Martyrs

Plot synopsis:
Lucie (Jessie Pham), who has been missing for over a year, is found hysterical by the side of the road. She leads police to the derelict slaughterhouse where evidence suggests she was held captive. Although there is no evidence of sexual abuse, Lucie bears the signs of repeated injury and neglect. Traumatized and uncommunicative, Lucie is unable to tell the authorities anything further about her time in captivity or the people who kept her there.Over time, Lucie makes friends with Anna (Erika Scott), another girl in the youth home where she lives. Anna looks after Lucie and eventually gains her trust. Lucie appears to be haunted by something or someone - a shadowy, rasping female figure (Isabelle Chasse) who apparently mutilates Lucie. After one such episode, Lucie makes Anna promise not to tell anyone about the creature haunting Lucie. Meanwhile, with the help of the doctor (Tony Robinow), the police even questions Anna, so as to know whether Lucie has communicated something to her. Anna says that Lucie cannot usually remeber anything about her captivity period.At this point, the film moves ahead 15 years, and shifts its attention to the Belfond family. Mom (Patricia Tulasne) is fixing a sewer line in the yard, Dad (Robert Toupin) is making breakfast, and son Antoine (Xavier Dolan) and daughter Marie (Juliette Gosselin) are wrestling over a love note Antoine received. As everyone sits down to breakfast, the doorbell rings - it's Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), who shoots the father to death with a shotgun. The mother follows in short order, and then Lucie hesitates, asking Antoine how old he is and if he knew what his parents have done. When she doesn't get an answer, she kills Antoine. Marie hides upstairs, but Lucie finds her and kills her as well. Panicked, Lucie calls Anna (Morjana Alaoui) at a public phone to come and help her. Lucie claims she has "done it". Anna, shocked at hearing what Lucie says asks if she's sure these are the people who kidnapped her. Lucie confirms and they complete their phone call. Lucie's creature reappears and tries to attack Lucie some more. Lucie explains that she's "killed them", and so the creature can leave her alone now. The creature continues to attack her. Lucie escapes the creature out of the house and runs straight into Anna.Lucie frightened tells Anna not to go into the house as "she's" still in there. Anna says she has to and heads inside. She is horrified at the sight of what Lucie has done to the Belfond family. After nearly throwing up she starts working on moving the bodies. Lucie falls asleep in the daughter's bedroom and wakes to strange noises in the house. She sees Anna burying the bodies outside. Anna returns inside to collect another body and takes a break in the room they have moved the bodies to. She then discovers the mother is still alive. The mother yells awaking Lucie again. Lucie heads downstairs to check on Anna. Anna attempts to hide the fact the mother is still alive and takes the daughter's body outside. She then hears Lucie screaming from inside as the creature resumes its assault. After escaping the creature again flashbacks reveal that the it is a woman who was being tortured in the same building as Lucie.Anna then attempts to smuggle the living mother out of the house. Lucie hears this as the mother screams in pain and escapes the room Anna has locked her in. As Anna is getting the mother near to the exit Lucie arrives and beats the mother to death with a hammer. This is followed by one more attempt to placate the creature, as Lucie shows the creature that the mother is dead. The creature embraces her gently, and begins to cut into her arms. Anna sees Lucie cutting herself - the creature is something Lucie is hallucinating. Lucie runs from the creature crashing through the glass entry way to the Belfond house. When Lucie was able to escape, she had an opportunity to take the woman with her, but did not and has been haunted by it ever since. In a fit of rage and sadness, Lucie cuts her own throat.Anna brings Lucie's body into the house, cleans it and wraps it in cloth. In cleaning up the house, she notices a hole in the wall behind a cabinet. Anna opens the cabinet and discovers a hidden staircase leading down. Anna discovers an underground complex decorated with pictures of people in extreme suffering. Exploring further, Anna discovers another woman, naked and chained to a wall with a metal blindfold riveted to her head. She frees the woman and takes her upstairs. Anna attempts to bathe the woman and she resists, and after Anna removes the blindfold, the woman runs off, finds a knife and begins to mutilate herself, attempting to cut off her arm.As Anna tries to stop the woman, the woman is killed by a shotgun blast. A group of people have entered the house, and they take Anna down into the hidden complex. An older woman -referred to only as "Mademoiselle" (Catherine