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During the screening of it, I literally had my hand over my mouth, whispering “Oh God, No” to myself several times and almost, contemplated getting up to leave the theatre to leave as I just couldn’t take anymore.

Sometime in the 1970’s a young girl, perhaps no older than 12 or 13, is discovered by authorities scarred, filthy, starving and nearly catatonic wandering along the side of a country road. The police, horrified at the physical, emotional, and mental state the girl is in, act quickly and discover an abandoned slaughterhouse where the girl was imprisoned and relentlessly tortured. Upon further examination, it is determined that the girl was never sexually violated at the hands of a brutal pedophile; this is something far more strange and disturbing. How did Lucie escape from her captors and just what did go on in that icy, unforgiving room?

Vive le France. Simply put, what more can be said? For a country primarily known for the French New wave of Godard, Truffaut, Melville, and others when it comes to film, this country has done very well in separating themselves from that label. Perhaps France’s rich film history is what enables a lot of their filmmakers to be so passionate about their films; I don’t know if it’s a sense of civic pride or an almost innate ability to treat “genre” films seriously in terms of the production itself. 

All of the technical aspects in these are usually spot on, whether it’s the superb lighting of Inside or the nauseating score of Irreversible.  For those of us keeping track at home, France has brought forth several interesting genre filmmakers within the past decade; Gaspar Noe, Claire Denis, Christophe Gans, Xavier Gens, Alex Aja. Florent Emilio Siri, the duo of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, and of course now, Pascal Laugier, who wrote and directed Martyrs.

Martyrs is unquestionably the buzz film for all horror fans this year. Several stories surrounding it popped up on the Internet, further cementing its must-see status. To recap, Laugier has often said that virtually no big studios or prominent actresses wanted to have any involvement with the film due to its extreme nature. Martyrs, was then screened at the prestigious Cannes film festival this year in the market, and was absolutely the most divisive film screened.

Some hailed it as a masterpiece, others thought it to be extremely transgressive trash; the likes of which had not been seen before and which certainly signaled the death knell of everything good and pure in the world. Martyrs was given the absolute commercial death sentence of an 18 rating (equivalent to an X) in France, which was unprecedented for French genre films. Promptly, the Weinsteins snapped it up for release on their Dimension Extreme label (as they are known to do).

As a horror fan in this day and age, we are absolutely drowning in the mediocrity of neutered remakes made for a pg-13 world, Laugier’s Martyrs pulls you out of that pool and plunges you right down a deep, dark, black hole, from which there is no return. The images, characters and, brutality in this film have an absolutely resonating depth and emotional context, which can be uncommon in films of the like; there are no cheerleaders, elitist jocks or nerds to go like lambs to the slaughter in this film. Instead you have 2 fully fleshed out protagonists who you genuinely care about, whose emotional and physical pain is made all the more harrowing as a result of this.

The tension and dread in this film are absolutely palpable and that is no small feat for a filmmaker to be able to do. The ability to use twists and turns in the film as well the punishing gore to further enhance the story and experience the audience has while viewing it is Laugier’s true talent .

Martyrs differs from most horror films in two primary ways; firstly, the gore in this film is never done to titillate or thrill the viewer, much like the so called “torture-porn” films of this day and age. The gore is all handled in a very grim, sober, and methodical fashion, without all of the cheap thrills lesser films go far. Secondly, despite all of the extreme brutality in the film, it never feels vile or mean-spirited, unlike Last House on the Left, Cannibal Holocaust, or any other number of exercises in brutality. This film has a poetic beauty steeped in sadness that flows through to the very end of the film. Laugier has higher aspirations than those films wanted and pulls them off magnificently.

I feel confident in saying this film is an absolute masterpiece and will truly be the measuring stick for all genre films going forward. During the screening of it, I literally had my hand over my mouth, whispering “Oh God, No” to myself several times and almost, contemplated getting up to leave the theatre to leave as I just couldn’t take anymore. After the film, Colin Geddes(the great programmer for TIFF’s midnight madness) had helmer Laugier, and the 2 female leads up on stage for a Q&A session. I am not uttering a word of hyperbole to say that I was genuinely relieved to see that those 2 girls were alright and were smiling in front of me. I know how that sounds, and I know it was only a film, but it genuinely struck a nerve with me.  It will take an absolutely towering effort to even be in the same ball park as Laugier’s Martyrs, I guess the ball is back in your court America, let’s see what you’ve got.

This review was provided by Big Willie.  You can hear Bill Willie each week on The Gentleman’s Guide to Midnight Cinema.  You can find the Gentleman’s Guide here and visit the GGMC forum.  Pop Syndicate would like to extend a big thank you to Big Willie for taking the time to provide the review.

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