"Martyrs" - lovely little gem from Québéc.
I went back a full year to make sure this hadn't already been posted (and it looks like it hasn't, at least not recently!), so I'm forging ahead.
I missed catching the screening of "MARTYRS" at the 2008 After Dark & Midnight Madness film fests in Toronto, and forgot all about it until I came across it by chance...at Blockbuster. Yeah, seriously. Blockbuster is carrying this...thing. (If you think about how prudish they generally are, what they won't carry, and what this film is like, you'll know why I was shocked.)
The basic trailers:
The basic spoiler-free gist:
A girl named Lucie is found running through the streets screaming and bloody, clearly the victim of some serious abuse, and is turned over to an orphanage of some sort. She's mute by choice for a long while, until another girl named Anna befriends her. They bond like sisters, especially when Anna starts seeing what Lucie is suffering (bruises and cuts from something or someone that torment her in the night...?). Fast forward 15 years, when these girls are all grown up, and Anna is roped into helping Lucie track down those who were responsible for her torture as a child, in the hopes that doing so will end the visions and very real night terrors she's been experiencing ever since. What happens from there is...pretty much beyond description. You should just see it.
If you're interested in spoilers, there are a few other scenes that have been uploaded to YouTube that might be worthwhile. I for one NEVER WANT TO SEE ANY PART OF THIS FILM AGAIN, but that's just me.
This is all in French, without subtitles, but all you need to know is that the family is having pretty normal, dull breakfast conversation. Nothing even remotely remarkable. Until Lucie shows up. Fast forward to the 3 minute mark for that.
That's actually the tamest part of the film, and takes place within the first 10 minutes or so, just FYI. The stuff that happens to Anna later on is...yeah, this next clip doesn't come close. If this was as bad as it got, it would be PG-13 at worst. I'm told the film actually got an X rating in France. I can see why.
If you've not yet seen it, and you're looking for something that definitely goes places few movies (if any) have gone before, it's worth a look. I saw it three days ago and still can't get parts of it out of my head. And I'm NOT easily spooked or disturbed. Even at points where suspension of disbelief became difficult - and it unfortunately does, because it almost feels like it was meant to be two different movies - I couldn't help but find the subject matter repulsive, and it continues to worsen long after you think it's gone as far as it can go, right to the very end. Hell, there's even something oddly upsetting about the opening sequence of Lucie looking over her shoulder and screaming, rail-thin and bleeding. It's just...jarring. Don't have any caffeine first; you'll be jumpy.
I missed catching the screening of "MARTYRS" at the 2008 After Dark & Midnight Madness film fests in Toronto, and forgot all about it until I came across it by chance...at Blockbuster. Yeah, seriously. Blockbuster is carrying this...thing. (If you think about how prudish they generally are, what they won't carry, and what this film is like, you'll know why I was shocked.)
The basic trailers:
Click to viewThe basic spoiler-free gist:
A girl named Lucie is found running through the streets screaming and bloody, clearly the victim of some serious abuse, and is turned over to an orphanage of some sort. She's mute by choice for a long while, until another girl named Anna befriends her. They bond like sisters, especially when Anna starts seeing what Lucie is suffering (bruises and cuts from something or someone that torment her in the night...?). Fast forward 15 years, when these girls are all grown up, and Anna is roped into helping Lucie track down those who were responsible for her torture as a child, in the hopes that doing so will end the visions and very real night terrors she's been experiencing ever since. What happens from there is...pretty much beyond description. You should just see it.
If you're interested in spoilers, there are a few other scenes that have been uploaded to YouTube that might be worthwhile. I for one NEVER WANT TO SEE ANY PART OF THIS FILM AGAIN, but that's just me.
This is all in French, without subtitles, but all you need to know is that the family is having pretty normal, dull breakfast conversation. Nothing even remotely remarkable. Until Lucie shows up. Fast forward to the 3 minute mark for that.
That's actually the tamest part of the film, and takes place within the first 10 minutes or so, just FYI. The stuff that happens to Anna later on is...yeah, this next clip doesn't come close. If this was as bad as it got, it would be PG-13 at worst. I'm told the film actually got an X rating in France. I can see why.
If you've not yet seen it, and you're looking for something that definitely goes places few movies (if any) have gone before, it's worth a look. I saw it three days ago and still can't get parts of it out of my head. And I'm NOT easily spooked or disturbed. Even at points where suspension of disbelief became difficult - and it unfortunately does, because it almost feels like it was meant to be two different movies - I couldn't help but find the subject matter repulsive, and it continues to worsen long after you think it's gone as far as it can go, right to the very end. Hell, there's even something oddly upsetting about the opening sequence of Lucie looking over her shoulder and screaming, rail-thin and bleeding. It's just...jarring. Don't have any caffeine first; you'll be jumpy.