I have never had such a hard time on knowing how to sum up a film. I just cannot really say what is appropriate. To my shock, I actually watched the edited version. Let's start off in order shall we...
In the film's first half one can clearly see that this is a well-made film. It has good cinematography, great music, some actually good acting. It isn't one of those soft and completely mediocre horror films (as in The Roommate or The Stepfather). So by the first half I was actually really invested in the film. It has a very intriguing plot that did bring up good questions. Then the baby rape happened. This is definitely the most disturbing scene in the film and the most shocking I have ever seen. Heck, I watched the edited version which means we don't ACTUALLY see it. But you know what I usually want to see films uncut... but I honestly can't imagine how that scene could affect me more. Which means the film did its job. It actually disturbed me, and that RARELY happens. In fact, I can't remember any film that truly shocked me the way this film did. So yeah, it was effective. Maybe because it was the first truly explicit scene.
The film's actual problems came after that. The editing began to resemble that of a Saw film and because explicit scenes began to occur more and more they made less of an impact. The ending, although still pretty sick and disturbing, didn't have half the effect the first really explicit scenes had (the baby rape and the first torture rape of the protagonist).
Overall, I do want to say that the film did too much in its 2nd half and because of that wasn't as disturbing as it was before, and there was really not that great of a narrative in the 2nd half. But I do think this film shows the amount of content people will be willing to watch and the extreme measures cinema can go to. Yet I can't say I can recommend it to be honest, or even say that it's a GOOD film. But that wasn't the point. It WAS a hard-hitting film many times and is definitely effective. But I do think there's a difference in this and what many people say is so sick The human Centipede. This definitely shows that The human Centipede is nowhere near as shocking as this. While this film may have more going for it in its content than that, The Human Centipede remains a better film, if not only because it resembles an actual film and is something that CAN be watched as a regular film, and also because I found it better executed at the end of the day in its narrative. A Serbian Film may not work even as the sickest entertainment there is simply because it really IS too disturbing, BUT it is definitely an act that brings up debate and for that it was effective. Granted, I probably won't ever see it again or even recommend it.
