MARTYRS (includes trailer)
July 12th 2010 14:10
The 2008 French film, Martyrs, resembles a mutilated beast screaming out in pain, a bestial film soaked in blood and tears, that is so disturbing it enters the realms of traumatic. Martyrs is a horror film, an experiment in terror if you will, that I’m having trouble shaking off after viewing it (hopefully watching Half Baked after this should do the trick). As I watched Martyrs, an hour and a quarter in to it, I kept asking myself why I wasn’t turning it off as it continued to push the sadism envelope. Martyrs is a horror film produced by current, French gore hound, Richard Grandpierre and directed by Pascal Laugier (who for some reason is directing the American remake of this film with Kristen Stewart), that keeps tightening the vice to an unbearable point. In a sadistic way, I admire how full on this film actually is, even if the execution of it’s concepts are on the under nourished side.
The film begins with a young girl, Anna (Morjana Alaoui) running for her life, crying, bleeding and beaten, she has escaped a house that she was being held in and tortured. At a young age, her best friend, Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) enters into Anna’s world of pain and torment, deciding to stand beside her friend no matter what. Through out the film, Anne will seek a bloody retribution but will never be able to resolve her tortured soul, as Martyrs drills further into it’s ugliness, Lucie will literally experience the kind of pain Anna suffered as the most hardened of audiences are put through the wringer.
Martyrs seeks to traumatize and disturb and it goes far beyond the call of duty, some of it’s images are permanently locked on replay, in my mind, as a result. While there are also a few scares to be found around it’s premises, Martyrs is more interested in turning up the heat until you are begging to be let out. One of it’s strokes of genius horror wise, is a bizarre, deformed creature looking to hurt Anna wherever she is, the pain factor is high here as we witness a creature wriggling and slicing a barber’s blade through Anna’s flesh, we can never quite make out what it is and where it will be, the level of fear over what we can’t quite see is exceptional and the manipulation is masterful. As circumstances change in the characters and their fates are revealed, so does the story, as we go from focusing on Anna, and then finally on to Lucy. Most of the film is spent in a house with a large underground, torture chamber. As the story’s focus changed, I wondered why the character in question remained in that house for so long, it seems that there were a couple of hefty flaws in the script that weren’t quite sorted out before shooting took place.
All of this doesn’t amount to much in the end, but viewers who desire to sit through the whole of this film won’t particularly care, aside from it’s attempt in the last five minutes, it never looks to enlighten with revelations or themes, just terrorise. Martyrs tries to justify it’s nightmarish vision by aligning the damage it’s done on the audience and the characters with the ideas of metaphysical transcendence. This is dramatically intriguing to a small degree and somewhat satisfies in the name of tying up lose end, but I found it’s level of remorseless and disturbing brutality went so far, that by the end who the hell cared what it was meant to be about. By the time Martyrs tries to masquerade as deep art, we’ve already made our mind up about it. Martyrs is an impressively made freak show of cruelty, a display of ‘torture porn’ so severe that it makes films like Funny Games or Antichrist look like a mere warm up. The fact remains though that Martyrs is a good film, and one that achieves it’s aim possibly a little too well. It suffers from bludgeoning the audience at a certain point as it drags out some of it’s scenes of extreme graphic violence. The flaws of Martyrs reminded me of the film by Gasper Noe, Irreversible (lets see you remake that one Hollywood), both have scenes which over stay their welcome, but Martyrs is a better film, truly virtuosic, hardcore horror that will make you find out what you’re made of.
It would be easy to dismiss Martyrs as a lowly exploitation film, but as full on as it is, it’s also a very good one, perhaps too extreme for most peoples taste, it is impressive and it’s horrid emotion and bonds of pain cannot be matched in intensity, as a horror film it works beautifully, and it’s unique tone and style are rich and satisfying. There’s a magnificent urgency to the film and it’s energy and stateliness in the bloodletting department are unrivalled – oh - and did I mention that the film is technically flawless, the cold and metallic photography and production design fit together perfectly. My main gripe is with the direction the story chooses to take, yes I know, that’s a major problem but that doesn’t stop the fact that Martyrs sets a knew bench mark for horror, not dramatically speaking, but as a horror film it’s simply over whelming. The two actors, also, should be commended for how far they went here, these two actresses go to exhausting extremes and burn precisely into Martyrs doomed vision.
Martyrs is not for the tame, and depending on how much you can stand, you’ll either be blown away by it, in a good way or it will leave you shaking and having visions of your own hellish fate. Martyrs is horror in it’s truest sense and it is reminder of what it means to be truly terrified, and not just get a scare and a startle. I double dog dare you to watch Martyrs from start to finish.
Intensity has a new face in cinema - Here's the trailer for 'Martyrs'
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Martyrs is flawed, that middle section is way too drawn out, but the last quarter is brilliant, and the very end (concerning the uber-rich) is perfect.
I can't believe the director is remaking his own movie, and worse still that Kristen Stewart is in the lead. It makes me wanna scream!
My review HERE if you're interested.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
You already know i loved this one.
Martyrs is a true horror film that has an abundance of follow through and a deeper purpose as the final credits roll.
Thought the acting was superb, the FX wonderfully realistic and importantly the script structure was a surprise. getting what would be a finale to lesser films out of the way within a half hour to take you down a truly original path.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Bryn - the only reason I think Martyrs is better than Irreversible is cause I was so much more blown away viscerally by Martyrs. I think Gasper Noe's film 'I Stand Alone' is his best, liked Irreversible, but didnt love it and ultimately, regarding Noe, after seeing his last film Into The Void, at Cannes (havnt spotted it around anywhere since) it's reduced my opinion of him tenfold. But I think we can agree that Martyrs is flawed but Brilliant.
JD - this film disturbed me so much! More than Imprint, but I'm glad I made it through to the end! The acting and VFX (how is what they do to Lucie at the end!) are beyond praise! viva Martyrs!
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
All joking aside - yes, Martyrs is the real deal in horror and it's time for you to psych up for it and dive in, good luck recovering from it
thanks for reading!
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile