Reviews

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!

I've read reviews that called this film "transcendental" and "meaningful" and other things to that effect. But in the end, "Martyrs" is torture porn à la française. That's really all this is.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not easily disturbed and not generally averse to violence and gore in film, whether it serves a meaningful purpose or not. Gore for gore's sake is just as fine with me as is gore for meaning's sake. What irks me, however, is when a deeper meaning is merely affected to hide the fact that really, it's all about the gore. "Martyrs" is a shining example of this. The last act of the film makes the attempt to philosophise everything that went on beforehand and it fails on a spectacular level. This might have to do with the somewhat patchwork structure of the film. Even while watching the film it seemed as if it consisted of three very different ideas stitched together: The beginning takes its cues from classic horror movie tropes, then it makes a sharp turn toward a thriller and finally plunges headlong into the world of torture porn. This leaves us with three pieces of a film that feel very different, most of all because of a sudden change of protagonist that comes with this. The first part makes out Lucie to be the main character, not least because we bear witness to her hallucinations. Then, Anna takes her place and in the last part, she becomes (justifiably) mute and inactive. This leads to a real difficulty, at least for me, to identify with any of these characters and ultimately takes a whole lot of punch out of the torture sequences later on. If I am not invested in a character, seeing that character be tortured for the better part of half an hour is not going to affect me emotionally. What I'm seeing is an actress and an actor performing a scripted sequence. Some have said that this was hard to sit through and having heard those sentiments before I wondered if something was wrong with me when I felt rather bored during the last part of the film, instead of being properly horrified at the human propensity for violence. But it wasn't violence I was seeing, it was acting. And it served no purpose other than to horrify and disgust the viewer. Having failed to be horrified by the goings-on, I hoped for a great revelation, of any kind whatsoever. A justification for the hour and a half that went beforehand. And then the film ends. There is no explanation, there is no twist, there is not even the explanation that there is no explanation. So even as a statement on nihilism, it fails. Bang, The End. That's it. Even tripe such as "Hostel" had a (flimsy) explanation for its ludicrous plot. No such luck with "Martyrs".

So, lacking any emotional investment in the characters, a coherent plot, motivation and sense, this is just violence and gore for its own sake. Which would be fine if there wasn't the constant sensation of the director tapping the viewer on the shoulder, saying, "See what I did there? Clever, isn't it. See those pictures? See how I've made Anna's revelation silent to keep everyone guessing? See that home video footage with the end credits? It's all terribly clever, but you probably don't get it. It's art, you know! This is definitely not violent for violence's sake! No, it's definitely not!"

Yes. Yes it definitely is.

Two stars for the good performance by Mylène Jampanoï. The movie itself was anything but good.

VERY MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.

This is an excellent film, if very hard to watch. And hard to watch it definitely is. Sporting a great cast and made under equally great direction, it is the subject matter alone that creates the horror. Some reviewers have called this a horror film, and while that description is usually reserved for creature features and all sorts of "scary movies", this is a true horror film. It isn't scary but it makes you terribly uneasy. It isn't gruesome in the traditional sense of cinematic gruesomeness (gore, blood and such) but I nevertheless had to stop the film twice while watching it. Mostly because I had to cool myself down as to not punch something. Never has a movie made me so angry - the majority of characters in this are so unspeakably shallow, self-important and false that they make you want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them. The incredibly evil double standards employed by Gertrude Baniszewski stand against every logical human decision, every kind of understanding. The case of Sylvia Likens may be one of the most depressing and disturbing cases in human legal history. Firstly because of the utter cruelty and mercilessness of the perpetrators and secondly because of the grave indifference of the environment - scenes of neighbors saying "Best to stay out of it" are as worse as the scenes depicting the torture going on at the same time. Interspersing the flashbacks (which make up the bulk of the film) with scenes from the courtroom was a gracious decision by the director because they provide some form of escapement. In the courtroom scenes, one can be sure to be in a place of order, of justice and normality, whereas the scenes at the Baniszewski home are practically hell. A place of random punishment, irrationality and torture from which there is no escape - the most horrifying thing I could think of. What begins as short bursts of corporal punishment soon turns into an insane marathon of self-justice and immoral judgment. Sylvia Likens bears the punishment for another person's entire ruined life and essentially pays for that person's - Gertrude Baniszewski - faults. I can safely say that this was one if not the most terrifying film I have ever seen. It gets full marks for cast, direction, art direction and music. But it certainly isn't for everyone.