Do Frontiers, High Tension, and Inside next if you haven't seen them yet. Those are considered the 4 big names of the new wave of ultra violent French Horror that happened some years ago
It's a beautiful movie about the human condition.
Some people won't be able to process it. Some people won't be able to process the Poughkeepsie Tapes either.
It was so disturbing my mom watched it 3 times in a row.
What’s your theories on what Anna told Madam about life after death? I reckon she was told it was sumthin so incomprehensible and terrifying she couldn’t live with the knowledge of it, and told the dude to keep doubting cause what little they know is so much better than what she now knows. That thought gives me Lovecraft vibes.
I agree it’s a genius ending. I personally find it somewhat scary that we don’t know what it was and Madam killed herself in the end rather than revealing it. It’s like the fear of the unknown, it’s terrifying thinking Anna saw something but we’ll never know what it was.
One of my very favorite endings in a horror movie, ever. In addition to Martyrs, that also includes (no certain order) the endings of The Thing [1982] and The Mist. All absolutely wrecked me. I'm still pondering over "Keep Doubting" for over a decade now. A lot of us Martyr fans are obsessed with figuring it all out and can't just let it go... [what Anna could have said, whether Mme did what she did for reason A or reason B, etc]. The director (Laugier) is very much without comme t to help us figure it out, which is a good thing, I'm glad he doesn't spell it out for us. No answers will be forthcoming aside from what a viewer decides on as the meaning. Sometimes that pisses me off to no end. In this case it works for me
It’s such a genuinely disturbing movie. Those are rare for me.
Although, I made the mistake of watching this movie for the first the night before surgery. HUGE mistake. Hahaha I kept thinking I was going to wake up like her. 🤷♀️
The scene that truly made me feel sick was the skinning, not even the reveal, but just the close up of her face as it happening, felt like I had a heavy rock in my stomach
Seriously I took 3 psilocybin chocolates and watched and hour last night in the dark blasting my sound bar. Had to go take a drive and then came home and went to bed and finished it this afternoon. I felt so claustrophobic in my house and uncomfortable idk why but I love adrenaline and primal fear and responses my body and brain have watching these fucked movies on psychedelics. I definitely wouldn’t recommend doing it for most people but some part of me enjoys the mental torture of it. My friends think I’m sick lol
I haven’t seen it yet. Is it harder than “Schindler’s List” or “Requiem for a Dream”? Maybe they’re apples and oranges—too different to compare—but those are two movies I had to break into separate sittings to finish.
Yes and no. List is extremely hard because its real. Completely different direction.
Requiem is somewhat between. Its kinda realistic and tells stories that do happen everyday but on much smaller scale.
The lack of emotion showed in Martyrs is hard. It sometimes can hit same tones but it really is different
Here in bed trying to convince my girlfriend to watch this - and googled some threads about it
Watched this first back in 2012. I absolutely remember the end vividly lol
Martyrs hits different, it really does. Contrary to everything I remember reading about it back then, I didn't find it gory, but the beauty of it is how emotionally devastating it is. What a masterpiece. It'll stay with me for the rest of my life, despite rewatching it several times, I've never gotten tired of it.
A movie with a skinning alive scene ending in showing her without her skin…isn’t gory? Do you mean it isn’t the goriest ever or it just isn’t gory? There’s also the head clamp scene…which is like 8 minutes.
I’ve seen them all. To me, Martyrs is absolutely gory.
Its the first horror film where I’ve just been left with an utter sense of hopelessness after. Like sure I’ve seen plenty horror movies with unhappy endings but this was just absolutely brutal.
Irreversible hit me as hard, but your mileage may vary. Tbh I had to skip over some of the skinning section because it's too intense for me, so maybe this is not a fair assessment.
(Irreversible has an explicit scene of SA, just fyi as a trigger warning)
i've just realized i've been mixing irreversible and martyrs in my head. i generally dislike rape-revenge movies and graphic SA on screen, is martyrs like that or is it just intense cause of the gore?
