I've seen a lot of horror movies, one's that are real, one's that are supernatural. Old, new, gory, intelligent, but usually you can't get that mix in a horror film and have it come out as a masterpiece. Martyrs broke the mold and took all my doubts away. No film since The Exorcist and Jaws has had such intelligence, style, great script, relatable characters and shock value that had all that and worked. We've had a few that come close but nothing as to what I just witnessed with Martyrs. I heard a little bit about this film in 2010 and read about it in an article. The plot seemed kind of confusing from the way the author wrote about it, so I decided to wait on seeing it. I have never been so disappointed with myself when it came to deciding to wait on a film. I saw this film 4 days ago and still, I'm shaking and can't get it out of my head. Not to say that everyone will have this experience, but Martyrs is a masterpiece of horror cinema that I've been waiting for.
A young girl, Lucie, escapes from a factory where she has been imprisoned and physically abused for a lengthy period of time. Lucie is placed in an orphanage, where she is befriended by a young girl named Anna. Anna soon discovers that Lucie believes that she is constantly being terrorized by a ghoulish creature; a horrible, disfigured, emaciated woman. Fifteen years later, Lucie bursts into a seemingly normal family's home and kills them all with a shotgun. Lucie calls Anna to tell her that she has finally found and killed the people responsible for her childhood abuse. Upon arriving, Anna is horrified at the carnage, and worries that Lucie may have murdered the wrong people. But after a vicious attack on Lucie from her "ghost", who turns out was a victim who she left before she escaped the factory when she was a child, Anna finds out that maybe Lucie wasn't wrong and things take a turn from worse to the ultimate Hell.
When the films Saw and Hostel were released, they were dubbed as "too hard to handle" and given the new genre of "torture porn", I hate that term by way. Those films are a walk in the park compared to a lot of movies that I've seen to be honest. A lot of people are categorizing Martyrs in the torture porn genre and it's ticking me off. Saw and Hostel use the gore and violence as the plot devices, Martyrs doesn't use the violence as a way to just make the audience squirm, but instead you're taken into this dark world that you don't want to ever be apart of. The performances are just magnificent, especially to Mylène Jampanoï who plays Lucie. Morjana Alaoui plays Anna and pulls in a heart wrenching performance. The direction, the lighting, the sets, the script, I couldn't find any flaws that are not nitpicking.
I literally feel like I've been strangled with this film, it actually made me cry. It was so much deeper than what I was expecting. I'm about to give away the ending, so please don't read on because no one should know what is going to happen if they haven't seen this film yet. First off when Anna is tortured, it's unbearable to watch her go through this for days, she's force fed some weird unknown food that looks like gruel. Then some giant man comes in and just beats her nearly to death. When she's "reached the final stage", which is surprising to the people who are doing this to her, they skin her alive. She "lets go" and comes back and you find out that the people who did this to her and the others do this because they want to know what happens after death. So Anna dies, but comes back and tells the leader, Mademoiselle what she saw, but in a whisper so the audience can't hear. The society comes to the house excited to hear what is beyond death and when asked by a member outside Mademoiselle's locked door she simply replies "keep doubting" and shoots herself. Couldn't have been a more perfect ending, because what happens after death should remain a mystery as everyone has their own interpretation. Martyrs is much deeper than I expected, I underestimated this film and now it's one of the best horror movies I have ever seen in my life. As to the remake that is now supposedly in the green light now, please see this movie first, because I give a lot of remakes a chance, but this one already is looking really bad since it was bought by the producers of Twilight. Martyrs should be respected and is a true masterpiece.
10/10
A young girl, Lucie, escapes from a factory where she has been imprisoned and physically abused for a lengthy period of time. Lucie is placed in an orphanage, where she is befriended by a young girl named Anna. Anna soon discovers that Lucie believes that she is constantly being terrorized by a ghoulish creature; a horrible, disfigured, emaciated woman. Fifteen years later, Lucie bursts into a seemingly normal family's home and kills them all with a shotgun. Lucie calls Anna to tell her that she has finally found and killed the people responsible for her childhood abuse. Upon arriving, Anna is horrified at the carnage, and worries that Lucie may have murdered the wrong people. But after a vicious attack on Lucie from her "ghost", who turns out was a victim who she left before she escaped the factory when she was a child, Anna finds out that maybe Lucie wasn't wrong and things take a turn from worse to the ultimate Hell.
When the films Saw and Hostel were released, they were dubbed as "too hard to handle" and given the new genre of "torture porn", I hate that term by way. Those films are a walk in the park compared to a lot of movies that I've seen to be honest. A lot of people are categorizing Martyrs in the torture porn genre and it's ticking me off. Saw and Hostel use the gore and violence as the plot devices, Martyrs doesn't use the violence as a way to just make the audience squirm, but instead you're taken into this dark world that you don't want to ever be apart of. The performances are just magnificent, especially to Mylène Jampanoï who plays Lucie. Morjana Alaoui plays Anna and pulls in a heart wrenching performance. The direction, the lighting, the sets, the script, I couldn't find any flaws that are not nitpicking.
I literally feel like I've been strangled with this film, it actually made me cry. It was so much deeper than what I was expecting. I'm about to give away the ending, so please don't read on because no one should know what is going to happen if they haven't seen this film yet. First off when Anna is tortured, it's unbearable to watch her go through this for days, she's force fed some weird unknown food that looks like gruel. Then some giant man comes in and just beats her nearly to death. When she's "reached the final stage", which is surprising to the people who are doing this to her, they skin her alive. She "lets go" and comes back and you find out that the people who did this to her and the others do this because they want to know what happens after death. So Anna dies, but comes back and tells the leader, Mademoiselle what she saw, but in a whisper so the audience can't hear. The society comes to the house excited to hear what is beyond death and when asked by a member outside Mademoiselle's locked door she simply replies "keep doubting" and shoots herself. Couldn't have been a more perfect ending, because what happens after death should remain a mystery as everyone has their own interpretation. Martyrs is much deeper than I expected, I underestimated this film and now it's one of the best horror movies I have ever seen in my life. As to the remake that is now supposedly in the green light now, please see this movie first, because I give a lot of remakes a chance, but this one already is looking really bad since it was bought by the producers of Twilight. Martyrs should be respected and is a true masterpiece.
10/10