>>316232 (OP)
I thought Serbian Film was fine, felt to me like they had the ending in mind and then they worked backwards from their to come up with the plot, and added the baby and killing the prostitute to flesh it out.
>I appreciate that it exists for no other reason to offend peoples' fragile sensibilities.
I don't think that's true, I think they legitimately tried to make a good movie and the shocking parts were part of the effect. But there are characters, a plot, serviceable acting, etc.
>It's not like regular horror that's meant to be safe edgy (like Human Centipede, Martyrs or Hostel),
Lumping those 3 together in that generalization doesn't make sense to me.
>Human Centipede
It's kind of terrifying in a different way. Not because of the depravity (you're not really asked to question the motives of the creator) or the explicitness of it (maybe the viscerally grossest part is the pus coming out of the infected cheek). But it really leans into the psychological elements of being stuck in that situation.
>Hostel
I think it's a worthy film in the relatively niche line of 'elites need to do something depraved in order to feel alive' movies. After Salo and American Psycho but before Serbian Film.
>Martyrs
Self harm is it's own kind terrifying that's more triggering for people who have been around it I think. But regardless I honestly think it's one of the best horror movies ever made, certainly among those that take themselves seriously. The pivot when the main character gets captured was a total shift but it was very well executed and the ending was fantastic IMO.
But anyways my point is I think each of those movies set out to do something different and were all fine in their own right. I don't think the goal of any of those movies was just to make the edgiest, darkest movie and they failed to do it as well as Serbian Film.
I think of horror movies as having 3 main dimensions:
>How seriously does it take itself? On one side you have deliberately campy movies on the other more sincere ones.
>How 'bad' is it? As in how much does it try to horrify the audience and really make someone shocked/scared.
>How cerebral is it (cerebral sounds pretentious but idk how else to say it)? On one end you have movies that are more psychological and on the other more visceral.
On the side of the cube that takes itself seriously, and tries very hard to make someone shocked/scared you have the edge with the third axis. I think you Hereditary on the psychological corner, Martyrs kind of in the middle maybe more towards psychological, Serbian Film kind of in the middle more towards visceral, and stuff like Guinea Pig, August Underground, and Necromantic being in the extreme visceral corner.
All fine movies that set out what they try to do imo. I find the super visceral horror movies kind of just get boring after a while. Like it's tough to watch and sometimes the effects are cool but not very engaging but that's subjective.