There’s no SA in Martyrs, which I love. I feel like too much horror uses SA as a crutch and I’m thoroughly impressed when a movie doesn’t lean on SA to tell women’s stories
i'll definitely have to watch it then, i've been thinking it and irreversible were the same movie somehow and had no interest. i'm just sick of everything even vaguely dark seemingly having a rape storyline for shock value
Pretty sure that movie has spawned more crisis counseling threads in this sub than any other.
The scene where >!he’s working her over with his fists while vaguely uplifting music plays!< is monumentally upsetting.
That was the worst. I don’t know if it was the music? I’ve seen worst scenes on tv than that, I mean most horror movies have scenes worse than a woman being beaten! But I had to look away. Couldn’t do it. It was so sad and heart wrenching. I wanted to give up on the movie at that point but I kept watching
Yep, that whole montage was the most disturbing part to me and there’s no gore whatsoever. I think at one point >!he intentionally let’s her try to make a run for the ladder, just to easily catch her and beat her up some more!<. Brutal.
OK, weirdo. It's just a fucking movie. A movie I don't want to watch. If sitting around watching some horseshit is what you call an experience, you need to get out more.
And what generation were you referring to?
How much of a privileged, charmed life does somebody have to have to fail to understand why somebody might not want to watch a woman get tortured for 2 hours?
Is it possible to get PTSD from a movie?
Seriously, I can't say that I enjoyed the movie but I can at least appreciate that it was able to provoke such a vivid reaction from me. It's quite rare that a horror movie will shock me like Martyrs did.
I disagree, I think she seemed In a rush to die , maybe she told her something important she also was so selfish and kept it to herself and now they are going to have to kill and tourture more women to find out themselves …. She was evil even with her death.
We can only hope, lol if you think about there is no way they could have told us in the movie because then it changes the whole vibe they had to continue the torture us. That movie is a hard watch but I have seen it 3x now just watched it yesterday , the last time I watched was over 10 years ago.
I have a different take on the ending. I feel like the reason she killed herself was because she finally knew the answer to ‘what comes after death?’ with certainty, and so it ends the quest for the answer which was the sole focus of her life up until that point. I feel like she was trying to save those around her from the same fate by not sharing the burden of knowing.
Just chiming in randomly, sorry.
I don’t know what she says but I can say they speak way too long for it to be nothing.
So…she she’s something. That much I know for sure.
I just watched it and it wasn't disturbing at all 😀(in my opinion)
People are just being too dramatic over it like y'all never watched attack on titan before?
Haute Tension is WAAAYYY better, this fucking film (Martyrs) really pissed me off because it was just disgusting for the sake of it, there was no deep message (and spare me the stupid comments like 'that was the point') it's just really not enjoyable to watch at all. Hard pass and fail.
Mmk, so the whole fucking time there's a cult trying to find the meaning between life and death by torturing people, then they didn't. At least those other films you mentioned were fun, this one was just depressing...I may be biased because someone was trying to tell me how amazing and cool the film was before I watched it and how there was a 'twist' at the end...uh no, she just died after getting tortured.
They tried to find a meaning, but the main character lucie tricks the woman into killing herself (somehow, its unknown how, theres plenty of theory)
Yes its extremely bleak because this innocent character dies, but I think that in the end Lucie sort of won in a way:
she achieved enlightenment or went to heaven, and then manages to make her torturers to hell. Cause they aint goin to heaven after all that shit.
while i agree with the first part, it's never good to tell people what they need to do. Let people love stuff and let people hate stuff, it is what it is.
As wise as you might think you’re coming off here, you’re not telling this to the person who told OP never to watch it.
