Review of Martyrs (2008) by Tal G — 08 Apr 2018

Expected a celebration of gore and got something a bit more sophisticated than that.

I've been told that this movie is a dumb gore porn movie, on par with A Serbian Film. That was really misleading. While this movie is full of gore and difficult imagery, it doesn't feel ridiculous and goofy. I didn't feel like laughing out at any sort of exaggeration. It made sense within the context of the story.

It took a lot of interesting twists in its narrative. Had I quit watching 30 minutes into it, I'd just think it was a classic, shallow revenge flick. But then that plotline ends, and another begins. I really didn't know where the film was going. I liked that about it.

The story managed to present some truly horrifying themes and ideas through what happened on screen. The punch was great. Elevated the movie above mere gore porn.

The effects and make up were insanely well done. The gore was hardcore, visceral, hard to look at. Well done there. The acting was just ok.

It was a very focused and rather small scaled movie, so there's not much more to say. I just thought that the ideas it set forth and the way in which it did that were all great.