Martyrs

Martyrs (2008)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Bitterly disgusting and rather vile French film has a young girl named Lucie escaping from a hell where he she held captive and tortured day after day. Fifteen years later Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi) with the help of friend Anna (Morjana Alaoui) seek revenge against those who did the torture. That's pretty much what the back of the DVD case will tell you but that's pretty much the first fifteen-minutes and you've got a lot more rather ugly and disturbing stuff to go through. Those who thought the French film HAUTE TENSION pushed to new levels will find that film to be like a Disney movie compared to this one. I've got really mixed emotions about this film because on a technical level it's very impressive. I highly enjoyed the ugly atmosphere built up by director Laugier and he has a certain visual style, which isn't all fast edits and quick cuts. He's not afraid to just let the camera role, pick up what action he can and milk it for every emotion imaginable. Another major plus were the performances with both female actresses coming off so real and powerful that at times you will forget that you're actually watching a movie. Both women are so focused and so into their roles that it really makes certain scenes very hard to watch. The movie starts off on an ugly page but then gets a little cleaner as we're introduced to a family but what happens next really threw me for a loop and it will take you by such surprise that you'll know that anything can happen in this film and anything almost does. Another major plus are the special effects, which are quite brutal and very realistic. We get non-stop violence and gore and most of it goes beyond the "torture/porn" stuff we've come to watch the past several years. The special effects range from bullet holes to wrist cutting to other major scenes of disgust that I won't give away to avoid spoilers. I won't mention the exact effect but what remains at the end is one of the most brutal and memorable scenes from any horror film that I can think of. Earlier I said that this film left me with mixed emotions. I've said all the great stuff and now it's time to look at the bad. I personally find "torture/porn" movies like SAW, HOSTEL and various others to be fairly weak stuff. They want to shock young viewers but to me they aren't the strongest stuff out there. This film is being sold as the same type of thing but this here is a lot more as the film tries to be disturbing even without the graphic violence. With that said, as a die-hard horror fan for life I started to ask myself who would enjoy watching something like this? I mean seriously, the final thirty-minutes we get to see someone abused, tortured, pee herself and various other vile things and what for? I don't believe in taking some sort of high road or moral preacher but this is the first time that I can remember asking myself what on Earth any of this was for and what appeal this stuff could have. The movie is well-made, disturbing and immoral and it's certainly unlike many others. I'd say 100% of people will turn this off after ten-minutes. Perhaps 90% of horror fans will hang in there until the end and I can't say I'd blame anyone for turning it off.