Martyrs Review

 

So over the past year and a half I have read a lot of buzz about a French horror movie called “Martyrs.”  This film has been reviewed on a number of sites and they all say this is a brutal, violent and disturbing movie that is hard to watch due to the content portrayed in the film.  Immediately I say…sign me up, I am excited.  So after waiting an eternity for this to be release on DVD, I then had to wait a second eternity for it to become available in my que on Netflix.

Last night I received the DVD and I was able to dedicate the time needed to enjoy this hopefully terrifying, violent and disturbing movie.  Like I said before, there are a lot of reviews out there that say this is the top of the food chain in terms of horror gore and grim images. 

Now, before I start my actual review of the movie, I want to let you know…I didn’t take all that “buzz” too seriously.  I mean, every time a new horror film is released in a wide theatrical setting, the previews always claim it is the scariest movie ever.  Some voiceover guy with a deep voice will say “This movie will scare the hell out of you,” or something along those lines and…honestly… they never are.  So, I was not blinded by the hype.

On that note, this movie did disappoint me.  It is not a bad movie by any means and it had a very good story; hell it had a bunch of violence and blood too…just not enough for all these critics to anoint it the most disturbing film.  I actually think the movie Inside was more disturbing than this one…but I am but one man.

The Movie starts out as we watch a beaten and tortured girl (Lucie) run out of an old factory screaming as she is running away from her captives.  We then learn she was beaten, tortured and starved for many years before she escaped.  She is put into an orphanage with psychological care and meets a young girl (Anna) who eventually becomes a sort of friend / parent figure. 

Lucie is tormented by a dead girl who continually attacks her and cuts her across her arms, back and legs.  It is completely obvious that this dead girl is simply in her mind and she is the one cutting herself, but they wait until later on in the film to reveal that tidbit.   I wouldn’t consider that a spoiler though because anyone with an IQ above 5 would realize that.

So, jump 15 year ahead and Lucie is at the house of a normal suburban family.  We get to know the family for a few minutes and they are your typical nuclear family…mom, dad with two kids (boy and girl).  The kids are in their teens (the boy a college drop-out after one year and the girl a star high-school swimmer.)  They seem like good folks dealing with normal things when Lucie busts in and kills everyone with a shotgun.  Apparently she had seen a photo in the newspaper and realized it was them who had tortured her 15 years ago.  She thinks that killing the family will exact revenge and get the dead girl out of her life. 

Time out:  I was going to do this like I usually do and keep the spoilers out, but screw it…I am giving away the all secrets of this film.  Read on or don’t…it’s up to you.

We find out that as Lucie was escaping her captors when she was little, she saw another girl who was in much worse shape than her chained to a chair with her mouth sewn shut.  The girl was pleading with Lucie to help her (well…more of a desperate mumble plead…her mouth is sewn shut for Christ’s sake.), but scared and unsure, Lucie fled without helping.  That is the dead girl who torments Lucie’s thoughts.

So after Lucie kills the family she phones Anna and tells her she is at the house of the people.  Anna, unaware that Lucie killed them all, rushes to her best friend’s side.  When she arrives at the home she finds the bodies, blood splattered walls and destruction in which Lucie had left in the aftermath. 

Now, right here…the movie sort of goes off the tracks for me.  No one in the right mind would just accept that their friend committed mass murder on the idea that these people “might” be the ones who held her captive and tortured her for so many years, and they definitely wouldn’t just start trying to cover up the crime scene, and fully entrench themselves in this sort of murder debacle.  Regardless, that is exactly what Anna does.

Anna doesn’t believe this family had anything to do with Lucie’s past, but she does what she can to cover up Lucie’s mess.  After another bout with the dead girl attacking Lucie again and cutting the shit out of her back, Anna starts dragging the dead bodies outside to burry when she discovers the mom in the family is still alive.

Anna tries to save her but Lucie finds out she is alive and finishes her off via pounding her skull with a mallet.  This is when Anna reveals to Lucie that she believes the family is innocent.   Lucie, in a fit of rage, believes Anna is just like the doctors who think she is crazy and attacks Anna.  (Side note…she is crazy…she is a fucking wack-job.)

Next thing you know the dead girl crawls down the stairs after Lucie and cuts her arms and legs some more (this is where they reveal that it is Lucie doing it to herself…big surprise) and eventually, Lucie slits her own throat and dies. 

Just as you think the movie is coming to a close…something happens; Anna notices a door hidden from everything else.  She opens the door to reveal an underground compound with a torture chamber and everything Lucie had described.  She finds a girl chained in a cell completely scared, bleeding and beaten with a metal mask screwed into her head.  Anna helps this girl out, gives her a bath and removes her metal mask before this girl starts acting like Lucie…where she starts cutting herself up and acting like a lunatic.  Just as we reach the climax of the girl’s psychotic fit, her head explodes (Thanks to a shotgun blast)  and a new batch of characters emerges. 

Apparently these new people are involved with the previous family and they came to see what was going on.  They take Anna and put her in one of the cells and explain to her that they have been torturing and killing girls for 17 years and only one ever got away…Lucie.  They inform her they inflict suffering and pain on young girls because they make the best Martyrs and are looking for a Martyr to report to them the vision of the second world. 

This part of the movie which is slow, drawn out and to me…pretty boring, but I am guess is the scenes everyone was clamoring about being so  “disturbing.”   For probably a strait half hour of this movie we watch Anna get tortured and abused.  She is punched, cut, kicked, force-fed, bathed and mistreated for a good half hour strait of the movie before she finally starts to hear voices and go a little crazy.  Finally Anna is taken to a room where she is strapped to a large metal contraption and her entire body of skin is removed.

When her skin is removed she apparently becomes a Martyr and sees a vision which she eventually tells the head of this sick organization via whisper.  We as the audience don’t know what she says to the head of the organization (some old broad) but apparently it is some big news. 

So the ending setting of the movie is car load after car load of upscale older men and women driving to this house and gathering together in the living area.  A man happily announces that Anna had become a Martyr and she had seen the other side and reported back what she had seen.  The man tells the crowd that it will be revealed to them shortly and walks upstairs. 

The man walks to the upstairs bathroom where the woman (head of the organization broad) is preparing for her speech.  We see the woman taking her make-up off, removing her hat and wig, before pulling a gun out of her handbag and shooting herself in the head.   End of the movie.

So…I don’t necessarily totally get this movie.  If anyone wants to check this out and let me know what they think it’s all about…I would love to chat.   I mean, I get what the people were after, and I know she saw something but…what is it all for?  What was the point and why were they so interested?  Why would the woman kill herself?  Is it because she learned the second world was different than what she had expected?  We will never know.