Martyrs (2008)

While the Japanese and South Koreans have admirably contributed to the horror genre in recent years, the French have also carved out a place for themselves with films featuring unflinching brutality and gore. Martyrs is the culmination of this movement; it’s a film so intentionally graphic that many audience members have reportedly walked out during the first 30 minutes. But what else would you expect from a movie which features extended torture scenes of women and children, plus an entire family getting blasted apart with a double-barreled shotgun?

The movie begins with a young girl named Lucie escaping captivity from a slaughterhouse. Battered and bloody, she’s rescued and placed in an orphanage where she slowly forms a friendship with a fellow resident named Anna. But Lucie’s past won’t stay buried, and she’s stalked and attacked by some sort of bestial child. The girls decide to keep this assailant a secret, and the film then jumps ahead 15 years.

A loving family goes through their morning routine — that is, until a fully-grown and shotgun-wielding Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi) shows up at their front door. After slaughtering everyone present, Lucie places a call to Anna (Morjana Alaoui) and tells her that she finally got those responsible for her imprisonment. But as she waits for her friend to arrive, Lucie is once again attacked by her mysterious stalker.

At this point, you’ll probably be thinking, “What the hell is going on?” Well, that’s what we’ll find out during the rest of the film, and it’s weirder than you could imagine.

The violence in Martyrs is alarmingly in-your-face. When blasted with a shotgun, characters don’t limp away or make dying speeches; they simply fall into a heap and expire. The same goes for sliced windpipes and hammers to the skull. No matter how jaded you may have become as a moviegoer, Martyrs will pick you up by the collar and give you a good shake. And don’t be embarrassed if you can’t make it through the film’s 100 minutes; that probably qualifies you as a normal member of the human race. The rest of us, however…

Director Pascal Laugier poses a number of questions within the film’s early stages: Did Lucie kill the right people? What happened 15 years before? What’s with the monstrous girl? As the answers are slowly revealed, you’ll find yourself presented with even more questions — something Martyrs seems to pull off with great relish.

While first watching the film, I was fully prepared to start complaining about the plot, because, with nearly an hour left, it seemed as though I’d seen everything I needed to; that’s when Laugier took the film in a new, and even more disturbing, direction. Every 15 minutes or so, Martyrs seemed like it was about to end, but then another rancid layer of the onion would be peeled away. Much like being on a roller coaster, the film would give you a moment to catch your breath before plunging down into the next set of hairpin turns and gut-churning drops. Amazingly, Martyrs was able to repeat this multiple times with great affect, and the trick never seemed to get old.

But despite its ability to rain down shock after shock during the first three-quarters , I felt Martyrs somewhat stalled out in the final act. The explanation for why these once-beautiful young women were forced to endure such barbarity seemed tenuous, and the ensuing violence failed to move me. By this point, Martyrs had thrown so much at me that I was already numb. While effective in the early goings, the film eventually becomes a victim of its own tremendously high shock factor.

A powerful film which takes no prisoners, Martyrs is most assuredly not for everyone. Stay away if you don’t like graphic violence, and avoid at all costs if you can’t handle prolonged torture directed at members of the female gender. But if you’ve got a strong stomach and unshakable nerves, give this little French offering a try. Like the grotesque imagery from a crime scene or traffic accident, it’s something you won’t soon forget.