Martyrs

It’s been long since we had such a good and smart horror film. Martyrs doesn’t bring anything new, it only skilfully combines and uses elements that have been common in the genre over the last ten years. In theory, this film could be the peak of an era, because I can hardly believe they can make anything better with those ingredients. The first half is marked be fear, blood and questions, similar to another French brutal film, High Tension. The turning point between the first and second half consists of one of the most shocking and awful scenes I can remember. The second half is then marked by the worst of psychical and physical horror. It’s gritty and ungratifying, and sets the stage for the climax, that is stupefying – either in the positive or negative meaning of the word. This film is really only for a selected few. It’s not the bloodiest or the most brutal, or even the scariest horror film ever. You can’t say “I’m liking this”, because there are at least 20 minutes in the second half that nobody can possibly like, but it’s bloody effective. And if you get the twist, you won’t be able to get it out of your head for quite some time. Philosophical horror full of blood and torture… Enjoy! Horror movie of the year (07/03/2009)

The added value of Martyrs is its demonstration of the freewheeling and encompassing nature of horror itself. The film moves from exploitation, to haunted, to torture porn, to monster horror, to body horror, to the religious sector, not mixing the subcategories together but instead, thanks to the unpredictable script, allocating them in sequence, with almost none of them brought to a satisfyingly conclusion. As a result, from the animated beginning (or 1st half), all shot handheld, where the average shot length is about 1 second, even given the nature of the violence (from wild, unpredictable, and messy to methodical, purposeful, and utterly cold), the shot lengthens and the image calms down. The final infuriating (non)point is brilliant in its underhandedness to the viewer, who has had to go through a lot just to be told to "keep doubting." _______ Make-up artist Benoît Lestang couldn't have bid a better farewell. (18/09/2013)

Martyrs is a painful experience that doesn’t leave any positive memories. The filmmaking is good, with an unpredictable script. The attempt to convey some sort of a deep message in the ending fails and does not turn the film into a serious work, but at least it’s there. Without this attempt, the extent of the protagonist’s suffering would be unacceptable for the audience and completely off-putting. (03/01/2010)

As a whole, I found Martyrs to be considerably uneven. The first 45 minutes is an absolutely brutal, naturalistic, bloody, intense, and thus excellent ride that if it had continued to the end (and been cut down a bit) might have earned 4 stars. But at the moment it starts to talk too much, explain, and perhaps even outline to the viewer the possible message or meaning of what they are witnessing, it's actually quite boring and the "serious" angle just doesn't fit. Conceiving of it purely as an exploitation film and leaving a lot of the context open and rather just hinting at it gradually would have been a much better choice. After all, such an extreme conception cannot be seen as something thoughtful or philosophical. (07/11/2010)

Definitely one of the most ambitious and interesting horror films of the past decade. An unpleasant and intense experience at first, formally almost perfect – from the tantalizing gore and dense atmosphere in the first half to the crystal clear psychological terror in the second half. The film visibly tries to go deep and shock with its unpredictable story, which creates quite a contrast with the ubiquitous and sometimes unnecessary brutality (although it’s certainly not the most brutal horror film in history), but at least it gives the action on the screen a much more coherent structure, which is strengthened by the stupid but at the same time excellent final twist. I confess that I considered all possible ratings while watching it, and I had to go to sleep to sort it all out in my head. Martyrs is a challenging film, at first glance made for effect and money, but internally far more mature than the vast majority of modern exploitation horror. But only Pascal Laugier knows what it was all supposed to mean. 60% (11/05/2013)