March 12, 2009
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You can't handle the truth!
French director Pascal Laugier's unpredictable 2008 art-house horror outing Martyrs is a metaphorical kick to the proverbial crotch when you're asleep, a slippery, salty mind fuck of the highest caliber -- and I loved every deliriously gory minute of it. Describing the story is difficult, so I'll stick with this ultra-simple description: Two girls -- Lucie (crazy) and Anna (not so much) -- descend upon a seemingly normal middle-class family in order to exact revenge for the unspeakable acts they brought upon the aforementioned lunatic when she was just a child. However, once the unfortunate deed is done, more questions bubble to the surface. For instance: Why does that twisted, distorted monstrosity follow Lucie wherever she goes? More importantly, why does this beast feel the need to litter the poor girl's body with cuts, bruises, and scars? What begins as yet another entry into France's extremely graphic "survival horror" genre quickly descends into something much more original, unconventional, and gut-wrenchingly cruel. Laguier -- who has been tapped to direct Clive Barker's Hellraiser reboot -- assaults us with the sort of savage imagery that will burn itself in our memories for quite some time. Gimmicky, yes, but effective enough for audiences to overlook its calculated nature. Martyrs achieves what all good horror films should strive for: to create shocking, incendiary, tense, and suspenseful scenarios that immediately suck us in and spit us out in an unidentifiable wad on the kitchen floor. Brutality as enlightenment has never seemed quite so beautiful.
Recipe For Success: Laguier's Unflinching Eye For Violence + Morjana Alaoui And Mylène Jampanoï + One Hell Of An Ending
Screw My Lame Jokes: Just watch the movie, okay? Promise?
Good movies are fun to share with others.
3 Spasms:
Good film but not one that I am sure I'd watch again.
I reviewed this over at Cinema Suicide if you're interested.
I left out some info I thought was kind of inappropriate at the time; the special FX makeup guy (Benoît Lestang) committed suicide shortly before it was screened at TIFF. He'd been the director's roommate during the filming in Canada, and the director was clearly taking it hard.
The director was clearly making a very personal film, and I think he succeeded at making something original and interesting.
I am very much looking forward to seeing this one!
Glad to hear that it is living up to its expectations!
Near-total garbage. The director has an eye for staging action and gore scenes, but the story for the first 2/3 is scattershot and incoherent and in the last third it gets downright nonsensical and literally offensive (and I'm a person who sees the value of Pasolini's Salo). A well-made, terribly stupid and pointless film.
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