It is the most profitable Russian film of all time, with only "Avatar" grossing more (3.6 billion Russian rubles) in Russia's box office. Reviewers of various online publications such as Meduza (Anton Dolin),  Tsargrad TV (Yegor Kholmogorov),  Around TV (Anna Entyakova),  Weburg.net. (Kirill Ilyukhin),  and the magazine Ogoniok (Andrey Arkhangelsky), rated the film positively. Film critic of the portal "Film.ru" Vladislav Shuravin rated 7 out of 10. The observer also notes similarity with other films, namely with the "Text" (2019 film). Shuravin notes that among the New Year’s films of recent years, "Serf" is the most «"compromise option"». Denis Stupnikov, a movie reviewer at the InterMedia information portal, gave the film 7 out of 10 points. The critic notes the director’s ability to «"balance on the razor’s edge, but not cross the line"», as well as the fact that «"Klim Shipenko tries not to abuse empty toothache, so even simple-minded jokes have a very deep connotation"». Yulia Troitskaya, a columnist for the Kanobu.ru entertainment site, rated the film neutral, indicating that similar stories had already been seen ("Frontier" (2018 film), "Black Hunters" (2008 film)). But, according to the critic, the plot is most similar to the movie "Back to the USSR" (TV Mini-Series), only "Serf" «"does not consist of four watch episodes, although the characters reveal the same pattern and come to the same finals"». Also, Yulia did not appreciate the fact that the line of secondary heroes was not developed, therefore, «"if they are deleted from history, nothing will change"». In positive moments, Troitskaya recorded the soundtrack and the «"good nature"» of the picture. Vera Alenushkina, a critic of the movie section on the Russian version of Time Out, gave a negative assessment to the film. Noting some discrepancy between the age category and overkill with violent scenes, she rated the film two points out of five. According to V. Alyonushkina, the film could have been recorded in the category of nothing pretending comedies from the category «drank / looked / went to eat up the Olivier», if not for one «but»: the reviewer was seriously guarded by the concept of the picture is the core idea of «healing violence», both physical and psychological, «whip anthem».