If you want a good horrific and disturbing movie you have to watch Martyrs. Good plot, good gore and good acting, it’s all here.
Directed by Pascal Laugier I don’t have any negatives when it comes to this film and if you’ve seen it I don’t really care if you do, d’accord?
Martyrs has definitely been one of my favorites since randomly buying this film based on the look of the DVD cover a few years ago. (Yes I still buy dvds. Any movies I don’t know or have never heard of I mainly judge on the cover because I don’t like reading the synopsis on the back as it might tell me something crucial within the film. I like to watch films, especially horror, as ‘cold’ as possible.)
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Martyrs.
This movie packs some real punch and if the first half doesn’t feed some part of your brain with interest or wonder, the second half definitely will. Along with a few mouth-dropping moments. Martyrs is ambiguous brilliance, which again, I feel is lost on many people.
This is a film that takes you on a trip to the dark side and is way more than just torture and a catalog of pain and suffering, there is twisted reasoning behind it. Some people slate the sudden change in events but I enjoyed the different pace of things and applaud the acting of both Lucie and Anna played by Mylene Jampanoi and Morjana Alaoui.
At the time of watching this I had never seen one particular scene and once I saw what had happened my mouth literally fell open. That is an extremely rare occasion for my monotone relaxed self around any type of horror.
I’ve seen one or two reviews for this where it stated it wasn’t a real horror film. Well to those I say you obviously can’t fathom the films story. Or the word horror.
If you want a film that has a little bit of everything gory; blood, pain and torture, but all with a real reason behind it, Martyrs is that film. It pushes boundaries and takes horror in a different direction, worthy of a rare 8/10 score from me.
WICKED RATING: 8/10
Title: Martyrs
Director: Pascal Laugier
Writer(s): Pascal Laugier
Stars: Morjana Alaoui, Mylene Jampanoi, Catherine Begin
Year: 2008
Studio/ Production Co: Canal Horizons, Canal+, CineCinema, Eskwad, TCB Film, Wild Bunch
Budget: $6,500,000
Language: French
Length: 99 mins
Sub-Genre: Revenge
