Martyrs (2008)

I honestly don’t know where to begin except by saying France, I surrender.

First of all I just want to say that regardless about what you might have heard this does not belong in the so-called “Torture Porn” category of films. (Of course back in the 80’s we called this stuff ‘Splatterpunk’, of course if you are old enough to remember that you may be suffering from ‘Splatterfarts’ so please consult a physician.)

Martyrs in many ways reminds me of films like 1934’s The Black Cat, 1979’s Thirst and 1999’s Los sin nombre (The Nameless). They are all stories of cold blooded cruelty justified by a belief system. I wonder if perhaps movies like this are born out of a reaction of the cruelties of their era. For example I feel that much of The Black Cat’s subtext is about the people left shattered in the aftermath of the first world war.

Is this new wave of film a reaction to this era of rendition, terrorism and toxic nationalism?

I don’t know maybe if I had stayed in college I could have made more out of that idea...

What is Martyrs. The story begins with a girl named Lucie escaping from a disused slaughterhouse, she looks beaten cut and starved half to death. Sent to an orphanage she befriends a girl named Anna and shares with her the secret that a monster is stalking her and cutting her. Then the plot shifts ahead 15 years but I’m not saying anything else because I don’t want to spoil anything but let me tell you this film is a wild ride the plot seeming to twist in some new way every 15 minutes or so.

Yes there is gore and brutality but while it isn’t as gooey and squishy as what I found in the movie Inside it was still pretty damn hard to watch. But I will say that none of that every drop of blood spilled in the film was done tastefully and with an eye towards getting us to the ending.

And the ending is a whopper let me tell you.

I was really happy with this film but as I said before it may not be for the weak of heart or stomach.

Again wow. I need a Marx Brothers movie to cheer me up…