Bégin) - explains to Anna that they are not interested in victims, but martyrs - the act of martyrdom brings about transcendence and the possibility of seeing into the afterlife. They are, in essence, creating martyrs through systematic abuse in the hopes of learning what lies after death from their accounts as they achieve transcendence. They kidnap young women because young women seem to be especially likely to achieve a transcendent state. Anna is then rendered unconscious.Anna wakes up chained to a chair similar to the one discovered in the building where Lucie was kept. She is fed some sort of unpleasant gruel and methodically beaten. This goes on for several days until a badly battered Anna loses the will to resist. She hears Lucie's voice in her head, telling her that it is going to be okay, that she won't suffer much longer. Anna is then brought to an operating theater, where she is strapped into a rotating rack and flayed.A now-skinless Anna is hung by a rack under hot lights. The people attending her remark on her considerable resilience, noting that she is still alive. The woman feeding Anna notices something about her has changed, and she calls Mademoiselle to tell her that Anna is close to transcendence. Mademoiselle hurries over and arrives in time for Anna to give her an account of what she had witnessed.The next day, a large number of wealthy older people arrive at the house, and Mademoiselle's assistant, called Etienne (Jean-Marie Moncelet), announces that Anna - only one of four young women to successfully achieve martyrdom - was the first to provide an account of the world beyond life, and Mademoiselle was present to hear her account and would be sharing it with the assembled people shortly.Mademoiselle appears to be getting ready as Etienne speaks to her through the door, asking if the announcement means that Anna saw something, and Mademoiselle says that she did, and it was clear and precise. Mademoiselle asks Etienne if he could imagine life after death. Etienne says he could not. Inside, Mademoiselle is sitting on the edge of a bathtub, where she takes a gun out of her purse. She calls to Etienne and tells him to continue doubting before shooting herself in the head.The movie ends with Anna, lying in some sort of medicated bath in the underground complex, looking at something very far away, fading to black, and a definition of "martyr" which indicates the derivation from the Greek word for "witness."

Tags: psychological, cruelty, murder, cult, violence, horror, plot twist, atmospheric, insanity, revenge, sadist

Review:
For me it was the highlight of the festival and i absolutely loved it but I don't believe it's a movie that anybody will truly 'enjoy'.As others have already given away too much of the story i won't bother with a synopsis as Martyr's is definitely a dish best served cold.
Martyrs really is a truly brilliant, surprisingly moving film and one that will remain in my mind, jostling for attention with my other thoughts for a very long time to come.
Lucie, the main characters and victim of a year long torture plan, evokes the sympathy of the viewer and plays it out incredibly well.The first half of the film keeps balancing on borderline horror, keeping its crude and dark exterior, but never crossing any boundaries.
Essential to the film and certainly not an easy task.Don't watch Martyrs to get a little horror kick, or to indulge in silly gorefests.
It contains enough tough to see horror/gore to satisfy the bloodhounds (though it doesn't feel like another attempt to up the gore ante for the sake of it, thankfully) and then - if you can watch it and many couldn't - transcends the genre totally with a jaw-dropping final act which if you're interested in the human condition and the capacity for seemingly normal people to do incredibly bad things will have you asking questions for some time to come and recognising that when horror and ideas mesh successfully, the result can be breathtaking.
I loved this movie and for those who have already posted comments good, bad or indifferent (and I really can't imagine a neutral response!) I hope like myself you have come away with a genuine sense of having seen something the like of which we are unlikely to see for some time...
The only thing in doubt is whether the "philosophical" issue has been added to pretend like it's a real movie, or if it was added intentionally to try and "get away with it".Watch it if you are one of those sickos who enjoy watching helpless suffering (but you might spend your time and money better at a therapists).Or watch it with some friends, take note of who seems to enjoy watching it, and never call them again..
Martyrs is probably the most extreme movie ever made in France, and cannot be compared with any other flick I have seen before.It was a unique and traumatic experiment to watch it in a theater where half of the audience left before the end, while the other half was feeling very uncomfortable.