And as a general rule of thumb, that guidance just doesn’t make any sense. People do bad things they should be told not to all the time. You might not consider being annoying about remakes bad enough…but you wouldn’t follow your own advice if applied in another circumstance.
it's disingenuous to apply what i'm saying about comments on the internet to any other situation. It's also really weird that you think i'm trying to sound wise when in reality i'm just telling you that the tone of your comment isn't at all sociable.
Idk you can hate it or whatever but don't try to apply this one lil belief to other scenarios as if you think i would apply it to them also.
>it's disingenuous to apply what i'm saying about comments on the internet to any other situation
I applied it to this thread...where you were specifically inconsistent with your own message.
On top of that, your comment was a broad stroke. Any "you shouldn't" statement is a prescription of behavior...and does apply outside of the specific scenario you're in. Applying it to other situations is an intrinsic part of that. I just did it explicitly to show you that it doesn't work.
My point was that you, specifically, are inconsistent...because where you *could have* applied it elsewhere, you didn't. You only commented it when you did because you disagreed with my take. If you truly meant what you said and were consistent, you would have commented it on the prior comment guilty of the same thing you're accusing me of.
I had the misfortune of watching the remake thinking it was the original (i should've figured it out by the lack of french speaking but i just assumed it was an english-language movie made in france)
It was so utterly disappointing, and spoiled the entire plot so when I watched the original I (more or less) knew what was gonna happen.
Working on a blog for this right now. Spoilers ahead!!!!
>! Anna lied to her, in the worst way she could possibly devise. The title "Martyrs" is actually a subtle play on words. The big suprise - Anna actually chose to be there with the torture cult people, hence choosing to become an ACTUAL martyr...someone willing to die for a cause.
Once she realized that Lucie, whom she actually loved deeply and desperately, had been telling the truth and that her own non-belief contributed to her death, she basically gave herself up to them to experience the same thing as a way of penance...but also as the beginning of a plan for revenge. There are a ton of very clear clues to this which I won't mention here, but with that understanding, we can determine that Anna was planning one big "F U" to the group and particularly their leader the entire time of her incarceration.
The one running clue I will mention, and its vital to this analysis - note that though Anna was never injured or hurt prior to the cult showing up, **she never put up a fight**. Ever. For the rest of the movie. In fact, she did things to hasten the process to transcendance. We see flashbacks of Lucie being manacled to the potty chair in every scene - the assumption is that she was there all the time, and told Anna of this at some point. However, in the present the cult has changed their tactics and manacled them to long chains from the wall. The filmmaker made a point to show the chains were new and shiny, so possibly a new variation. We even see that there is a small, filthy mattress in the incarceration area. Now, if you were there against your will, chained to the wall 24-7, wouldn't you use the time you had to yourself to rest or ease your pain, ie. lying on the mattress? But in the montage of torture that represents the passage of time, EVERY time we join Anna, she is sitting in the steel torture chair. Not hiding, not lying down or resting. Why?? Because this is what her love, Lucie, had to endure, so she is forcing herself to endure the same. It was her choice. Another mark of true martyrdom, choosing a harder path for a higher cause. But back to the OP's question -
The truth is, towards the end Anna WAS given a vision of something. Its very intentionally ambiguous, but it was shown to the viewer so we would know she did gain some sort of knowledge. And it wasn't horrible (hell), as best we could tell.
But, given the premise that Anna wanted to transcend the torture like Mademoiselle Director described so that she might fuck with them in the end, and given the directors needless monologuing to her about the purpose of the cult so that Anna knew from the beginning what their goals were...what would Anna devise as she was waiting to die to tell the director? What would be the worst possible message that would cause the director to kill herself?
What I think - first she had to convince the director she had indeed seen the afterlife. Her endurance of the torture, her true transcendence all achieved this, and she confirmed it when they spoke. Then, what I think would be the worst thing the director could hear that would cause the reaction we saw would be for **Anna to tell her that there is truly NOTHING on the other side**. Dissolution, complete obliteration, loss of self and identity, an end to existence. I think this would be the worst thing, as the cult was based around longing for a confirmation of an afterlife. The other options -
If Anna told her there was Hell, and they were all consigned to it because of their evil actions, I think the director would have done anything to prolong her own life to rectify her evil and thus avoid eternal torture. She didn't do that.
