That bird monkey something laugh sound thing is one of the most annoying and iconic things ever.

I mean, its not Viy or Eyes of Fire level of campy and weirdness, but it's still weird enough. The makeup of the creature was pretty good. I'm uncertain if it was a stylistic decision or simply the equipment and quality at hand, but I appreciated the tiny scratches and thin black lines on the image, combined with the handheld camerawork; these elements give the film a genuine feel, akin to watching a documentary. The performances do their best to capture and deliver on a lot of the offbeat and surreal nature of the movie.
Unfortunately, while the premise is quite interesting and…

3.5 might be a tad generous for such an admittedly demanding watch but I was pretty damn charmed with this early 70's Yugoslavian made-for-TV folk-horror yarn.
A small farming village is terrorized by a strange werewolf-like creature, meanwhile a young man is trying to wed the beautiful daughter of the village grump and he will not give his blessing. Cue the peanut gallery of drunken farmers and let this strange transmission of supernatural horror ooze at its own strange gait.

Slow and tame, sure, but its flaws seem to be a part of the allure here as this moves with its own unique rhythm and vibe. Truly unlike anything I've seen before with a slightly goofy and simplistic storyline that's…

Leptirica is a made for Serbian TV movie, based on one of the more famous Slavic vampire stories. It's short and simple - we focus on a small rural community whose flour mill comes under attack from an apparent vengeful spirit. Đorđe Kadijević's film starts off with an attack and we get a glimpse of the monster - big fangs and covered in hair - before settling down to a quaint little story focusing on superstition and young love. The film is very basic - mainly set outside in the fields, featuring naturalistic sounds and sticking to the basic elements of the plot. There's some good comedy from a bumbling bunch of local villagers. Mirjana Nikolić is the standout of…

"Look at her. Like a butterfly!”

Flour and blood-stained folk-horror from Serbia. Sorta? It’s also a hilarious hang-out film with a gang of dudes (a priest, a man whose pants keep falling down, a drunk, a leader, etc) just trying to help their bro get married while also ridding the village of a nasty vampire.

Boy is in love with the suicidal (kinda goth) farmer’s daughter, but her dad won’t consent to the marriage because the boy is poor. So he sends him to work in the vampire infested mill. Boy survives the night but realizes there is a vampire at large, so him and his buddies search for a buried body near a crooked ravine to stake through the…

What’s believed to be the first horror film to hail from Serbia (when it was still part of Yugoslavia) was actually made for television and was first broadcast on Radiotelevizija Beograd on 15 April 1973. Based on the short story story Posle devedeset godina/After Ninety Years by Milovan Glišić, the translation of Leptirica (often given as She-Butterfly but perhaps Female Butterfly is more appropriate and accurate) rather gave away the identity of the villain of the piece. Glišić‘s story was first published in 1880, seventeen years before Stoker’s Dracula popularised the vampire in the English-speaking world.

In a small rural village in the 19th Century, a flour miller is murdered by a hideous creature that comes down from the woods,…

I obtained a bootleg copy of this film (under the title "Leptirica") several years back from Shocking Videos or Trash Palace or one of those other outfits that made a business from finding copies of weird, obscure titles and making copies to share with other hungry fans of such fare. I watched the first few minutes of it, and put off the rest. The quality of the copy was just too rough. So I put the film on my October list this year to push me into finally sitting through it - I made a sortof commitment now, after all.

I dearly hope that there is a surviving copy of this film in better shape than what I have. I…

“i was herding sheep above the water mill. gazing into the river. and i wanted to dive into it. to drown in it…” 

Leptirica (The She-Butterfly) is a cozy and warm short story in an otherwise chilly and bitter sub-genre. this wasn’t as sp00ky or memorable as i was expecting, which is a shame, but it also certainly wasn’t a waste of my time and i can’t honestly say i’ve ever seen a vampire film “like” this one. take that as you will…

Leptirica is a unique and bittersweet vampire tale, based in Serbia, respectfully so as far as i can tell. the narrative is straightforward. it involves a vampire entity stalking a small village, particularly the wheat mill/mill workers,…