Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, Disturbing and Thoughtful- Martyrs., 6 Jun 2009
To start off with, this is not a movie like Hostel or Saw. If you are looking for something like either of these movies, turn back now.
I may aswell get this out of the way first. Martyrs is not the goriest movie ever made, not even close. However, it may be one of the most brutal movies ever made. You will not see excessive blood splats, or heads being lopped off. You will, however, see some extreme brutality.
There is, thankfully, no awful depravity. No graphic rape, or sexual assualts or anything you may see in some god awful Rob Zombie film. There is some to an extent, but nothing off putting.
People have gone into detail about the plot on other reviews, so for this one, I shall stick to the actual movie.
This is not torture porn. This is true, powerful movie making. Unfortunatly because it happens to be French, and a violent horror movie, this is what this movie is being lumped into. This is terribly unfair, in fact for many horror films being released recently, but especcialy this one. It is perhaps one of the most thought provoking films I have seen in a VERY long time.
This is a very nihilistic, dark movie. For those rooting for a quick escape for either heriones will be sorely dissapointed. Martyrs pulls the rug out from under your feet every time you start to feel comfortable. You will be sitting and think 'Ah this is pegged for me now' and woosh, the film spirals and twists into something completely different.
The film has been critized for it's midway point twist. I found this to be very effective. It is a clear example of just how much the movie switches around on the viewer. Also, the point of the twist is not to carry on the story in a pitch perfect manner, but to further director Pascal Laugers message.
Ah yes, the message. Many seem to be missing it. But there is a message inside this movie. I will not spoil anything, but it all hinders on the final scene and line of the movie. The message is very powerful, and made all the stronger but the sheer, constant brutality the second half of the film delivers.
Overall, this is a very powerful and very dark piece of French cinema. I hope this will be the final note on which the French horror genre goes out on, as this is the best of them. Darker than Frontiers, more thought provoking than Inside, and more enthralling than Switchblade Romance. An excellent movie.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece, 3 Jul 2009
Once again, I am compelled to write a review of a horror film. Until recently I thought the horror genre was dying, if not dead, despite clutching at occasional offerings such as `Mum and Dad' and `Eden Lake' both of which offered hope and a possible new direction in the horror genre. Whilst not necessarily a fan of torture porn, I think it is here to stay and at first, I thought `Martyrs' promised little more than misogynistic uberviolence.
But it's not. The plot leads you by a clammy hand through twists and turns, and whereas the mental illness angle was relatively easy to second guess, the second half of this genre jumping film was completely unpredictable. This is vicious, viscous, cerebral horror, horror to make you think, horror which really does leave mental scars. You might not want to, but you must make yourself watch this film to the end. Even now, I'm still struggling to come to terms with the basic philosophical thoughts which underpin this work and the absolute realism and attention to detail which informs the viewer throughout. Sitting through the second half, I wondered if this film was a step too far, considered that there ought to be tighter censorship laws governing these violent and sickening representations: the fact that the denouement made me, transiently, consider that the process I had witnessed justified the end result, worries me. This is a film about the unspeakable and the ultimate justification of the unspeakable and your own, eventual, compliance with the unspeakable.
I have deliberately not given any of the plot away, because on one level a good plot serves primarily to communicate ideas and move us towards them, and this film is a film of ideas, ideas so old they could be said to underpin the fabric of our society. If you are a horror aficionado, if you want to have your boundaries stretched, if you feel you have become complacent in your attitude towards a genre you thought was failing, then this is the film for you. This is a film that returns horror to its rightful place, on the top shelf, restricted. This is no fifteen certificate, this is horror grown up. Horror was never meant for social gatherings, shared bon hommie, popcorn in packed cinemas. DVD is the perfect format: we shouldn't want to share the darker sides of ourselves in public, lest we reveal ourselves to be actually enjoying something forbidden. This is certainly not a film for everyone, and I praise Pascal Laugier for that: uncompromisingly adults only - and so much the better for it, this isn't a film where any concessions have been made to taste or decency. This is European horror, deeper than society or sorority. This is streets ahead of the commercialised big budget American market where profit margins dilute content and result in `MTV Horror'. Horror isn't werewolves or vampires; horror is humanity, it's history, it's us. This is New Horror which takes us to the places we recognise in our neighbour, Josef Fritzl. An outstanding, marvellously sickening and deep contribution to my collection which leaves recent cause célèbres floundering in the shallows.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER G R E A T FRENCH HORROR FILM - MAYBE EVEN ONE OF THE BEST OF ALL TIMES!, 8 April 2009
After SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE, A L'INTERIEUR (INSIDE), and FRONTIER(S) comes MARTYRS, another GREAT French horror film. Though not as graphic as the other three, MARTYRS is more suspenseful and shocking. American filmmakers can really learn something here: how to make an ultra-gory horror film WITH a story that is actually VERY GOOD and works. MARTYRS makes SAW 1-5 and HOSTEL 1 + 2 look like child's play by comparison, and I say that although I enjoyed all those films, but simply what the cast and director of MARTYRS accomplished here is just an atmosphere that for instance Lucio Fulci had created in some of his works, which the US films lack.
I'm also very pleased to see that the BBFC passed this one UNCUT and UNCENSORED.
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