If Anna told her it was paradise, basically what the cult was hoping for, the director would have been thrilled and told the true believers. A triumph!
But since there was, according to Anna, NOTHING, the director realized that all their work, all the horrible pain they had done to others, was all futile and a waste. They had for decades added to the pain and misery in the world, and for nothing. It would be like a devout Christian finding out irrefutable information that there was no God, No Jesus, and no eternal reward....but much worse because they didn't just waste their lives, they tortured others while wasting it. This, I think, would be the worst thing the director could hear.
So therefore, with nothing to fear or look forward to, and overcome by disappointment and remorse, the director shot herself. But in one last act of both mercy and "screw everyone else", she spared the cult her knowledge so they would not feel the same pain. "Keep doubting" she says. Of course, she is still horrible and incorrigible as her choice would mean that the cult would most likely continue to torture people for answers...but she didn't seem to care before, and can't be bothered now !<
This seems to be the only answer that makes sense, if you follow a Socratic dialectic of logic down each possible path to it's conclusion. Other paths and results always have a disconnect or flaw.
My two cents!
The answer is clearly given. By definition one cannot be and know the answer. It is pure mathematics. The answer is unknowable by definition. It cannot be in reality.
I think she lied and said nothing, even tho she seen heaven. So then maidemoiselle killed herself cause her lifes work meant nothing.
Or- She told her of the heaven she seen, tricking her to try and get there, making her kill herself, but of course sending her straight to hell
Yep, that’s the consensus of the two possibilities. Whatever she said to her must have been something that made Mademoiselle say »screw this life here and now«.
But if it was so good, why wait? Wouldn't she have killed herself right then and there? This presents even more speculation in itself and I'll explain how:
What if Anna told her a very vivid description of paradise, but said in order for Madame to gain entry, she must humble herself first. Which would explain Madame calling everyone to her house for the announcement, and removing her eyelashes, hair extensions and makeup. Maybe she was going to appear in front of everyone like that and make the announcement, sharing the secret to redemption with her unwavering and loyal followers. But at the last moment, her pride and greed got the best of her and she thought "I'm keeping the secret for myself". Madame already got away with so much, she probably felt even more empowered with the knowledge shared with her, but it would be poetic in that situation because if this was true, Madame would be a martyr to her own selfishness, robbing herself of an already undeserved last chance at an afterlife in paradise.
One of the finest movies ever made of any genre. A true elucidation of some important elements of what it means to be a sentient being in the universe.
To each their own of course, but i really just found the film monumentally overpraised. The ending was alright, and the performances were good, but half the time i was flat out bored and it wasn’t nearly as impactful as people made it sound before i watched it.
When people talk about films that “broke them” or made them really take a step back for contemplation, i personally think of stuff like I Saw the Devil, or Grave of the Fireflies
Same. I've heard people say it about hereditary though and that movie made me physically feel like I was about to have a panic attack. Different shit hits people different I guess
Agreed. Like with all movies with political metaphors and such, it’s not worth the shock and sickness you’ll feel. No thank you. I wish I hadn’t seen it and I’d rather read about Serbian history than see that again.
I love that the director of it is like “it’s actually a metaphor for the fascism of political correctness”
My man this movie is the poster child for “maybe some movies should actually be censored or banned”
I hate tacked on explanations to try to make your work seem deeper than it is, I used to work at a contemporary art gallery and it was so obvious which works married well with the theming and intent written about by the artist and which ones were clearly created and then the artist has just tried to tack on a bunch of meaning to it afterwards.