It is NOT for everybody, and you can really be upset at times, even if you are a basic horror fan as I am.This movie is not made to please the audience, especially the second part, except if you are seriously disturbed.
I couldn't help thinking about The Screwfly Solution that Joe Dante made in reaction of all the gratuitous violence made to women in horror movies.Fortunately, the end of the movie gives enough meaning to what you have been through, watch the whole thing if you can.I gave a 7 because it's not a movie that you can really like or recommend to your friends, but I think it's a real milestone in horror, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre was in his time..
Something must have gone right straight wrong with the world that people think that all this depraved senseless gore and torment and intelligence deprived garbage is anything that adds value to the legacy that we as mankind leave to those who will call us their ancestors.And what is up with the self-idolizing lunatics who go on at great length in mind numbing posts analyzing and praising these pieces of excrement, ever so obviously in covert attempts to toot their own horn at their self-deluded level of "intellect" and proficiency in "artistic appreciation".I can understand if some amateur movie makers want to throw their moral values out the window or put something like this together to get some quick and dirty exposure, but please spare us the praise.1/10 and I'm deducting that last 1 point from the next movie Laugier makes although obviously I hope that never happens..
If you are horror fan like me who likes to be shocked, drenched in gore and at the same time wants to have fun watching horror movies, avoid this film.
I'm an addict of scary movies although I did have to avert my eyes through much of the Hostel gore films.With Martyrs, it was like watching what a "snuff" film must look like: a relentless flow of images where a young girl is sadistically tortured over every part of her body.Why they used a human being for the victim is baffling, since the actress often looked like a bag of bones.
"Martyr" - witness.In an era of horror films in which graphic violence and depravity and the highest levels of human evil are dominated by the likes of the "Saw" movies and the "Hostel" movies, French director Pascal Laugier's "Martyrs" has proved itself to be a two-fold juggernaut: on the one hand, it's the most artistically depraved and frightening new piece of "torture porn" I've ever seen, and on the other hand "Martyrs" is not just a film - it's an experience.
Most horror filmmakers are interested in making their movies as realistic as possible - certainly more-so than their predecessors this time 20 years ago - but Pascal Laugier has succeeded in creating a film experience that transcends much of what I've seen in recent years in the horror genre.
"Martyrs," is in essence, a horror film for mature horror movie fans, the ones not yet accustomed to "Saw" or "Hostel."Both Morjana Alaoui and Mylene Jampanoi turn in career-making performances.
Unfortunately, all the surrounding buzz focused on the unprecedented level of physical and emotional violence in this movie, prompting many (like me) to read as much about the film in order to determine if they could stomach it.Know this - Martyrs is a phenomenal horror film, but is not the gruelling ordeal many would have you believe.
After the graphic and gripping grisly delights of "Haute tension" and "À l'intérieur", this latest film takes the viewer on a totally unpredictable path to new and shocking horrors.With realistic and gripping performances, "Martyrs" is uncompromising viewing that pushes the envelope for what is, at the end of the day, a theatrical release.
Seeing the film uncut on blu-ray in the UK, it really makes you realise how times have changed from the scapegoat days of the "video nasties" back in the early '80s.Highly recommended but uncomfortable viewing - this is one of the best genre movies I've had the experience of watching.
Inside, to me, is still the crowning champion of Extreme French Horror films, but Martyrs definitely works.
The plot of Martyrs may not be the best, but the way it's told is enough that while watching the movie, it feels like a much better story than if someone were to sit down and explain it.
There were parts I had to skip past - the violence is gratuitous, i.e. does not advance the plot, and is so brutal it is literally impossible to watch if you have any degree of human empathy.Literary theory says that you can tell how a writer feels about the types of people in his stories by the fates those characters suffer.
Well, as I find myself in the unfortunate position of living in (or rather through) a decade where depicting torture, and only torture, seems to be the epitome of being "horror", I was literally forced (by some so-called friends) to watch this movie.Well, it's got all you'd expect from a torture film.
