Martyrs ★★★★½
WHY put yourself through Martyrs?
It’s brutal and unrelentingly intense, with one of the darkest and most depressing endings in cinema history.
French director and writer Pascal Laugier had only one film under his belt, House of Voices in 2004, when his next script was green-lit.
By his own account, Laugier struggle greatly on set. He had written the thematically difficult material to approach the film-making in French avant-garde style, meaning less structure and rehearsal to allow the treatment to develop organically.
But he also wanted to create an entertaining genre picture will all the conventions that accompany it. In the end, after six months of editing, he managed to successfully merge art-house with the best aspects of genre horror to tumultuous critical reaction in 2008.
Martyrs examines both the worst aspects of human nature and the search for meaning in life and does so with intelligence, ingenuity and heart.
It is one of the best horror films you will ever see; the pinnacle of French extreme cinema.
The film opens with a girl running out of a derelict building, crying and screaming with horror and possibly relief. She is dressed only in dirty underwear and singlet.
Lucie is a victim of a abuse and is forced to live at a psychiatric hospital while she struggles to overcome the trauma. She only manages to befriend one other girl, Anna, and they become incredibly close.
Fast-forward 15 years and we are at breakfast with a typical family, father, mother, son and daughter, bickering over the breakfast table. There is a knock on the door and the father is confronted by Lucie who is holding a double-barrelled shotgun.
That’s where I will leave it. One of the enjoyments of this film, like the recent Get Out for instance, is working out exactly what is happening and the nerve-testing moments of suspense that continue through the running time.
Many of its most eye-averting scenes are also incredibly sad and moving, made even greater by the amazing commitment of the two leads,. Mylene Jampanoi as Lucie and Morjana Alaoui as Anna, who are literally put through the wringer by their director and his make-up artists.
If you manage to make it to the final 10 minutes you will remain haunted by the film for some time.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t confuse the original with the American remake in 2014. That film was serviceable horror but copped out for its ending. This is the original 2008 French language version with subtitles.