Karmadonna (2025) Review

Heavily pregnant Yelena (Jelena Djokic) is having a relaxing time sitting on a park bench and enjoying the sunshine when she receives a call on her mobile phone from an unknown number. Whoever’s on the other end claims to be a God so the naturally sceptical Yelena tries to end the conversation with such a timewaster as soon as possible. However, before she can do so, she’s treated to a chilling demonstration of the caller’s influence as a young boy is willed into charging headfirst at a tree and then Yelena herself experiences a supernaturally induced pain to her person, which will only vanish if she helps the God with a pressing mission.

So, what’s the mission? Yelena is to murder a list of despicable individuals which the God cannot reach by metaphysical means, ranging from influencers to criminal figures and with an overarching focus on sensational ratings hit Ludnica, a reality television show set in a psychiatric facility which has incurred a special, personal level of wrath in this not especially merciful deity. If Yelena wipes out all of the designated targets, she gets to keep her child and get on with her life. If not…

Writer/director Aleksandar Radivojevic was responsible – and I use that word advisedly – for the screenplay of A Serbian Film. Armed with that knowledge, there’s either a certain excitement or rising nausea which comes attached to Karmadonna. Let’s start with the answer to the obvious question: Karmadonna, despite being loaded with awful characters, plenty of bloodshed and many button pushing moments, was unlikely to be yanked from the FrightFest schedules because the uncut version could not be screened.

It’s gory, it’s sporadically offensive but it’s also strangely reluctant to get really down and dirty like A Serbian Film was all too willing to. Of course, it’s nauseating to watch a mother to be getting punched and kicked but this often feels like the whole thing is trying too hard to upset its audience. The villains of the piece are all over the top in their own specific ways and their cartoony antics remove most of the edges from what could have been an unrelentingly bruising two hour experience.

Yes, that’s correct. Two hours. Well, two hours minus two minutes. Therein lies the main issue with Karmadonna, in that it labours its main point to a ridiculous degree, side-tracking what could have been a swift, satirical kick to the metaphorical nuts with ponderous, sluggish, overwritten sequences that sap the interest from Yelena’s predicament, illustrated perfectly by means of a seemingly interminable shot drinking / shot glass throwing face-off that would have possessed all of the tension required had it only been half its length.

Whereas A Serbian Film focused on that particular country going to hell, Karmadonna widens its purview to suggest that the entire world has been ruined, courtesy of an ever growing army of despicable chancers, be they the more traditional type of criminal or the modern scourge that is vapid influencers on the make. The general public doesn’t get a pass either, as the plot turns its ire on lovers of social media slop and mindless entertainment churned out by corporations who care not one jot about who they might be destroying in the process.

Radivojevic is clearly angry and on the occasions his script hits the mark it does give the viewer pause for thought. However, too much of this fury feels artificial, a hectoring, unfocused rant turned up to a level which has the effect of being shouted by some random bloke while you’re searching for the nearest exit. Nuance isn’t just thrown out of the window; it’s given a further kicking once it crashes to the floor and is then set on fire. Which is exactly the sort of thing Karmadonna would do as part of its action beats, decently filmed and delivering on the spilled claret but ultimately favouring spectacle over any kind of lasting impact.

If there’s a saving grace about the bludgeoning tack Karmadonna opts for from minute one, it’s the appealing presence of Djokic, carrying the movie with a performance than contains the kind of layers the story never does. The proceedings make her a reluctant – and often accidental – killer rather a stone cold one but her plight is already sympathetic enough and her prey so utterly vile that giving her more of a vengeful edge could have elevated the character and provoked the controversy this tale is constantly seeking. As it stands, it’s often daft, mostly forgettable and around thirty minutes too long.

If you like the sound of a corpse’s genitals, plus various other organs, being removed and stuck in a blender, Karmadonna might be right up your street. The aforementioned event does actually happen at one point but, like so much of what goes on, the effect is nowhere near as shocking as it should because of the one note approach to the material and its nudging insistence on stressing just how disreputable it all is. Oddly, for a movie which has a message of bringing about radical change, it’s weirdly conventional and surprisingly straightforward under its veneer of smashed heads and shootings.

Movie Rating:

Karmadonna trailer