Review of Martyrs (2008) by Ajay N — 24 Jul 2011

Original - I'll give it that. Gruesome but somehow less gruesome than I was anticipating (that's considering there is a scene in which a character is flayed. Alive). Not even really all that scary. There were a few jump moments in the beginning but past that, nothing too intense or even sickening. I thought of Hostel once we got into the latter half of the film but Hostel actually did what it sent out to do better than this did. Hostel made me sick. This one really didn't. Now I realise how gross that sentence even sounds but this one really just doesn't push the buttons with me that I think it was trying to push.

I was surprised when Lucie ended up being right all along about these people being responsible and also when it turned out to be a bigger operation than anyone could believe. I also knew that Anna would be taken and knew that she'd be this Martyr that they were all hoping for. For what reason though? Yeah they said, implied really, that it was all to gain better insight into the after life but it still didn't make sense to me. That's supposed to be scary, the fact that you either don't know or don't understand why the villains are doing what they're doing, but this was just uneventful for me I guess.

I cannot praise the actresses performances enough. They did fantastic work here. The story is also a good one, for good or ill, but it just didn't work well with me. Give it a viewing, fellow horror hounds, but stay far away if you are faint of stomach.