone deeply, touches upon it and nothing seems really dangerous nor frightening, which is the biggest deficiency here. One wonders if the creators actually even wanted this to be marketed and even made, as a truly 'horror' film, or merely a tribute to the older homegrown folk stories.

It did look nice though, didn't drag too long and I certainly appreciated the effort.

5.8/10.

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.

If there was a possibility to rate it with 0 stars, that would be the only realistic rating.

This film should be a horror film, with elements of Serbian, pre-Christian, pagan, mythology. At least that's how it's defined and advertised. None of these definitions have anything to do with reality. Some evaluate it as an artistic folk horror, like Midsommar, and I can agree with that only in terms of complete illogicality, senselessness and bizarreness, which it completely shares with the aforementioned film.

By far the best grade the film can get is from the technical side. Better sound than most "Serbian" films, solid scenography and landscapes. And that's where the story about the positive ends completely. Of course, that's not nearly enough for one star.

The acting in the film is, to put it mildly, disastrous. This is, of course, the greatest "merit" of the director, who is also the creator of the nonsensical scenario. There is almost no meaningful and logical sentence in the film. The dialogues are artificial and illogical to such an extent that the viewer, surely several dozen times during the film, gets the desire to stop watching, because of the itch in the brain caused by the absurdities. The domicile language, supposedly spoken by the characters, should be Serbian. We can barely recognize a dozen words from Serbian in the film, and that's only because the actors actually speak Macedonian, and maybe even Bulgarian. Actors from the English-speaking area could not make an effort to learn the few or so words they say in Serbian so that it can be recognized that they are spoken in Serbian. As someone whose mother tongue is Serbian, I watched the movie with subtitles because I couldn't understand what was being said.

The part about pagan mythology is a special story. In Serbia, at least in the last 100 years, there is not a single place, even in the most rural possible parts of the country, which have practically no contact with civilization, and which are really few, where such cults exist or existed. Therefore, for me, as someone who knows and studies Serbian pre-Christian mythology, this is "close" alost the same as the mythology of the natives of South America, Papua New Guinea or Mozambique. Apart from the terms Nav and Veles, everything else is complete nonsense and the "artistic freedom" of the screenwriter/director.

The attempt to present the story as an arche narrative of struggle and envy between brothers also failed completely. Of course, at a time when the quality of movies is declining exponentially, there will be many who will "swallow" that attempt. However, it must be said that the realization of that aspect of the story is at the level of an amateur theater from some rural village, as shown in the film.

Of course, this film will find its audience. Lovers of the absurd, enthusiasts who don't care about logic. Those who care about "artistic expression", not content. Those who will say that the picture, which has two crossed lines, represents a dilemma, not the lack of talent and creativity of the author. And that's okay. The rest of you, save yourself some time and skip this.

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.