[8]

I was beginning to wonder if torture could ever be depicted in a movie without the movie becoming “torture porn”, without any other cinematic merit. This French horror flick answers my question. In Martyrs, torture isn’t just a dirty gimmick. It’s the thematic subject of the movie, where the reasons for torture are more disturbing than the act itself. The narrative structure is unconventional, shifting focus about every twenty minutes, sometimes even shifting our character identification. For the first twenty or forty minutes, I thought I knew what Martyrs was about, but I was wrong. The movie sinks to some disturbingly provocative depths that leave more of an impression than its ultra-violence or its gore. Fans of horror will want to watch it for those exploitative elements, but it actually has more to offer than that. I’m being vague because the less you know about the movie, the better. If you’re not squeamish, check it out.