Martyrs [DVD]

I thought that I was a fairly seasoned gore hound, I was under the impression that I couldn't be shocked, I was wrong!

From the opening sequence of a bloody and battered young girl squealing and screaming, limping as fast as her brutalised body could manage, to get away from as yet undisclosed terrors, to the closing sequence which I had to have explained for me by my sister's fiance, as my hand was firmly up in front of my face, because frankly I couldn't watch any more, Martyrs is a thoroughly engaging and compelling examination of human suffering.

What it isn't however is enjoyable. This film was far too brutal, gritty and nasty for me. A Saturday night ought never to involve watching a young girl tied to a chair in a dirty warehouse being slapped around her already bloody and bruised face.

By an hour or so in, though I felt violated by this film, I still felt that I could deal with it, then the movie shifts gears and from the last half hour goes down a hithero (to me anyway) unexpected path and that was when I started to really struggle. The last third of Martyrs is one of the most terrible, horrible, awful, vile things that I've ever put myself through, yet it is substantially less gory than the hour which preceeds it, there is no way of me explaining how this is possible with spoiling things for you, so you shall have to take my word for it.

Though this wasn't for me I have given it four stars because in many ways it is a brilliant film. It is incredibly original and sumptuously filmed and edited with a rawness that lends an extra veneer of grit to a movie which is already rotten with cutting edge ideas and envelope pushing concepts.

I would thoroughly recommend this to people who enjoy utter darkness, rawness and brutality in their movies. I shall return to collecting Troma films, safe on the knowledge that there are limits to what I consider to be entertainment

I watched this film last night around a friend's house. I knew nothing about it and was really not that interested in watching a film, however, by the end I was glad that I had not protested.

This film is a rollercoaster of emotions and revelations. Beginning with a young girl who has been abused running out of a industrial building screaming is some opening. Move on 15 years later and she and her friend who you meet in the opening credits begin their journey creating a magnificent piece of French cinema.

I will not give any spoilers away but this film puts films like Hostel and Saw to shame. The problem is that this film is not for everyone, it does take some thought to figure out what is going on and believe me your feelings for characters will change throughout.

By the end you feel like you have been Martyred as it is tough to endure if you let yourself slip into the story, which I might add is very believeable. Watch out for the photographs in the film, they are real and what is described are true events.

All in all 5/5, I've just purchased it myself for my collection, and it is a worthy addition.

This is an uncompromising film that, at times, is very uncomfortable to watch. The typical horror splatter gore of the main bulk of the film contrasts sharply with the brutal (but gore restrained) violence of the final act.

Am I glad I watched this film? Yes.

Will I be watching it again? No, not for a very long time anyway.