Once again the French confirm they produce the best films in the horror genre right now, with the critically aclaimed Martyrs. It starts with a young girl escaping from her captors, who obviously have been physically abusing her. After spending her remaining traumatised youth in a care home, befriending her caring room-mate, she tracks down her abusers 15 years later, seeking revenge.
Martyrs is the one of the best movies I've seen this year..and definitely one of the best horror films of the decade. Its raw and unrelenting... using a hand held camera to get that realistic documentary feel. Its sadistically nasty too, obscuring American efforts in the torture-porn sub-genre like Saw and Hostel.
There two thing that elevate this exceptionally well directed movie from its shallow US counterparts. Firstly it has a great, twisty-turny plot. It constructs a set of circumstances, which you believe will be be sustained through the whole movie (eg, Lucie's revenge plot), then resolves those circumstances, or introduces an unexpected plot element. You never quite know where the movie's taking you. It constantly makes you question who the characters are, and what their motivations and beliefs are. It also creates tons of tension.
Secondly, it's surprisingly layered and deep, for something that appears to be just another vicious horror movie on the surface. It deals with spirituality and religion...how a new religion might operate, how religion can have little respect for human life...and how ultimately pointless life can be. It's both nihilistic and haunting.
The meaning of the word martyr means someone who will endure great pain for their beliefs. However, before the credits role, we're informed that Martyr is derived from the Greek word for 'witness'. It seems that we the audience are the Martyrs, and have been called upon to react to the savagery we've just seen.
It's rare that you get that combination of smart, smart film-making...and moments where you exclaim, "Now that is really f**ked up!".
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