This is one of the rare movies I write-up not because it's new, or because it's a bad Netflix movie, but as a personal challenge. Martyrs is one of the last 'most disturbing' films I had not yet seen.
What would you do if someone tortured and abused you in a dark, dank abandoned warehouse for an undisclosed amount of time when you were a child? Assuming you got free, what kind of an adult do you think you'd become? A well-adjusted member of society, or a revenge-driven, confused individual who will do anything in your power to avenge the unwarranted punishment levied on you?
To complicate matters, what if there was also another crazed, escaped captive who suffered the same humiliations and depredations as you, and had slipped so far out of sanity that they stalk you, angry and naked, for fifteen years?
Also, you might be just a wee crazy.
That's the question Martyrs asks, in the goriest, creepiest way possible.
On to the review!
Martyrs opens up with a young Lucie running down the street of a derelict warehouse district, covered in gore and screaming. Yeah, welcome to the film! We get a little backstory in the form of a doctor's interview and footage, explaining that Lucie was kidnapped and tortured for no discernable reason. She is now at some sort of orphanage/hospital and isn't doing too well reintegrating into society. However, she does make one friend, a younger girl who mothers her by the name of Anna. Unfortunately, Lucie is still stalked by nightmares and a crazed, naked woman.
Fifteen years later, we jump to the happy home of a nice, both-parents-and-two-kids family. We're given just enough time to settle in and wonder what the hell is going on before everything juxtaposes and murders take place. Without going into any spoiler territory, let's just say that nothing is as it seems, and a twenty-something Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi) finds who she thinks are her captors. The family may or may not be a later source of importance.
Anna is now her best friend, played by Morjana Alaoui, and all she wants is for Lucie to get better and stop being driven by her past tortures. Absolutely nothing in this movie goes the way you expect it to. In fact, so many cast members cease to exist that the movie actually switches gears halfway through, because everything seems to have been wrapped up around the 45 minute mark.
To say things get fucked up would be to imply that things did not start fucked up. Unfortunately, because this movie changes pace so often, I don't want to say anything more about it plot-wise, or else I may inadvertently spoil the shit out of it. I wouldn't want to do that, because Martyrs is amazing both as a film and as an endurance piece.
Unlike Salo, this film does not disgust you via sexual depredations, rape and bodily fluids. Instead, it is a bleak film about torture and what it can do to a person both inside and out. It is also unflinchingly brutal. I'm not usually bothered by gore, but I hate real-life blood and guts. I can watch Nightmare On Elm Street a dozen times while eating sandwiches, but I cannot spend three minutes watching a medical show or even a fictional show involving medical surgeries (I'm looking at you, House).
Martyrs makes the gore all too realistic, all too brutal, and all too frequent. I was genuinely flinching at the screen on several occasions, and am going to have a hell of a time shaving tomorrow.
Oh, and the last half hour? Fuck you. I hate the French all over again for doing this to me. It's like they were afraid some other country was going to take their mantle as the creators of the 'most disturbing cinema.'
So check this out if you're a fan of the violent, hyper-realistic horror genre or just want to challenge yourself. Martyrs is not an easy film to watch. In fact, it stares you right in the eyes and dares you to not once hit pause and take a breather.
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