Martyrs (DVD)

This is perhaps one of the most confusing horror film I've come across in months and there's so many ways I could interpret the rather frustrating ending. It is not a film where you can get sastisfaction from. This is a French horror film that has revived my interest in the genre again; it was released recently this year. It is one of the most darkest films I have ever seen coming from the country in a while.

It starts with several ...
...depicting the escape of a kidnapped girl with shaven head and scars all over her body. This is where we begin to conclude she has been through such horrors; she is taken away by authorities and put into a home. It is then evident she would never begin to recover from the ordeal completely and makes a friend for life in the home. 15 years later; we see her again. She is still haunted by her ordeal and executes her revenge.

It is extremely ... more

This is perhaps one of the most confusing horror film I've come across in months and there's so many ways I could interpret the rather frustrating ending. It is not a film where you can get sastisfaction from. This is a French horror film that has revived my interest in the genre again; it was released recently this year. It is one of the most darkest films I have ever seen coming from the country in a while.

It starts with several disjointed scenes, directed in a cheap 70's camera style, clearly depicting the escape of a kidnapped girl with shaven head and scars all over her body. This is where we begin to conclude she has been through such horrors; she is taken away by authorities and put into a home. It is then evident she would never begin to recover from the ordeal completely and makes a friend for life in the home. 15 years later; we see her again. She is still haunted by her ordeal and executes her revenge.

It is extremely difficult to place a specific genre on this film, it encompasses many traits of different genres. Best way is not to even try. It's not just a story of revenge, it runs much more deeper than that, it has several of the most gruesome and sickest scenes I've seen before concluding with several questions of morality and ethics. First off the bat, you might be thinking this is just a gore film with nothing to say. This isn't so. It's an intelligent gore film!

I would say there's two halves to this film; one about the emotional ordeal of the kidnapped girl who was tortured excessively in captivity. She is still extremely haunted by an entity, we assume to be supernatural. In the second part, it is more physical horror; several torture scenes that will put you right off your dinner. The plot completely turned around and was seemingly random at first but actually, at the end, when we find the motivation behind the torture scenes, it quickly laces the first half to the second half. This was a pretty clever way of putting together two seemingly random stories but actually they were linked. Some might feel there's four parts to the film which goes like ' drama, ghost-horror with the demons haunting the kidnapped girl, darkness in the dungeon, some torture porn scenes then finishes off with some high quality and shocking drama twist at the end.'

Visually, the film is very expertly shot and highly polished, holding the film up well. The repetition of several scenes does its job to put the monotonicity of the torture scenes successfully. The make-up scenes are worthy of praise here; the torture scenes and the entity that haunts the kidnapped girl was very well pulled off with authenticity, if that is possible. The two leads plays their parts with extreme conviction and they are pretty believable, very well chosen by Laugier who also has expertly chosen the rest of the cast.

Not once in the film did I feel was slowing down, it was evenly and very well paced thoroughly, with credits to the director.

One of the ending scenes, which was the least graphic scene of all, turned out to be the one that is now burned in my head. It was an ending that was just rather fitting but yet extremely disturbing. There is also another scene where the girl's being tortured just before being skinned, she is almost represented as Joan of Arc, ironically perhaps.

As seeing this was a trench film, there was very good subtitles along with it, there was no mis-translation or awkward phrases are seen in subtitled films sometimes. I don't know if there is a audio dubbed version of the film but if there was; it would ruin the film personally. The two main actresses handle their part well and speaking parts with conviction that dubbing just wouldn't measure up.

One of the topics handled here could be seen as similar to Nazi Germany or Imperialistic Japan in Unit 731, where they were in search to further the knowledge of science never mind about the people who were suffering. At the realization of the motivation, I was slightly repulsed and disgusted that even a topic like this would be approached.

One of the slightly bad things but extremely effective about this film is the level of pessimism, it is not exactly the most uplifting film in the world. It is a dark, bleak and depressing film that will turn your heart black for days. I was depressed for days after watching this film.

There isn't really much I can say without ruining the film for you but do prepare for a rollercoaster of emotions throughout.

Also, for a much more thorough review, I recommend reading plipplop's review. 

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