Review of Martyrs (2008) by Elise M — 09 Oct 2010

You should try and know as little as possible about this before seeing it. Just check it out. This is really 3 movies in one, with all three interesting but savagely brutal. I wonder if I missed some sort of apocalyptic event in France as they seem to specialize recently in pushing gore films as far as one could ever imagine. Like the film Interieurs before it, this is a horror film that gets at the true meaning of horror. Not made up monsters, but the ability of humans to commit the most unspeakable acts upon one another, and to be utterly convinced that what they are doing is right and that the ends justify the means. I was going to give this movie a bit lower rating, but it definitely stays in the head and is thought-provoking as you discover the reasons behind the torture and is certainly frightening and unsettling.

Perhaps the most frightening this is that someone thought this up and filmed it, and I and others have watched it and recommended it to even more people. I don't want to talk it up too much, and my rating is not going to be a top one, simply because I would recommend seeing this once, but the torture stuff is so rough, I'm not sure I'll ever watch this again.