I'm a pretty big horror fan. Maybe more so of the idea than movies. I like being frightened and I'm often let down by Hollywood and all their bullshit. Put it this way, a bit of me died inside when Silent Hill disappointed me.

Martyrs though... This is a strange thing for me, because I can say it was a good movie, and I can say I will never watch it again as long as I live. The last time a movie made me pause and take a break was the uncut crab-walk in the original Exorcist, and I was like 10. The French don't mess around.

I'm sure someone else has seen this. I'd like to know your thoughts on this movie.

For those of you who haven't seen it and don't mind spoilers (watch it unspoiled trust me), or have and didn't understand it:

Martyrs is about this underground organization of swell folks who capture girls and torture the fuck out of them. The idea is that there are two types of people in this world; victims and martyrs. Women apparently have a higher chance of being martyrs. When put in a state of helplessness and subjected to enough torment, a victim will die, but a martyr can see into the afterlife. These people are using their prisoners as sort of experiments to find out what the afterlife is.

It's not just a torture porn. This movie is pretty disturbing from start to finish.

Seen it being recommended here a couple of times.

Good stuff is good.

Fuck shit like The Conjuring.




Check out stuff like Seul Contre Tous and Irreversible (in that order) for more French goodness.

I've seen Irreversible as well. Didn't make me shit my pants as much, but it was cringe worthy for other reasons and quite good. I'll have to see the other.

Probably should have added: Don't watch Martyrs if you're sensitive. Kids die, women get beaten, cutting happens, skinning happens, and it's all portrayed by Emmy deserving actors. (Also Irreversible... Not for the faint of heart.)

The reason I recommend Martyrs is because it's not mindless. People have compared it to Hostel. But honestly, I find Hostel nothing more than torture porn. Martyrs is as much a psyche thriller as it is blood & guts.

Hostel was boring as fuck.


edit: check out Seul Contre Tous btw. It's from the same director of Irreversible. Noé is a boss.

Irreversible hit me way harder than Martyrs btw.


(might wanna check out Antichrist as well)

This post was edited by hATemOnkEy on Nov 15 2014 07:29pm

I liked Martyrs simply because it was different. The ending was satisfying though, because it can be interpreted in so many ways.

agreed never watched Seul Contre Tous but Irreversible is brilliant ! must watch

The ending was interesting for sure. I don't know about satisfying. My initial thought was, "Oh good. They found out what's in the afterlife. So, they can stop doing all this terrible shit to people." Nope.

Maybe there's a god and she found out she wasn't getting into heaven.
Maybe the afterlife was so amazing, she couldn't wait to get there.
Maybe there's no afterlife at all and all her "work" was for not.