Film review being the highly subjective and personal thing it is, I shall not expend great amounts of words here.Suffice to say, this film is, in some ways, the most shocking film I have seen in twenty years of watching some truly hard and driven cinema.If you enjoy being challenged, and like a film that leaves it to you to draw the conclusions, I really, really cannot recommend this highly enough.If you are of a sensitive nature, are easily offended, or are a torture porn junkie give it a wide berth.Accomplished, audacious, and so affecting I am not yet sure if I even LIKED it.
Oh well, now I can recommend it to someone I don't like and that way he'll suffer the pain I had to go through while watching this."Martyrs" is about torture porn, plain and simple.
I had to register so I could write this review.I use IMDb religiously before thinking of watching a movie as with everyone's else,our time is precious in our busy schedules.I hate watching a movie that received high scores only to be a total crap art piece.I've seen lots of horror/gore types but this was a waste of time.If you're into gore give it a try but this is a movie that goes nowhere fast.Those who gave it such a high score??????????????????????I guess you want to write a great review/score because if everyone else is it must have been a good movie even though I didn't get it or like it.Go with the herd.Get some balls and call it what it was--garbage with a garbage direction throughout the movie.Rather watch SAW over and over again or while I'm at it through in hostel!!!!Do yourself a favour and something else...ANYTHING ELSE!!!You've been warned..
Show the meaning for 90% and the torture for 10% than I will agree, it is meaningful...This is NOTHING but a glorified and even more over the top Hostel and has two type of fans: gore hounds (which group i can understand), and pseudo-intellectuals who will say to everybody, who doesn't like this movie, that they just don't get it, and should watch Michel Bay movies instead...Ironically Michael Bay and this director has a lot in common...they are both good at shooting excessive and meaningless violence, although even the Island has more meaning and human emotion than this...Most likely half of the above mentioned pseudo-intellectuals condemn Hostel for being a mindless Hollywood piece of trash...Funny thing this movie even has the same antagonists: rich white people hunting innocents for their means, since this is sooo original......I am really sad i can not give 0 starsAnd the saddest part is: this movie is available at the most known video sharing site in full length, the uncut version, without age restriction...I hope no 5-10 year old will stumble upon it because from that point on, the director will be not better from his antagonists one tiny bit.
This started promisingly enough, in the first five minutes I was reminded of some Japanese horror flicks, all this changed after the initial (brief) credits, where mood made way for blood n guts and attempts to throw the audience off the trail.In fact this movie changed so much at about the half way point that it almost was like Three Extremes or Grindhouse, where multiple directors contribute to make a collective "work".
If cinemas still had an interval they could have marketed this as a double bill, because if the lead actress wasn't the same you could be forgiven for thinking that you were watching another movie.So I'll review the film twice.Martyrs – First 45 minutes.A bit similar to Hard Candy, you can't tell what is real and what is imagined, who is sane and who is nutso.
We'll be back in a moment.Martyrs – The second 45 minutes.Don't worry if you missed the last 45 minutes, it doesn't really matter but the front end of our double bill was a nice little example of misdirection with some brutal violence and pretty reasonable acting.The only carryover from that is the lead actress Anna, who finds herself in a position where she must endure what no-one should, for reasons that simply don't provide anything resembling justification for both the punishment and arguably the making of this film.One reason that movie lovers look overseas for alternatives is to experience something new and different, Asian horror until recently showed better imagination for where horror can be found, I am now positive that in general Europe has a willingness to go further, more "extreme" if you will, for longer and basically carry situations far beyond what America might find as a logical conclusion.There is a 25 minute period in Martyrs – Part 2 where dialogue is minimal and the experience is so unrelenting and linear that they lost me, I gave up.
A troubled girl named Lucile (Myleine Jampanoi) whom was physically abused as a child who joins up with another abuse victim Anna (Mojrana Alaoui)as together they vow revenge on those that tortured and hurt them along time ago as now they will suffer through torment and agony once again as Martyrs.Brutal and powerful French/Canadian horror thriller is one of the decade's best and most original horror movies.
