I used to be an extremely avid horror fan. I’ve always been a fan of cinema in general, but horror was, and is still my true love (don't tell my wife). From the age of 5 till around 17 or 18, about 85% of all the films I watched were horror movies. At a certain point it became a struggle to walk into a video store, and find a horror movie that I hadn’t seen already or wanted to see, as I wrote off slasher movies long ago (if you’ve seen one you’ve seen…most of them) and they filled up a bulk of video store horror sections back in the day. Anyways, I lived and breathed horror, I loved horror comics, horror fiction, horror magazines, horror themed music—horror, horror, horror! So when horror movies started to really suck, around the mid-90s (about ’94 I’d say), needless to say I was really bummed. I went from watching mostly horror to exploring some other genres, but eventually I discovered horror from Japan and Italy, which eventually opened up my eyes to films from all over the world. I had this attitude as a kid that if it wasn’t made in America, it was crap. I hated the bad dubbing, the shoddy lighting, the bizarre storylines, and just the production values overall. Just saying that makes me want to slap my old self in the face. I almost have the complete opposite opinion on movies now than I did when I was a kid, but I suppose that comes with age.
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It hasn’t been until the last 5 years or so that I gave any films from France a chance. French films have always seemed to have an artsy-fartsy stigma to them and I really hate pretentious art house movies (for the most part anyways—the kind that take themselves too seriously bore me). Man Bites Dog may have been my first taste of French “horror” (it’s a Belgian film I know, but the language spoken is French, so it counts), but it wasn’t until the divine gorefest, Haute Tension that I truly took an interest in horror from France. The quality of horror coming out of France right now, in my humble opinion, cannot be beat. Movies like the previously mentioned Haute Tension, the bloody goodness of Frontiere(s) and the incredible Inside, as well as Them (which some have not liked, but I enjoyed quite a bit) are all—in my eyes—true horror. Horror films should have a sense of dread, they should make you uneasy, they should create that lump in your throat, they should make you anxious and the really good ones should keep you guessing. MARTYRS is all of this, and blood soaked bag o’ chips!
MARTYRS starts with a bang, and never lets up. I had to take a break around midway through the film to walk around and clear my head—something that I never do, as I usually have complete focus when I watch a film (I could never be accused of having A.D.D.). The film opens with a young girl that looks like she’s suffered the tortures of the damned, running through the streets in what looks like an abandoned industrial area. Soon we find out that the girl, Lucie, has escaped from a torture dungeon where she had been held captive for some time, chained to a chair and routinely beaten (among other nastiness)—but not raped. The girl is taken to an institution where she meets another girl named Anna. Lucie and Anna form a strong sister-like bond during their stay together, and the doctors even rely on Anna to help them get inside Lucie’s head to find out what exactly happened to her. Severely traumatized, Lucie is frightened most of the time, and her visions of a ghoul-like creature doesn’t help things much either.
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The story picks up 15 years later, when the film moves away from Lucie and Anna and we are taken inside the home of an anonymous family that consists of a Mother, a Father, and their two teen children. We get a sneak peak into their average life where the brother fights with the bratty little sister, Dad cooks breakfast, and Mom does some plumbing to get the sink pipe working again. Soon the family is sitting at the table, and you get a sense that this could be any family anywhere, maybe even your neighbors. The parents are ragging on the son about his future, and his issues with school, and then the doorbell rings. The father goes to see who it is, and he’s greeted with a shotgun blast to the chest. The shooter makes short work of all the family members in a scene that is as intense as fuck! After an intense opening, the film lulls you into a false sense of security with the family scene, then it opens up another can of whoop ass. I’m already in love with the film at this point.
I’m not going to get into too much detail, because the less you know about the plot the better. I will say that the shooter is Lucie all grown up, and she is certain that the family she killed were her captors from years ago. Anne, who is still Lucie’s best friend, shows up later to help her clean up the mess. At this point you may think you have the film pegged, but I assure you—you have no idea! I’ll be honest, about three quarters of the way through I was wondering why the film was getting such high praise—I mean it was good and all, but it wasn’t better than some of the other French horror films I mentioned earlier, then all of a sudden it slaps you with a cosmic open hand slap to mouth in the last two minutes and that is when I knew the film was a damn-near masterpiece.
The film is already getting lumped with “torture porn” films like Saw and Hostel, if only because those films are probably the closest American counterparts to films like MARTYRS--but MARTYRS is much more of a thinking man/woman's horror film, than said films. First of all I hate the term torture porn—what dumb ass came up with that term? The word “porn” makes one think of sex and sexual arousal, which leads one to believe that torture porn gives people some sort of sexual thrill from watching it…and it may for some, but those people are demented, and probably in need of intense therapy. I will admit that I do get a sort of gratification from gore—I’m a professed gore hound, and I love the red, red kroovy on tap, but I don’t get a hard on from watching it! Gore done right is like violent art, and MARTYRS is definitely a work of art.
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Now all that being said, I couldn’t help but notice how very hot the two lead females are in the movie, especially Mylène Jampanoï who played Lucie—I am completely smitten! Check out her photo gallery at IMDb and you’ll see what I mean. Both actresses don’t have a long list of roles to their credit, but they both give fantastic performances here, especially Morjana Alaoui who turns into the film’s star by the end of the movie. Even covered in gobs of dark viscous blood (which they are, throughout most of the film) they look hot…I know that is so wrong, but I’m a sick man, I know.
Relative newcomer, Pascal Laugier directed the film and does a very good job for a guy who only has one feature length film (Saint Ange) and one short (4ème sous sol) to his name prior to MARTYRS. He also directed a behind the scenes doc’ about The Brotherhood of the Wolf (another great French flick, and one of my all time favorites). Not unlike his peers, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (Inside), Xavier Gens (Frontiers), and Alexander Aja (Haute Tension), Laugier brings an incredible sense of style to the film that American directors have been trying to mimic, but usually just end up making slick looking crap. Also, just like Aja, Laugier has been swept off to La-La-Land to bring us yet another remake. The movie being remade? Hellraiser—yes, according to IMDb, Laugier is set to direct the remake of Clive Barker’s classic. I won’t get into all that remake hoopla, but I will say that going by MARTYRS, I may actually be looking forward to Laugier’s take of ol’ Pinhead. Besides, I really liked Aja’s remake of The Hills Have Eyes…yeah, I said it, big whoop you wanna’ fight about it?
No one is bringing the horror like the Frenchies right now, and no, they’re not bringing it old school—this is the new school, bitches! Class is in session, and your first homework assigment is--see MARTYRS!!!
MARTYRS trailer