Torture Porn is a weird term to label a movie with. I'm not sure where the "porn" part comes in, unless you're a sadist, or something. It's really just a term that describes a post-2000 Horror film which includes excessive violence and gore, with an emphasis put on the pain and suffering. Unlike some newer Horror fans, such qualities aren't necessary for a film to win me over. There is enough real life pain and suffering out there without a need for the fake stuff clogging up the Horror genre. I can definitely take it, and I do find it mildly interesting at times, but for the most part, I see the torture stuff as merely cutting corners. However, there is one film that was immediately labeled "Torture Porn" upon its release in 2008, and if said quality was all it had to offer, then, you probably wouldn't be reading this, now. The movie I want to discuss today is Martyrs. A powerful, French film which has been on my list of top 10 favorite Horror films since my first viewing. It's so much more than torture. Martyrs is a horrifying and heartbreaking look into what physical torture can do to someone's life, as well as their soul. But that's just the beginning.
Forget porn. Martyrs is a torture epic. An epic that, at times, isn't easy to watch. This film is about a girl named Lucie and her friend, Anna. Both have issues, but Lucie's are the kind from which one never recovers. When Lucie was a child, she was kidnapped and tortured by unknown assailants whom she narrowly escaped, but not without scars. Physical and mental. In fact, a different person escaped that day. Whatever type of woman Lucie was to grow up to be was already dead. In her place would be a withdrawn basket case, incapable of accepting love or kindness, and literally plagued by demons who are slowly gnawing away at what's left of her soul.
While Lucie did escape her captors, they were never brought to justice. Now in her 20's, Lucie is still far from ok with this. In fact, she is so not ok with this lack of justice, that she is about to take matters into her own hands. As we now oversee a seemingly normal family eating breakfast, a knock is heard at the door. As the father answers, he is suddenly blown away by a young woman with a shot gun. Lucie barges in and goes on to destroy this family in cold hearted fashion. Yeah, the little girl gets it, too. Shot right in the back. While harsh, Lucie was simply THAT pissed at the parents. After years of searching, Lucie had finally found her tormentors, and had finally given herself a little bit of peace ... or has she? Lucie's scars are so deep, there is no level of retribution that can turn back time, at this point. What's done is done.
And then, there's Anna. Lucie's only friend, who is loyal, maybe to a fault. Make that definitely. Either way, Anna loves Lucie with all her heart, and will do anything to help make things easier. Lucie knows this and gives Anna a call from the now dead family's house, asking for assistance in disposing of some bodies. As always, Anna is on her way. While we wait with Lucie, we witness yet another side-effect of her scars: Delusions. Delusions which seem as real to Lucie as they do us. At some point, the poor girl dreamed up a friend which is far more damaged than herself. A friend who sometimes attacks her, making even more scars. Of course, it's merely Lucie attacking herself. However this "friend" of her's is based on a real person whom she refused to help escape as she was almost out the door all those years ago. That's where a lot of the mental scars come from: Guilt over what probably became of that other girl who only wanted to live, and maybe could have even had a somewhat normal life, had Lucie only taken the time to set her free before limping to freedom. Nothing can change what happened that day. Even after doing what was asked of her by killing this family, it's still not good enough. What's done is done.As always, Anna tries her best to help Lucie, but she is only getting more and more out of hand. Unfortunately, ending this family somehow only made things worse. That night, Lucie ended her own life. And in an instant, all the years that Anna dedicated to her dear friend had become a waste. Anna is now alone in the world, and she is about to make the biggest mistake of her life.
Anna just hangs around the dead family's house with seemingly no plan. Long enough to notice a secret passage way in some cabinets, leading to an underground torture room. In this room, Anna discovers the final victim of this evil couple who destroyed her friend's life. And Anna being Anna, she helps this poor girl who is easily ten times more fucked up than Lucie was. Once a girl, now a grotesque freak, incapable of even communicating. All this person wants to do is destroy herself. Anna should have left, but she stuck around. Maybe she felt like she had failed Lucie, and saw this creature as her retribution.
It is unclear what Anna's plan was, but she makes an attempt at cleaning up the freak, and later, tries in vain to get her to calm down, although, she's about to calm down permanently, as a bullet randomly flies in, putting this tortured soul down, where she belongs, to be honest. Anna now has some visitors who have a lot of questions for her. As Anna fills them in, it soon becomes clear. These people are the employers of the original captors. And as they force Anna down to the torture room, she is clued in as to what all this business is about. There is a bigger picture that even the sickest of minds wouldn't have considered, and Anna is about to become the center of it all, as she is sucked into a hell far worse than the one Lucie experienced. Goddamn, it sure doesn't pay to help people, these days, does it?Occasionally, I come across a movie that I find so interesting, and packs such a punch, that I decide right then and there that I will only revisit it once every two or three blue moons. Such strong feelings must be preserved, and with so many rewatches, that isn't always possible. I figure once a year is good for this one. And with my most recent viewing, the magic is still there. Martyrs is still every bit as powerful and devastating as it was during my first experience. From the moment Lucie blew away that family, I knew that all the hype was justifiable, and all the naysayers were full of shit. In my humble opinion, Martyrs is as good as 2000's Horror gets. At the very least, it's the cream of the modern French Horror crop. yeah, I said it! Sorry, High Tension fans. In closing, I'd like to make mention of one quality I believe more Horor films would be better off with: An ending which provides more questions than answers. People will forever wonder and debate about the true meaning of the last scene. I have my theory as you have your's if you've seen it, but I suppose there is no wrong answer. The truth lies in our imaginations. 10/10
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