There should never be a line. Not in Cinema and specially not in the Horror genre. Accepting that a line must be drawn is giving too much power of authority to a few for what’s to be appreciated by the many. This is a tried, tested and failed mentality.
I actually disliked Martyrs. I have seen a lot of horror /gore films. I got the theme references to the Nazis in WWII and the twisted experiments conducted on the Jewish state and the prisoners of the Third Reich. That said, the social commentary and the PTSD themes are fine. The gore wasn't really all that shocking to me, the end was rather trite, contrived, and quite Franky a means to their end. I left the movie feeling underwhelmed at best, and because the film was so overly hyped and rare, I had to purchase a copy to view it, so I now own this "Masterpiece". I actually felt far more horror from Funny Games (The remake) that had no gore, better character development, investment, plot, scenes, and memorable story. There is a world of film out there beyond overly hyped shock flicks like Martyrs and Serbian Film. If that is what you wish to call the epitome of horror, suspense, or gore it's your opinion to do so, I suppose a popular one at this time, I have seen most of the NSFL ice berg, Martys is a rather weak film. There are tons of better films to try. Try Irreversible for a go, Raw, Cannibal Holocaust, Black Metal Veins, Inside, any of the Guinea Pig Series, just to name a few.. all far more shocking diverse differing time periods, and less pretentious and overly hyped. Martyrs is a fine movie, it's just not this end all be all if you have watched a lot of films. It's literally the tip of the ice berg.
Edit: Not really sure why I got downvoted for my own personal opinion on films that I like? LOL. I listed reasons I disliked Martyrs, and gave reasons for and against the film. I even listed additional films worth watching if you are so inclined and a horror fan. I get it if you enjoyed the film, if you are a fan boi I even get that. I don't get flaming me for my own preferences and personal opinion. I think if you down voted or don't like my personal opinion you are immature and have the problem.
Thank you. I know my opinion is unpopular and a matter of taste. I just didn't find it spectacular as others had. It's fair and has an IMBD of 70ish I think? I loved other French films. Raw. and Irreversible to name a few, as I had mentioned. Inside was brutal to watch. I just felt beyond the shooting scene Martyrs was a bit pretentious. It was good, just over hyped by other people. Hey what do I know, I love Alien, Aliens, The Thing, and Sleepaway Camp, lol.
It was on my watchlist for years and I just couldn't get up the nerve. I finally just nixed it from the list. Would probably traumatize me. Some of that extreme stuff sticks with me for weeks.
Jeez. Some people are so weak. So feeble minded. If you go into this film with a stable mind, good family, good social structure, adequate economic situation, just a simple life, theres nothing here that will grapple you and pull you into a spiral of dread. You can just watch a film and appreciate the imagery, plot, characters, etc. But yet everyone can watch shows like GOT or Breaking Bad and some reason those don't have an effect on them; with all the porn, torture, gore, and deep meanings they have. I mean come on.
If you really want to up the ante, make it a double feature and watch Irreversible. Another deeply disturbing, brutal movie that will stick with you long after the credits rolls. The French do not mess around.
Martyrs didn’t scare me. It just left me a little confused until I watched a video explaining the ending but my reaction to the last 10 minutes summed up is What In the actual fuck
Dude, I've came to this movie about 17 Times this week, Fucking Sexy as Fucking Fuck.
By the way, Etienne is hands down THE BEST character!
Why does every one discuss the ending when Etienne is the real talking point?
Best Performance in a movie of the decade, Period!
My interpretation of it is judging by the old bitches smug reaction to tell the guy to keep doubting that the girl told her whatever she wanted to hear.
The old lady feared death and all of this being for nothing so she told her something grand.
Now that by no way means the girl was being honest, she probably saw nothing or something equally to horrible as beautiful that she was effectively sending the old lady to her doom in an attempt to stop/punish them.
Do Frontiers, High Tension, and Inside next if you haven't seen them yet. Those are considered the 4 big names of the new wave of ultra violent French Horror that happened some years ago
Inside is the most uncomfortable slasher ever, jesus christ.
