Martyrs - french horror

[Simas]

Martyrs (2008)

Just watched this. It got hit with the french NC-17 when it came out. I dont want to give too much away. Half way through I wasnt sure what I thought of it but by the end I decided it was on point. Its pretty fucked up. Netflix has it.

The director is doing the Hellraiser remake. After learning that (and seeing this) hellraiser went from no interest to must see for me.

[Rica86]

I saw this a few months ago on a friend suggestion, and it was really good. I also sat through the first half thinking "what the fuck" to all the stuff happening, then second half is just... Though saying it's pretty fucked up, is almost an understatement. It's like almost non-stop gratutious violence, but it actually serves a purpose in the movie. Definately a good movie though, one of the better horror movies i've seen in a while, all of which have been foreign. Fuck hollywood and the endless stream of shitty remakes. I still have no interest in the hellraiser even after you saying this director is doing it. It will suck. The only even somewhat decent horror remake in the last 5ish years was the dawn of the dead one. But even that no where near compares to the original. /endrant

On another note, I think I heard somewhere they are planning to remake an english version of this, which will inevitably suck as well. There are no real good younger actresses in hollywood atm and they will definately water it down for the ratings here which will most likely detract from the message/story whatever.

[deab]

Is it a horror movie, or just a violent movie?

Like Hostel is not scary, it is just violent, while Audition (an asian movie) is a scary movie.

[Rica86]

It's not really a like scary movie in the sense of like shit popping out at you, or you getting creeped out by monsters or whatever. It's more of like a dark, violent pyschological mind fuck. Like to compare to hostel, it's not just violence just to be violent, it's like violent to make you feel for the character, if that makes sense. I'd almost say it's more of a drama, with horror elements. But it definately has the horror elements there.

[Simas]

Its hard to pin down really, Id argue it changes genres three times in the film. But its unsettling. Think horror in a Funny Games or Irreversable way. Or Audition. Those films obviously did not employ stereotypical horror tropes, this one does.

[PosterOfStuff]

Originally Posted by Simas

Its hard to pin down really, Id argue it changes genres three times in the film. But its unsettling. Think horror in a Funny Games or Irreversable way. Or Audition. Those films obviously did not employ stereotypical horror tropes, this one does.

Does this movie have as violent scenes as Irreversable does ?

Fuck just typing that made me relive that rape and fire extingusher scene all over.

[Vorph]

Martyrs is a lot worse than Irréversible. It's a lot worse than Inside even. Really, the only thing you need to know about the movie is that it's a horror flick, it's brutally violent like nothing you've (probably) ever seen, and it's subtitled. If you're still interested then watch it--don't go looking for a trailer or anything, you'll just spoil it.

<3 French filmmakers for not being a bunch of pussies, and for putting our PG-13 horror faggotry to absolute shame.

And speaking of pussies... don't get it from Blockbuster or (really, this one should be obvious) Wal-mart. Just like Inside, their version of Martyrs is censored all to shit.

[chthonic-anemos]

Freaky movie. I liked the ending.

Are they actually filming the Hellraiser remake yet?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

When she whispered to the Miss about what she had seen I was disappointed. I wanted her to whisper something like it's a secret go piss off. But then the Miss delivered an equally satisfying scene.

[dechire]

Originally Posted by PosterOfStuff

Does this movie have as violent scenes as Irreversable does ?

irreversible isnt the most violent of the new french horror ...wave? What it does is take an angel and destroy it which i guess is pretty violent so nevermind. If i live the rest of my life having never seen that again ill be a happy man.

There have been quite a few films the french have put out that have been some of the most violent, creepy and downright shocking horror. A lot of these directors have been grabbed up by US film makers to make some of the more ultra violent movies we have had recently. Though story wise some of these movies have been pretty meh! but the violence, oh the sweet, sweet violence has always delivered.

I watched frontier(s) last night and it was pretty brutal, and this director moved on to Last House on the left, which i have not seen yet.

Haute Tension, gave us the director of what is arguably one of the better remakes The Hills have Eyes. I really didnt like the way that movie (HT) ended but my god the first scene in the house with the stairs was delightful in its brutality.

Martyrs was interesting to me because at the middle point the movie just changes direction in a way i didn't expect. Hell i thought the movie was over and then BAM! crazy shit. I missed it at Fantastic Fest last year and finally caught a blu-ray rip a month or two ago.

There are some more that i cant think of but my point is that the french have been doing something Americans even reallyhaven't been able to do recently. There is a great deal made out of Eli Roth and his torture porn that really doesnt hold a candle to anything the french have done. (that is debatable i guess). I aslo think that OT's new film is being heavily inspired by these french autuers.

side note: The spanish have mastered the ghost story or the spooky stuff.

[woot!]

Just done watching it (thx to this thread, had not heard of the movie before). It has been a long time since I had felt tense while watching a movie.
Haute Tension, Calvaire, Frontiere(s), Inside, and now this ? Yeah I guess the french definately know their job when it comes to making movies that make you cringe and/or go "wtf just happened ?"

[dechire]

Calvaire, thats one i forgot and have yet to watch actually. Tell No One is a movie that isnt horror, its a thriller, but its defiantly one of the best thrillers i have ever seen. The scene on the highway just about did me in with tension.

[Rathi04]

So I looked this movie up, did most people watch it with dubs or subs?

[Vorph]

I didn't even know there was a dubbed version, but I definitely wouldn't have watched it if I did.

I have the blu-ray rip, because the Weinsteins are a couple of douchebags who are more worried about censoring movies for BB and Wal-mart than releasing a quality version for people who actually like horror movies. (Read: the US blu-ray was cancelled, the French BR doesn't have English subs, and the UK version is PAL and Region B locked... so if you want to watch the movie in HD you have to download it.)

[Chaotic]

Just watched this, thanks for the heads up. I'm a huge foreign film fan.

For this, and for almost any other foreign movie - do yourself a favor and watch it with SUBS, don't be lazy and get a dubbed version. You lose the inflection / acting that comes with it and it makes everything stale, in everything i've ever seen.

That being said, this movie was freaky as shit and brutal, and crossed genres at the 65% point. Some excellent horror into some twisted... i don't even know. Violent drama with indie overtones?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The concept of this evil organization utilizing torture to induce a "crossover" experience in order to teach themselves exactly what death and it's aftermath is like is pretty sick. Also, at the end - after having watched the film two times. I'm 100% convinced that was anna's(?) ultimate revenge. She always cared for people and her only way to get it to stop was to hold on and to fake it (or not fake it, it's really irrelevant) and explain things to that lady in hopes that 1) she would kill herself like she did or 2) she would explain things to the whole group and the experiments would stop

[Galgor]

Just finished. Thanks for the tip on this one--I hadn't heard of it before. I'm always looking for newer types of weird movies.

That said, I didn't really like it. There was no resolution. Which is typical for a horror movie. But without spoiling anything, I can't really go in to specific detail. That said, I'll just say that there were things unexplained that weren't answered by the end of the movie.

And for those worrying if it's gore-porn--I'd say it is. Not in a typical way. But I wouldn't recommend it to the easily disturbed.

Thanks again for the recommendation.