This is part feel good and feel bad at the same time as it's not a movie for everyone but the film offers amazing performances, terrific production values and incredibly realistic make-up effects as this is not for the faint of heart but a must see for horror fans and art-house lovers.Also recommended: "Hostel 1 & 2", "Men Behind The Sun", "The New York Ripper", "The Untold Story", "Maniac (1980)", "The Toxic Avenger", "Blood Diner", "Inside", "High Tension (a.k.a. Switchblade Romance)", "FrontierS", "Ichi The Killer", "Driller Killer", "Audition", "Pieces", "The Last House on The Left (1972 and 2009)", "The Hills Have Eyes (1977 and 2006)", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre parts 1, 2, 3, 2003 remake and The Beginning", "Cannibal Ferox", "Hellraiser 1 & 2", "House on The Edge of the Park", "Salo: 120 Days in Sodom", "Funny Games (1997)", "Misery", "Visitor Q", "Jungle Holocaust (a.k.a. Last Cannibal World)", "Cannibal Holocaust", "The Midnight Meat Train", "Saw Series", "Captivity", "Silent Hill", "Bloodsucking Freaks", "Mark of the Devil", "Blood Feast 1 & 2", "The Wizard of Gore (1970 and 2007)", "Cat in The Brain", "The Ordeal", "Videodrome", "House of 1000 Corpses", "The Devil's Rejects", "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend", "Broken (2006)", "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" and "Tetsuo The Iron Man"..
Martyrs is the latest in a long line of gory French horror films that have included the likes of Switchblade Romance, Sheitan and Inside.
much credit must go to the makers and their originality, and to the cast who must have endured so much just during the filming, let alone the living with their experiences there after.I know this ain't real, but it sure does a good job making it feel so, and not since switchblade romance have i felt so uncomfortable and in need of a sick bucket, BUT also had a satisfactory ending that delivers along the lines of the narrative set before it.
Not going into the plot, because to be honest you can get that info at the home page on IMDb, but to watch this and not know to much really is the best way to see it.This film just does'nt have a boring second in it, and the 95 minutes just fly by, but the real treat here is the ending...a sucker punch, bullet of an ending.Acting is superb by all.The gore, make-up effects also superb.Being a foreign film, I hope this gets the push in UK and America that it truly deserves.My only concern is that I will never be able to see it again for the first time!
Oh well, I guess my point being that Im sure another "torture horror" film will be out to out do this in a few months time.
After reading so much about the shocking rawness and violence from the film Martyrs,I have to confess I almost had fear to watch it.When I finally saw it,I was left amazed by this brilliant movie,which has solid performances,a very ingenious screenplay and a disturbing intensity which makes it hugely superior to a lot Hollywood movies belonging to the sub-genus of torture cinema (like Hostel,Saw 5 or Captivity).The best element from this movie is definitely the screenplay.It is perfectly structured,and a little bit after half an hour,there is an absolutely surprising twist which puts the movie on a different context,at the same time it shows mental and physical torture to brutal levels which produced a lot of shock on me.The work of Pascal Laugier (whose previous movie Saint Ange had not left me very satisfied) was not only great on the screen writing field,but also on the directing field,because the cold and at the same time relentless tone of the movie makes everything to feel very realistic.Myléne Jamponoí and Morjana Alaoui bring extraordinary performances,because they are 100% credible and intense on every scene they appear.The only fail I found on this movie is that near the ending,the screenplay has a few forced elements.But,in spite of some minor fails,Martyrs is a film which is completely worthy of admiration.I definitely recommend it to the fans of the horror cinema who are tired of all the remakes,rehashes and imitations the North American cinema usually offers on this genre.Comparing it with other extreme French horror movies,I would consider Martyrs to be very superior to the overrated Frontiere(s),marginally better than the brilliant Haute Tension and at the same level of A l'interieur.Martyrs is an undoubtedly difficult experience,and I dare to say it may result intolerable to some casual spectators.So,I recommend it with a lot of enthusiasm but not without that warning.In my case,Martyrs was a devastating but unforgettable experience..
However, the whole experience of watching this is so disturbing and creepy that it's hard to call Laugier's movie anything but exceptional and thoroughly recommendable to any horror fan..
" This is fime for children who like the style of "monsters", but for an adult, is a film that is too weak, poorly made​​, has nothing to do with the synopsis of the movie, and unfortunately I lost a good time of my life watching this crap!Note: 1/10.
To put it simply, "Martyrs" is two movies in one, and unfortunately, its final act doesn't do the film justice.