Martyrs

A French horror film released in 2008, Martyrs is a gruesome and disgusting movie. It tells the story of young French girl who was tortured as a child. She escapes her captures and goes to live in an orphanage. She befriends another young girl and the two grow a very strong, possibly romantic, bond. At the orphanage the girl who was abused begins seeing a strange creature running around her room and the creature hurts her. After many years, the girl who was tortured finds her captures and takes revenge on them. The above plot described could have made an incredibly disturbing story. Unfortunately, all of the plot described happens within the first twenty minutes of the movie. The latter half of the movie falls short and is very flat. It relies heavily on gory visuals and extreme brutality that somehow fail to surprise the viewer.

The plot, however, could have made for an incredible movie. It is revealed later in the movie, that all of the torture, including regular beatings and isolation, is put upon these girls to make them into martyrs which in French translates to "witnesses." The scientific group performing these experiments is trying to make these young women witness the afterlife. The story is well written and interesting because of the insight into how pain can change the human mind, but the mediocre dialogue causes the movie to feel shallow and the overtly gory visuals will make the viewer feel the need to take a very long shower. Martyrs has an interesting story, but the images of a completely skinned woman who is still alive will haunt the viewers mind for many days.

-H