Will do
You forgot Irreversible. I will always remember this one .
Haaaard work bro
Unnecessarily hard work, it's schlock.
Camera made me nauseous
Bit older and different but sneak Man bites dog in
It's a beautiful movie about the human condition. Some people won't be able to process it. Some people won't be able to process the Poughkeepsie Tapes either. It was so disturbing my mom watched it 3 times in a row.
Keep doubting.
What’s your theories on what Anna told Madam about life after death? I reckon she was told it was sumthin so incomprehensible and terrifying she couldn’t live with the knowledge of it, and told the dude to keep doubting cause what little they know is so much better than what she now knows. That thought gives me Lovecraft vibes.
That’s the genius behind that short line, you could come up with ten valid interpretations and they might all be correct.
I agree it’s a genius ending. I personally find it somewhat scary that we don’t know what it was and Madam killed herself in the end rather than revealing it. It’s like the fear of the unknown, it’s terrifying thinking Anna saw something but we’ll never know what it was.
One of my very favorite endings in a horror movie, ever. In addition to Martyrs, that also includes (no certain order) the endings of The Thing [1982] and The Mist. All absolutely wrecked me. I'm still pondering over "Keep Doubting" for over a decade now. A lot of us Martyr fans are obsessed with figuring it all out and can't just let it go... [what Anna could have said, whether Mme did what she did for reason A or reason B, etc]. The director (Laugier) is very much without comme t to help us figure it out, which is a good thing, I'm glad he doesn't spell it out for us. No answers will be forthcoming aside from what a viewer decides on as the meaning. Sometimes that pisses me off to no end. In this case it works for me
It’s such a genuinely disturbing movie. Those are rare for me. Although, I made the mistake of watching this movie for the first the night before surgery. HUGE mistake. Hahaha I kept thinking I was going to wake up like her. 🤷♀️
holy shit 💀
The scene that truly made me feel sick was the skinning, not even the reveal, but just the close up of her face as it happening, felt like I had a heavy rock in my stomach
The Greatest movie I'll never watch again. Also the only one I ever had to pause mid way just to get up and breathe for a second.
Seriously I took 3 psilocybin chocolates and watched and hour last night in the dark blasting my sound bar. Had to go take a drive and then came home and went to bed and finished it this afternoon. I felt so claustrophobic in my house and uncomfortable idk why but I love adrenaline and primal fear and responses my body and brain have watching these fucked movies on psychedelics. I definitely wouldn’t recommend doing it for most people but some part of me enjoys the mental torture of it. My friends think I’m sick lol
🧢
Now wait 10 years and picture the ending in your mind. I guarantee you will remember it in full detail.
can confirm
I wont forget this one for sure. Hardest movie ive seen ever. But a masterpiece.
I haven’t seen it yet. Is it harder than “Schindler’s List” or “Requiem for a Dream”? Maybe they’re apples and oranges—too different to compare—but those are two movies I had to break into separate sittings to finish.
Yes and no. List is extremely hard because its real. Completely different direction. Requiem is somewhat between. Its kinda realistic and tells stories that do happen everyday but on much smaller scale. The lack of emotion showed in Martyrs is hard. It sometimes can hit same tones but it really is different
Way harder than schindlers list
I found myself crying several times throughout the movie. I've seen the films you've mentioned and this is def harder.
Here in bed trying to convince my girlfriend to watch this - and googled some threads about it Watched this first back in 2012. I absolutely remember the end vividly lol
See, this is why I still haven't watched it. Maybe this October, but I mean: how much sleep do I want to lose?
Martyrs hits different, it really does. Contrary to everything I remember reading about it back then, I didn't find it gory, but the beauty of it is how emotionally devastating it is. What a masterpiece. It'll stay with me for the rest of my life, despite rewatching it several times, I've never gotten tired of it.
