 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Martyrs • Year: 2008 • Country: France, Canada • Director: Pascal Laugier • Main cast: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin • Runtime: 99 min • Production compaies: Canal Horizons, Canal +, CinéCinéma, Eskwad, TCB Film, Wild Bunch • TRAILER |
Imagine a little girl living her childhood between 4 rusty walls. Chained and tortured, being abused day after day without seeing nobody else besides her oppressors. Imagine the trauma this situation can lead to. And after 15 years, imagine this now grown up girl taking revenge on her captors. Basically, this is Martyr’s starting point, nothing outstanding or surprising. But we can’t judge a book only by its cover, so let’s see what lurks inside this “little” revenge flick.
Pascal Laugier wasn’t a well known director when Martyrs premiered in Cannes in 2008. Only a film (House of Voices – Saint Ange (2004)) with mixed reviews to “not-very-good” ones was the presentation card of this French director. Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï weren’t big names on the cast, being Catherine Bégin the only one with a dilated background and experience on the screen. But, hey: it worked. It definitely worked. This is not your standard horror film. This is not the torture porn film you’re used to. Not your average revenge movie neither. It’s a cut above the average, way above. This film is like a rollercoaster, but with only one direction: forward to hell.
Solid acting, perfect timing and a very subtle but very effective soundtrack (made by Sepukku Paradigm) are the basis to engage the viewer at first instance, but one thing that makes this flick special is the high level of non- stop psychic pressure the characters are suffering just right from scratch. As I said before, there’s only one direction and is all way down for both the characters and the viewers. Script develops in three very different acts, each one of them dealing with a different representation of the inner demons and taking us deeper into the darkness within the human being. And this eventually leads to a more physical horror. No more words needed!
So… no. This is not a revenge film, but it starts like one. This is not a straight forward horror film, but has enough horror within to shut any hardcore horrorhound’s mouth in a snap. This is, after all, one of the most psychologically intense films I’ve seen in a very long time and believe me: nothing’s scarier than a human playing to be god.
100% recommended. A must. And just an advice, if you still haven’t seen it: forget about trailers and go without hesitation for the real deal! You won’t regret it.
RATE: 9/10
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029234
