Pop Culture Reviews

Martyrs – DVD Review

Distributor: Canal Horizons Released: 2008 Genre: Drama/Horror Credits: Director: Pascal Laugier Writer: Pascal Laugier Starring: Morjana Alaoui (Anna), Mylene Jampanoi (Lucie) Rating: R 18

If you’re a fan of horror but you like your entertainment to have something more than mindless, gratuitous violence (as seen in movies like Saw and Hostel – which I might add, kinda bored me) then you’ve got to see Martyrs. Although this movie is gaining alot of negativity due to its subject matter (it’s currently being classified as ‘torture-porn’), Martyrs is actually extremely well acted and well written.

The writer and director Pascal Laugier apparently wrote the script for this movie during a state of severe depression. All I can say to that is he definitely expressed himself well. You won’t be unmoved by what you see – especially if you enjoy being shocked to the point of disbelief.

I won’t lie, I felt a little ill during one particular scene in the movie (along with quite a few other people around the globe) and Martyrs contains alot of gore, extreme violence and disturbing scenes of torture. That said, what this movie represents however is not what it appears. Underneath it all, I don’t think it was the intent of the writer to shock people but more to educate them in the ways of the world, to show us a side of reality that is disturbing yes, but to eventually help us to understand that these things can and do happen. It is not a movie about why or how, it is merely a looking glass focused on one small facet of human behaviour.

Kudos to the cast. Largely unknown in western countries but probably big in Europe (as this is a French movie with English subtitles). It must have been very difficult filming some of the more violent scenes depicted.

Recommended to all horror fans – there’s plenty of blood, gore, violence and torture scenes to please even the most hardened of veterans and if you’re of the weaker variety, be sure to have a bucket nearby… or at least be close to the bathroom… you know, just in-case.