Martyrs Details

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[Highly rated reviewer]

Effective horror, yet slightly disappointing

From Pascal Laugier (who will soon be directing and writing the Hellraiser remake), Martyrs is at times a very good, very effective horror movie that is bloody, violent, a little disturbing and well acted, with some very good make-up effects. Sadly it is also a little underwhelming though given my expectations due to the hype surrounding the film, in the end is nothing like what I expected it to be (the numerous comparisons to the film Inside are unnecessary, with the only similarities being that both are French films and both having blood & violence. Comparisons to films like Hostel and to a lesser extent Hellraiser would be more appropriate) and the sadistic violence in the last 30-minutes got surprisingly quite boring very quickly (rather than having the shocking & very disturbing effect I suspect the director wanted it to have). But even though Martyrs was quite a disappointment in the end, there were some good ideas and effective scenes during the film and there is hope for a good Hellraiser remake if Laugier (maybe with the help of Clive Barker) is left to make the film he envisions without interference from the producers.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Gratuitous

As a long term advocate of free expression and the pushing of boundaries in cinema, it says a lot about Martyrs that it is the first film which has truly made me doubt my own position. Shocking, vile, gruesome and utterly depressing - the film sets a new standard in ‘gruelling’. Frequently I felt like turning it off and by the end I wished I had.

I do not doubt Laugier’s artistic intentions and in places the film impresses. As a meditation on the dangers and hypocrisies inherent in organised religion as well as the emotional (as well as physical) scars we leave on one another the film has some intriguing observations to make. But the approach would charitably be described as overkill. Indeed, Laugier uses a metaphorical bulldozer to try cracking this particular nut.

So should artistic freedom give filmmakers leave to employ distressing and extreme imagery completely without sanction? The negative reaction in Cannes to Lars von Trier’s Antichrist would suggest not. There is simply not enough substance to vindicate the extremity of Martyrs. This results in it being gratuitous. For that reason alone I can only suggest that this particularly repulsive film is one to avoid.