One controversial horror film disturbed viewers so much that the director of a film festival was arrested just for showing it. In 2010, A Serbian Film caused such a stir in the spooky community that it was yanked from various events and censored to within an inch of its life.
The horrifying film was regarded as “going too far”, featuring some truly despicable scenes including paedophilia and sex with corpses. The movie follows an ageing porn star who agrees to be part of an ‘art film’ to move away from the X-rated industry – but realises she’s now involved in making a snuff film.
Directed by Srđan Spasojević, the film attempted to premieree in the UK at Film Four FrightFest, but Westminster Council insisted it be classified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) first.
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The board said the film needed a total of 49 cuts before it could be shown – and instead, it was yanked from the roster of the festival entirely. Things got even worse later, when it headed for an adults-only screening at Sitges Film Festival in Spain, October of that year.
(Image: Unearthed Films)
It led to festival director Angel Sala being arrested, as the movie was banned in Spain for “threatening sexual freedom”. He was charged with exhibiting child pornography in May 2011, when complaints rolled in from a Catholic organisation.
Sala could have faced a prison sentence of up to three months, as well as a fine for “producing, selling, distributing, exhibiting or facilitating by any means pornographic material regardless of whether they directly involve minors”.
Sala refused to attend a hearing at a court in Barcelona, insisting he’d never even seen the film and knew nothing about its content. The charges were dropped in February 2012.
(Image: Unearthed Films)
Film director Spasojević said it was “very funny” that anyone could view films as “the devil’s work”. He told IndieWire: “On the one side, it’s very funny that someone can still find movies and editing so mysterious, like some kind of devil’s work.
“Of course, on the other hand, it’s very sad. It proves my film was right. One of the things the film’s saying is that we’re not living in the free world. The way the film was made also represents our resistance to political correctness, to fascism.”
(Image: Unearthed Films)
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Horror fans to this day are still watching the graphic gore fest and taking to X to share their opinions on what they witnessed. One wrote: “I need a lobotomy to forget that I saw A Serbian Film.”
While somebody else said: “Stop bragging about being able to sit through A Serbian Film, go to therapy and get a personality!” A third echoed: “It’s easily the most disturbing movie ever created.”
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