Martyrs (2008)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Just don't watch it unless you are addicted to sadistic, torture porn Don't waste your time we have 2018 I'm confident you can find a better horror movie to watch. If we can say this is a horror movie at allI even registered to write this comment such an atrocity it is

The synopsis for Martyrs on Netflix (where it is not yet available, even on DVD) indicates that the movie's about a young woman who enlists the aid of her longtime friend to exact revenge on the couple who imprisoned and tortured her when she was a kid. But that covers only about the first twenty minutes of this gory thriller. Then stuff gets weird.First, a disclaimer. As I was watching this movie, I realized I really didn't like it. I just didn't get it. Didn't know why the plot was moving forward. Wasn't the revenge over? And then the third act finally arrived. And when I went to bed, I still didn't like it, but I was wavering. When I woke up the next morning, I had to admit to myself that it was a pretty good movie after all.In a sense, the plot isn't quite linear. We first see the women getting the revenge. But then the focus shifts from the original victim, Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi), to her friend Anna (Morjana Alaoui), who herself becomes a victim of immeasurable suffering. It's like watching the events that probably happened to Lucie play out with Anna. I started to wonder what the point or the endgame was. Was this just for the sake of bloodletting? The answer lies in the title. I certainly can't tell you why, as that would spoil the surprise. But if you do take the time to watch this movie – and beware, it's in French, and the version I saw was dubbed, not subtitled – try to stick with it. It'll give you something to think about, if nothing else.

I must start by saying this is not a movie for the faint-hearted. Also I believe there are a lot of good reviews of this film out there that should be read. Shocking, disturbing, brutal...those are just a few words that can describe this movie. What a human being can do for revenge, or just to find answers is unbelievable. I always ask myself how an actor could play so good in a movie where emotions are taken on a different kind of level. This is a movie that makes you feel disgusted with the world and ashamed of what humans can do to each other. It is a horror film that even for gorehounds the stomach may go nuts. A lot of people are making jokes when watching a horror film, trying to make it easier to watch. The moment Anna gets captured nobody can laugh anymore, it is intense and brutal. A normal person could not even think of making a joke at that moment. This movie depicts what human nature is capable of and makes it sad. The movie starts with a horror story and then walks into another one, over and over again. The actors did an amazing job, made it feel a lot more realistic with genuine emotions. Morjana Alaoui pulls in a heart wrenching performance. This is another reason why this movie is so good. I read that a lot of people were repulsed by the second part of the movie and it is understandable, but then again, it is just a movie (clearly not made for those with a weak heart). I still don't understand the world we live in, but I think these are realistic events converted in a fictional environment. The ending went into a direction I was not expecting. Like all horror films, the main character is either saved, either killed. But in this one the director gave a more profound meaning to the whole film. He left us surrounded by mystery and everyone can have their own interpretation. It is original, unlike a significant number of modern horror movies. Again, foreign films shows us that they are way better than Hollywood films.

The movie has a plot that it is shoddy at best and only needs ten minutes of screen time to portray it. Its lauded by some as such a good movie but has plot holes and doesn't seem to advance at all while only dragging on. Some will say I missed the point but movies like No Country for Old Men which is an in depth character study, Manchester by the Sea which explores humanity, Pulp Fiction which is a craft in more ways than one, etc. all convey their message and craft excellently. This movies is part horror, part torture-porn, part existential film. It tries to have some deep meaningful message which depending on the way you look at it is just gonna make you mad. I'm not saying that it should have ended more jovially but it doesn't give you anything to hold on to, really, just the images but not a message or a plot. Sure this movie will stick with you and make you feel depressed and question humanity but it does so in a similar way that a ten minute real life gory video will. If all it pretends to be is a movie that makes you see how ugly humanity is, like i said, ten minutes would have been enough. It throws in a shamble of a plot an some kind of allegedly meaningful ending but its just a big balloon full of hot air. A pretentious film that acts like it is more than it actually is. There are other movies labeled as pretentious that actually have a coherent message and strong plot and strong character study, this has none of that and ill stop now before this gets any longer.