4/5 Can I go Back Here?
  by Eric Sanberg (Berwyn, IL United States)
I read so many positive user reviews on this film that I figured it was a keeper, not a renter. I purchased it and was pretty much struck dumb (numb) upon viewing it. I thought "what is it with the French films lately?" After 'Frontiers', 'Them' and 'Irreversible' I thought they'd gone as far as possible in assaulting the audience with truly unsettling stories and imagery, but this took the cake. This is not to say this is some mindless Hollywood gore-fest. This film is as deep as it is gut-wrenching. But as good as it is, I'm not certain I could handle another viewing.

The film opens with a young girl, bruised and bloody, running down the street of some dilapidated industrial park. She's rescued and healed (physically at least) but we soon find out she'll be screwed up and haunted for the rest of her life due to the brutal ordeal of torture she was subjected to during her kidnapping. As her parents are never found she is relegated to the care of an orphanage where she is befriended by another orphan. The two form a close bond and we hope this will lead to some degree of emotional healing.

Shift into the future where our heroine enters the home of some seemingly quiet, well educated, upper crust(ish) family, and proceeds to murder them. She phones her friend and tells her she has located the people who tortured her those many years ago. Her friend joins her and we now find out what all this was about.

That's as far as I'll go with the plot. The direction the story takes from this point on is even more peculiar. It's certainly original but not for the sake of originality in it's own right. There is method to this madness. As things unfold and the plot points come together (all the way the ironic ending) the viewer hopefully realizes this is a true cinematic experience. No warm fuzzies. No quick kill at the box office. This movie is made to endure.

Whatever others have said in regard to the brutality in this movie is totally correct. But buyer beware: This violence is accompanied by some true gravity. Until I saw this (and the other aforementioned films) I'm not certain I realized how truly pornographic the violence was/is in most mainstream movies.

This is a great piece of cinema for any who want to see that envelope pushed. But you may want to make sure you have the fortitude to see it through.

5/5 There Are No Martyrs, Only Victims...
  by darklordzden (Australia)
France, 1971: Battered minor, Lucie Jurin (Mylène Jampanoï), is found wandering the streets after apparently escaping a sustained period of confinement and sadistic and systematic torture at the hands of mysterious captors whose motives remain unknown. Luci becomes a ward of the state and a resident of an orphanage where she befriends Anna (Morjana Alaoui), who slowly brings her back from a state of near catatonia to something like a sense of normality, despite the fact that Lucie is repeatedly visited and attacked by a nightmarish spectral figure who seems to be capable of inflicting actual physical harm upon her.

Fifteen years later, the Belfonds, an affluent family of French suburbanites, are settling down to breakfast when there is a knock at the door...unbeknownst to them, they are about to cross paths with an older and progressively more unhinged Lucie Jurin and before the day is done, they will understand the true meaning of obsession...

To go into further detail of the events that occur in Pascal Laugier's "Martyrs" would be to rob the potential viewer ot the twists and turns of one of the most compulsive horror films of recent years. Whilst the film bears a vague similarity in tone to the "Grand Guignol" genre mined by the likes of "Saw" and "Hostel", to write it off as just another lurid exercise in torture and sadism is to do it a major disservice. Laugier himself has described it as the "Anti-Funny Games" and it is a fair statement. It is the complete antithesis of Michael Haneke's detached, voyeuristic observation of the torture and murder of an Austrian family. There is no detachment here - as a viewing experience, it is visceral, shocking, emotionally draining and unremittingly brutal; but there is also a shockingly touching element of humanity which runs throughout the narrative. As a film it also goes off on tangents which are completely unpredictable and which are so cleverly plotted and paced that you cannot help but concede that you are in the hands of a cinematic master of suspense. It's genre-defying stuff. And in common with its predecessors and contemporaries in the French 'survival horror film' genre, High Tension (Unrated Widescreen Edition) and Frontier(s) it is, at it's heart, a film about how personal obsession can become so all-encompassing that it destroys lives. However, unlike those films, "Martyrs" is also a film about attempting to force personal redemption and spiritual epiphany as well as the lengths to which a person will go to protect someone that they love.

Make no mistake - this is bleak, nihilistic stuff which has more in common with the likes of Gaspar Noe's brilliant Irreversible than Eli Roth's "Hostel" (and in common with Noe's film, the overwhelming emotion that I was left with as the final credits ran was of a profound sense of sadness and loss).

This is not the best horror film of the 2008 - for me, personally, that accolade still goes to the very different, but similarly transcendent, "Let The Right One In" - but it runs a very, very close second and is a film that I recommend unreservedly for those that can stomach its harsh vision.


4/5 This is MESSED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  by Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland)
I'm watching this as I write. It is messed up!!!!!!!!!

If you don't mind gore, you probably won't mind this flick. But if you are squeemish at all, please....don't even attempt to watch this film..

At this point I'm watching a girl relocate a body from the shower into the hallway. This is pretty intense. The gore is realistic for sure, no CGI.

The gore is top-notch. the storyline isn't bad as I'm watching this flick unfold I wish that the basic story were a little deeper than what is presented. 4 stars for the gore, 2 stars for the acting........otherwise a 3 stars flick. I've seen comparisons to "Inside", and yeah, while the gore level is about on par, the basic story, while interesting and at times pretty intense, is not on the same level as "Inside".



1/5 Why suffer through this?
  by Mr Stay-At-Home (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
A very hard movie to watch. Thoroughly unpleasant. It is not, however, a horror movie - there is no real nervousness, or tension to keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. I think it gets classed a horror movie as it's so incredibly gory and has so many murders and torture scenes, but it's probably more accurate to say it's of the Transgressive genre.

I was told it was a challenging movie, this is true. I was also told the story was great and the ending made it worthwhile, this is untrue. After watching it I read some reviews in which the reviewers raved over the film and I must say I don't understand where they are coming from. If torture is central to the story and is done artistically, then I can handle it. But when the torture of children and young women is gratuitous, and goes on and on with no payoff then I feel I've been made to watch something that is very emotionally trying for no reason.

Without spoiling the plot I can only say the end of the movie is very weak and feels tacked on. I kept waiting for the few frames that would pull the whole movie together and justify the previous hour of mutilation but it wasn't there.

As far as good horror movies go, get The Descent (I'm looking forward for The Descent 2). For a good transgressive movie get Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Several people working on the movie have expressed regrets that they were involved and one of the principals even committed suicide. Overall a dark and disturbing movie, made by disturbed people, with no payoff. Although I support freedom of expression and am glad this movie was allowed to be made I can honestly say I wish I never saw it.

5/5 Martyr's DVD
  by Lance Michaud (Ramstein AB, Germany)
The DVD was in great condition. But the movie wasn't that great. I would DEFINETELY buy another DVD from this seller.