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Martyrs (2008)
What can one say other than the fact that the French are the leader in making the gore films of today. Although “Martyrs” isn’t simply your average gore film, it’s much more than that, but I think it’s safe to say that this one has enough red stuff to satisfy your average everyday gorehound that’s for sure. But unlike many other films that have come over the years “Martyrs” actually uses the gore for a response and doesn’t rely on it for the movie to work. It basically compliments what is already happening in the film as opposed to trying to make the gore do the work for the story, acting, etc.
“Martyrs” starts out with a young woman running away from a place she was held captive and is hysterical over the situation. Upon being found by the police she leads them to an abandoned building in which she explains of her imprisonment. But because of her being completely disturbed by what happened to her, she can’t tell them anything else about what happened. We are introduced to her as Lucie as she becomes friendly with Anna another young woman in the home where she is staying. Anna learns from Lucie that she is being haunted by some creature that is out to get her as well, in which Anna promises to never divulge her secret. Years later we see what is happening with Lucie and Anna and it’s safe to say that Lucie’s issues just continued to get worse.
You will have to excuse me for being rather vague in the description above as to not give away major spoilers for the movie. “Martyrs” is a tricky movie from beginning to end, but in all honesty it’s great because of that. The story of the movie is quite complex, but that completely works here and isn’t to the point where it takes you out of the movie. In reality what it does is drag you the viewer even further into what is happening.
I have to say that going into “Martyrs” that I had an idea of what the story was, but that didn’t really prepare me for what happened in the film. That to me is the mark of a great film and this one has just about all of the things needed to not only make it good, but to make it a excellent genre piece that I think people will be talking about for some time.
The acting in the film is excellent with Morjana Alaoui doing a capable job as Anna and Mylène Jampanoï is brilliant as Lucie. They both have an on screen chemistry that makes the movie special which is something that’s not seen very often in this type of movie at least from my experience. I’m sure a lot of people out there have already written “Martyrs” off as “torture porn” or a mindless gore piece, but that’s simply not the case. The movie is quite the unique mixture of tension, gore, and a very original story. All these factors together make “Martyrs” an instant classic and that’s not something I throw around very lightly.
The DVD of “Martyrs” also comes packed with goodies that fans of the film will be pleased about. The film comes with an introduction by director Pascal Laugier, a hour long making of features that’s really good, a teaser for the film as well as a trailer. The film is lacking commentary but considering the director mainly speaks French, it’s not really that big of a loss.
Overall I HIGHLY RECOMMEND “Martyrs” as an extremely important genre piece that deserves the high praise it’s been getting since it’s release. It’s a relentlessly brutal and violent movie, but it’s also very thought provoking and sincere at the same time. So with that being said I’d have to place “Martyrs” as not only one of the best films I’ve seen in sometime, but also as one of the greatest films made in this decade of horror films.
Rating - ***1/2
-Ed Demko
