Martyrs (2008)

Day 56 of Sobriety.
 

Sheesh… Where to start with this one..?

I was curious about Martyrs because, while it had a reputation for being extremely violent and disturbing, it also seemed to be pretty well regarded, garnering high positions in quite a lot of rankings of “best horror films of the decade,” and so on.

I knew that the film involved graphic scenes of women and children being subjected to abuse, and was not going to be a comfortable experience, so it languished in my “to watch” pile for a considerable time before I felt mentally robust enough to sit down and watch it. And yeah, it was very grim viewing indeed.

Without giving away the plot (and it does have a plot—it’s certainly not a mindless film) it is pretty much non-stop violence, trauma, and torture for its entire running time. Having looked at various reviews of the film online, one response that seemed to come up repeatedly in various iterations was, “It’s a good film, but I never, ever, want to sit through it again.” I feel pretty much the same. But I guess I need to qualify “good” in that context, then. 

I watched an interview with the director, Pascal Laugier, and he is, (unsurprisingly) a very thoughtful and articulate guy. He is clearly a massive fan of genre cinema, and referenced several other notoriously violent horror films during the interview. One thing he said about Martyrs is that he was aiming to make a film that was very compelling and which kept the audience on the edge of their seats and wanting to see what happens next–a “page turner,” so to speak. I think in that respects, the film succeeds very well. I think I probably watched the whole movie with my mouth open. There are some great twists in the narrative, where it almost pivots and turns into a different style of film. I haven't seen any of his other films, but I have a feeling that like, for example, Lars von Trier, Laugier is perhaps a director who likes putting his audience through the wringer a bit, and messing with their heads.

It is very well-shot, with a kind of steady-cam-like approach that pulls you right into the events occurring on the screen, and the performances of the two female leads are also excellent—especially considering how physically demanding they must have been.

Where I think the film fails, though, is that the “pay off”–the revelation of why all the stuff in the film is happening, and the final conclusion, are just too weak after the ordeal of sitting through such a grueling film. In the end it all felt pretty empty, and if you are going to subject your audience to that much trauma, then I think you need to leave them with something more substantial.