Martyrs
by Pascal Laugier
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DVD details
Actor: Catherine Begin, Morjana Alaoui, Mylene Jampanoi, Robert ToupinDirector: Pascal Laugier
Brand: Genius
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Original Language); English (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-28
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 1000146
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Product features:
- MARTYRS (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Martyrs
DVD Review: Yet Another Torture Porn Movie....
Summary: 1 Stars
AS AN ADDENDUM: My review contains some serious spoilers. Read at your own risk. I use the term "torture porn" not as a pejorative, but as a commonly accepted term used to describe films of this genre. I'm not going to waste time here discussing the merits or value of the term. I'm not a "professional" critic - nor do I have to be. And I'm not trying to prove how hard I am by listing my repertoire of violent films watched. The following is simply an unpretentious opinion, nothing more.
The horror genre is my favorite film genre. I've been watching them since I'm a kid. I can remember seeing mainstream movies like "Halloween," "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Friday the 13th," and a host of other more obscure films - some of which were thought of as extreme in their day. But after watching a number of "torture porn" films lately, I can safely say that I know I'm not desensitized to violence. Torture porn seems to be the nouveau chic, avant-garde subgenre of horror films lately, but these films really have very little to do with horror. I shouldn't even call it a subgenre. This is a mistake. I follow many horror movie sites and magazines, all of which covered this film. It has about as much in common as Poison does Slayer, if talking about metal bands. To be honest, try as I may, I absolutely hate the genre! I like my horror films to have a story with a bit of violence thrown in. Torture porn has violence with a little bit of a story thrown in.... maybe... probably not...but just maybe.
I was really looking forward to this film. So to be fair and to develop an honest opinion, I actually watched all of this film, and I can honestly say it's the most repulsive film that I've ever seen. Seriously! I'm about as liberal as it comes with art, but I thought for the first time that I was watching something that borderlined the obscene. It was really that grotesque - and not in the fun way. For the only the second time in my 35 years, I felt truly disgusted and sickened by a film - the other during the rape scene in "The Last House on the Left " remake (during which time I never heard an audience get so quiet... I suspect they were all shocked, too). I've since seen other shocking films, too, but my opinion of this film still stands.
The movie spends the vast majority of the time shocking the user first with extreme violence and then endless amounts of torture, only to throw in a Shyamalan-esque ending at the very end. To me, it did nothing to redeem the film, which spent too much time on the torture and violence. "High Tension" did the same thing. There's a formula here apparently: throw in as much extreme violence as possible, and at the end, give the viewers a twist as a chaser. I thought "High Tension" was bit cleverer with this, but after watching a woman get tortured for so long in this film and so graphically, the ending failed to outshine what had preceded it. I've seen other films that used the violence as a plot element. In this genre, it has become the main element. It's the centerpiece, and makes all other element seem ancillary.
I have a hard time seeing the artistic value of movies like this. It may be there (I'll give it that much), but I just don't see it. I'm of the opinion that the violence simply overpowers the movie's story. It's a subtle as a sledge hammer to the face. It's so shocking that people talk more about the violence of the film than its story, which, I think, shows the holes in the argument that the violence helps to move the plot along. What ever happened to subtlety in films? Apparently we all have the attention spans of 2 years olds and have to be constantly shocked into paying attention. The ending didn't leave me with any epiphany. I thought...wow...the violence is finally over....roll the credits....get me back the horror of the real world! There' s nothing life-affirming, enlightening, or beautiful about "Martyrs" that hasn't been said elsewhere in more eloquent ways - either in print or film. Making excuses for the gratuitous amounts of violence seems to be a poor attempt at rationalizing.
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
"Martyrs" has a bit of a plot, one that is placed in between the blood, cutting, beating of women, flaying people alive, force feeding people, etc. The plot is this, and only this: a cult believes that martyrdom is possible outside of religious belief and that a person can have visions of the afterlife if they suffer martyrdom. That's it. Period! A cult that wants to know what's after death tortures people to the point of martyrdom to find out what's after death. This might sound like a cool idea, but it is overpowered by the extreme level of violence of the film, which is so incredibly realistic that it's amazing! The French have a knack for producing the most realistic and bloody torture porn films - for good or for ill.
I've seen plenty of real life violence and bloodshed, so I'm not of a delicate disposition. I just honestly don't see the appeal of the genre. To me, it is a proof of the law of diminishing returns. People are constantly looking for new kicks. Surrounded daily by real horrors, people are no longer scared by traditional horror films. In comes torture porn to fill the need and to push the limits. It's S&M film, taken to deadly and grotesque limits. To me, there's nothing scary about seeing someone skinned, repeatedly beaten, force-fed, or cut over and over - especially women. To me, "SAW" started the modern incarnation of this genre (I liked that film, btw), and now people are trying to outdo each other with the level of gore and shocking violence. I expect more than violence in my horror films. Maybe this is your film; it wasn't mine. I'm sure it will appeal to fans of "Salo" and other examples of cultural detritus - although I think this film has more in common with "Saw" than "Salo." I don't see the art in any of these films. Would people say the same thing about, let's say, a realistic depiction of death camps, one that shows everything from internment to the actual mass murder? What's next a torture porn movie about Mengele? Instead of capturing the terror of horror films and distilling it into its most primal form, it looses its focus and produces a film that stands solely on the broken legs of extreme gore and violence without having a soul (a sound plot).
These films are pushing the bounds of hard ratings. At the rate that they are going, I suspect they'll be in the 18-only section before too long. These films are utterly doomed to serve a niche market, if not fail altogether. I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of people, even horror fans, don't want to be traumatized by what they see. Horror is great because it's fantasy, it's not real. It provides escapism, a little bit of fear, some excitement, maybe even some humor. But films that provide true repulsion, the totally grotesque, and even the vile stand as stark contrasts. They blur the line between entertainment, which is what horror is, and just plain disturbing imagery. Try as I might, I have a hard time seeing the beauty in violence for violence sake, in any medium. It's too real and too disturbing. I feel like I'm strapped into a chair undergoing the "Ludovico Technique."
Description of Martyrs
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 04/28/2009Bestsellers in DVD
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