Martyrs

DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Pascal Laugier
Starring Morjana Alaoui, Mylene Jampanoi, Catherine Begin
Release date Out now

A young girl escapes from her kidnappers, but refuses to tell anyone what she endured. 15 years later she sets out to kill those who she believes are responsible…

Martyrs is one of the most divisive horror movies in recent memory. From its early festival screenings to its limited UK theatrical run earlier this year, this was a film that had some critics hailing it a masterpiece and others disgusted by what they deemed to be a cynical exercise designed purely to attract attention.

Rest assured, many viewers will hate this film. Yet, like those other controversial French pictures Irreversible and Inside, there’s more to Martyrs than a simple capacity to shock. Laugier refuses to romanticise violence, offering a nihilistic study of mankind’s ability to both inflict and endure pain and suffering, and showing us a set of characters who are so alienated from mainstream society they find solace in its most extreme fringes.

At the same time it’s hardly an exercise in social realism (which helps explain away the occasional gap in logic). The film has a weird, nightmarish atmosphere and is oddly plotted and structured: it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible about the story, as it snakes off in entirely unexpected directions.

In an accompanying interview, director Pascal Laughier describes his film as an “anti-Hostel”. In many ways he’s right. Martyrs is more of an art-horror than a homage to exploitation pictures, and at times it’s gruelling to watch. There’s an absence of any kind of humour or let-up: this has to be one of the most intense horror movies ever made. But it’s a bold, original and very scary film, and as the final credits roll, you know that you won’t be getting an easy night’s sleep. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 9/10
A strange, upsetting and brilliant horror movie.