JOIN USSavo Duvnjak looks around the room, lifts a metal baseball bat and wrecks everything in sight — bed, table, shelves, chair — until there's nothing left to wreck.
This isn’t a criminal onslaught. It’s the Rage Room. And it’s smashing its way to success in Serbia one angry visitor at a time. “This feels so good!” Duvnjak said sweating and panting, as he admired the mound of debris he created — for just a modest fee.
“I feel I let go of all my negative energy,” the 18-year-old gushed. “This last year was a tough one and I wanted to end it with a bang!”
Since it opened in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad in October, the Rage Room has drawn a flurry of attention in the Balkan country where two decades of war, political crisis and economic hardship have driven many people over the edge. Inspired by a similar “Anger Room” in Dallas, Texas, Serbia’s version was set up by two teens who saw the U.S. original online and figured it could be a way to earn pocket money.
“On average, we have one person a day, enough to keep us going,” said Nikola Pausic, an 18-year-old who runs the room with a friend. The Dallas version costs up to $75 per session and has an array of objects to destroy, including computers and office furniture. Serbia’s Rage Room, in a refurbished garage, is much more basic — and cheaper.