Very disappointing...

Sadly Over-hyped

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A film that shouldn't be missed, Martyrs seems like a generic story, but hits you with so many twists and turns, you'll be surprised that it started where it did! This definitely stands above what we see mostly from production companies like Blumhouse (Who I think had a part in the stupid and uninspired American Remake) as it's not afraid to take risks and go all out with everything it has to say! Hopefully one day this film will be treated with more respect in the future, and maybe Hollywood will someday decide to take interest in the more unconventional route. Until then, go watch this movie!

One thing that I have noticed about some of the reviews on this film is how bloody, gorey, violent, etc. it is and how it's violent to just be violent. I cannot agree with that statement at all. The film tells a story of revenge at first and then shifts to a psychological thriller for the second half. Lucie is the first half and her story is to make you sympathize with the character while Anna's story is meant to provoke thought. When Lucie'sstory was being shown there was a moment where I thought maybe she had killed this family of four for no reason other than she mistook them for her captors 15 years earlier. I was on the fence about it and so was Anna when she tries to help the wife escape until Lucie kills her with a hammer. It isn't until Lucie ends her own life and Anna finds a woman that has been kept down in their torture room for at least 15 years, did I realize that Lucie wasn't crazy and really truly sympathized with her character. After freeing the woman some people in all black come in and kill the girl and take Anna prisoner as they subject her to horrible experiments designed to break her will and cause her to give up all hope. After awhile she finally does this and upon "letting go" she is able to become a witness, or martyr, and see into the afterlife without having died. This is what the cult like group wanted all along. They wanted to have the knowledge of what was on the other side. The head of the group, a rather old women, comes and asks Anna what she saw. Anna whispers to her what it was but we as the audience never actually know what is said. It is after this that the woman goes into the bathroom and takes her own life. But before she does this she tells one of her servants to "keep denying" when talking about the afterlife. This statement is what the entire film is about. Denial is what keeps us going and keeps us from doing certain things. In the case of the writer it was stopping him from killing himself since he wrote the film while being horribly depressed. Not knowing what the afterlife holds helped him realize he didn't need to kill himself, because if we know what lies behind death then life would be meaningless.

Martyrs is undoubtedly a well-made film. The acting is poignant, honest, and grounded and sucks you right into the screen. The practical effects and use of sound are visceral and nail- biting. Through the lens we see a world that is very refined, elegant, affluent, modern, enriched in the most modern luxuries. The best way I would describe this world is an ice cold chandelier. That's not to say that it's an emotionally nihilistic world similar to what we see in The Shining, because the film is shown through the eyes of the 2 female leads Anna and Lucie: highly sensitive, emotional human beings that you invest in from the beginning, and that is what makes this film so challenging to sit through.Every act of violence is displayed and shown is horrendously ugly. If you are looking for a campy trip to the splatterhouse like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, then turn away from Martyrs and run in the other direction. It hurts to watch, and it's sad to watch, it makes you sick. If The Exorcist is the scariest movie of all time, then this is the most disheartening movie of all time. I do know that Pascal is not a sadist because he would not be filming from this approach, which I had to learn over time. A sadist's version of the same film would not emotionally involve you, but because it is seen mostly through the eyes of Anna, a very caring and selfless young woman, every moment of battery is seen as it should be: cruel, ugly and terrible. Like Funny Games, It's not a film I would dare watch again; I would honestly rather get a hard elbow jab in the stomach as it would be more palatable. I don't recommend anybody to see it as I would advise anyone else to do. Even planting the idea of talking about it to people that are unaware of Martyrs is kind of irresponsible in my opinion. The one plus side is that if you were saddened, revolted, etc. then you have a heart, and that's a terrific quality.

Agreeing to help a childhood friend exact revenge on those who she suspects abused her as a child has severe consequences for a young Québécoise woman in this unusual thriller. The film has been described as everything from a horror movie to torture porn and to say too much of the plot may ruin a fresh experience, but suffice it to say that the story features a raft of plot twists and turns designed to challenge one's perceptions. The project runs a little too long with several of the gorier scenes towards the end growing repetitive (hence the 'torture porn' label), however, the way writer-director Pascal Laugier deliberately drags out the proceedings makes it all the more intriguing with exposition only delivered in very small doses before a quite startling revelation in the final ten to fifteen minutes. The film is furthermore topped off with a haunting (and deliciously ambiguous) ending, and perhaps most remarkably, the film avoids ending on a depressing note despite it refreshingly defying genre expectations with regards to revenge thrillers. Certainly, the way the film concludes is hard to imagine based on its initial stretch. By all means, 'Martyrs' is a difficult film to watch, but it brings to mind some potent notions while managing to elucidate some of the desperation that could lead to human beings doing unspeakable things to one another.