Rent Martyrs (2008)

Horror film for grown-ups - genuinely disturbing - Martyrs review by RP

I've hesitated for quite a while before writing a review of this film. It left a lasting impression on me, not particularly because of the scenes of torture shown here – disturbing though they are - but the nightmarish possibility that there might be such individuals in reality. 'Martyrs' is a French-Canadian film with subtitles – it contains the most visually awful torture scenes that I have seen depicted on film. It is not for the squeamish and is genuinely disturbing. Having said that, not only is the storyline convincing but it made me jump a few times and the final part had me cringing, which can't be bad. Entertaining? Well, you certainly won't laugh at it, and it's not a film for a cosy night in with the family. But it is a well realised horror film for grown-ups – just don't watch it with your granny. 4/5 stars. Highly recommended.

Stays with you. - Martyrs review by CP Customer

My thoughts are similar to the other reviews. As brutal as film can get.

Not as profound as Irreversible, but way better than Hostel and all that so called torture porn.

Watch it if you dare!

Visually arresting - Martyrs review by CP Customer

Very powerful, graphic cinema, this piece is not for the faint of heart. Despite it's gratuitous nature, the director highlights some interesting philosophical arguments offering progressive thinking rather than a film that delights it's viewers with gore.

Hats of to the cast and director, very difficult to watch in places.

Hostel goes a bit artsy grows a brain and takes it to the max - Martyrs review by JS

Wow absolutely BRUTAL film. Well edited and structured, utterly chilling, rough, hard to watch and very much ott but a must for any horror fan. Sinister.Sick.

Martyrs (2008) - Martyrs review by NP

There was a time when France was not particularly praised for its horror film output. This, despite the outpourings of Jean Rollin’s personal voyage of vampirism, zombies and the like; this, despite the supreme ‘Eyes without a Face/Les Yeux Sans Visage’, the film/television series ‘The Returned/Les Revenants’ and films like ‘The Pack’ and ‘Martyrs’.

There is a famous photograph sometimes known as ‘Napalm Girl’, featuring a nine year-old Vietnamese girl running naked and terrified, away from the carnage caused by an aerial napalm attack in 1972. As effective as any anti-war poster, this picture might have inspired one of the opening scenes of this truly disturbing film. Brutally attacked and imprisoned, half-dressed Lucie Jurin escapes her prison and runs down the street, making her escape.

The next time we see her, she has met Anna in the orphanage where she has been placed. She is terrorized by the image of a decaying woman, possibly a ghost.

Anna and Lucie become lovers and vow to get even with the torturers; years later they burst in on a happy, respectable family and brutally murder them. Surely these law abiding people can’t have been responsible?

This film succeeds in wrong-footing the audience and providing twist after twist. Not only ARE these people (partially) responsible for Lucie’s degradation, but moments later Lucie is killed, and it is Anna that becomes the centre of attention in a narrative that then assumes the moniker ‘torture porn’. Rarely have I seen filmed abuse presented so uncompromisingly. Anna is ritually beaten, fed the bare minimum gruel and if she resists, is beaten yet more. Her broken face and body is heart-breaking to see, extremely uncomfortable – her captors’ only comment is that they are amazed she is still alive. She therefore has one, final, appalling punishment to go.

Despite spoiler warnings, the reasons for this abuse will not be mentioned here, other than to say, it is ‘respectable’ establishment figures that are behind it all, and everything then comes to a very final (and satisfying – if that is the right word to use) end.

This is an incredible, profound, horrifying film - not one I’m sure I’ll ever see again, but if you can stomach it, I’d recommend watching once.

I wasn't scared, I was bored. - Martyrs review by DC

There's a scene in this horror film where a young woman is locked up alone in a dimly lit torture dungeon. I thought to myself "Why is it dimly lit all the time, instead of brightly lit so that the torturers can see what they are doing, or lights out when she's alone?" They cut her hair short on camera, and later she appears with a buzz cut. Why not give her the full buzz cut straight away? She's chained up, but in one scene she has her chains off with no explanation, and the torturers just chain her up again. 

This is a horror film. I really shouldn't be wondering about the lighting choices and continuity.

The gore didn't bother me. Maybe I'm lacking in human empathy, or maybe deep down I know that it's all special effects. It did bother me that one of the leads is axe-crazy, and the other one was too stupid to CALL THE COPS  when she found the dungeon. And yes, I know that the film would have been shorter if she had done the smart thing, but that would have been a good thing. 

Deserving of its reputation - Martyrs review by VG

A jarring, relentless, brutal and powerful assault of body horror, mental anguish, depravity and existential nothingness.