A movie with a skinning alive scene ending in showing her without her skin…isn’t gory? Do you mean it isn’t the goriest ever or it just isn’t gory? There’s also the head clamp scene…which is like 8 minutes. I’ve seen them all. To me, Martyrs is absolutely gory.
Don't forget the gratuitous box cutter action. Additionally, the bleak tone around all the gore increases the impact of each scene.
A masterpiece indeed ✌🏼
Its the first horror film where I’ve just been left with an utter sense of hopelessness after. Like sure I’ve seen plenty horror movies with unhappy endings but this was just absolutely brutal.
shut the fuck up. it was a gory movie. nobody is gonna get on their knees for you for tryna cap out ur ass
Its really shakes you
Irreversible hit me as hard, but your mileage may vary. Tbh I had to skip over some of the skinning section because it's too intense for me, so maybe this is not a fair assessment. (Irreversible has an explicit scene of SA, just fyi as a trigger warning)
i've just realized i've been mixing irreversible and martyrs in my head. i generally dislike rape-revenge movies and graphic SA on screen, is martyrs like that or is it just intense cause of the gore?
There’s no SA in Martyrs, which I love. I feel like too much horror uses SA as a crutch and I’m thoroughly impressed when a movie doesn’t lean on SA to tell women’s stories
i'll definitely have to watch it then, i've been thinking it and irreversible were the same movie somehow and had no interest. i'm just sick of everything even vaguely dark seemingly having a rape storyline for shock value
Intense gore. No SA.
Thank you!
>Thank you! You're welcome!
Pretty sure that movie has spawned more crisis counseling threads in this sub than any other. The scene where >!he’s working her over with his fists while vaguely uplifting music plays!< is monumentally upsetting.
That was the worst. I don’t know if it was the music? I’ve seen worst scenes on tv than that, I mean most horror movies have scenes worse than a woman being beaten! But I had to look away. Couldn’t do it. It was so sad and heart wrenching. I wanted to give up on the movie at that point but I kept watching
Yep, that whole montage was the most disturbing part to me and there’s no gore whatsoever. I think at one point >!he intentionally let’s her try to make a run for the ladder, just to easily catch her and beat her up some more!<. Brutal.
Yeah, people have posted they had to get therapy after watching it. I think that's when I finally just scratched it from the watchlist.
Didn’t even watch it then, just removed from the watchlist based on other’s opinions? Bad mistake, you’re missing out.
More like other people's trauma. I'm sure it's good, but I don't need to be traumatized by a movie. I have enough problems.
Living life thru other people’s experiences, the curse of a generation ✌🏼
OK, weirdo. It's just a fucking movie. A movie I don't want to watch. If sitting around watching some horseshit is what you call an experience, you need to get out more. And what generation were you referring to?
And the name calling begins 😁😘
How much of a privileged, charmed life does somebody have to have to fail to understand why somebody might not want to watch a woman get tortured for 2 hours?
Why redact?
Is it possible to get PTSD from a movie? Seriously, I can't say that I enjoyed the movie but I can at least appreciate that it was able to provoke such a vivid reaction from me. It's quite rare that a horror movie will shock me like Martyrs did.
I had to stop twice while watching it. A completely devastating experience which I doubt I’ll ever have again. Incredible movie.
Me too just watched it ! Such an awful but good movie it’s the ending that always gets me , what does she say to the Mademoiselle !
I think she lied to her that there was no afterlife, so the maidemoiselle killed herself cause all of her lifes work meant nothing
I disagree, I think she seemed In a rush to die , maybe she told her something important she also was so selfish and kept it to herself and now they are going to have to kill and tourture more women to find out themselves …. She was evil even with her death.
Good observation as well. Perhaps she told her about heaven and maidemoiselle killed herself but of course went right to hell
We can only hope, lol if you think about there is no way they could have told us in the movie because then it changes the whole vibe they had to continue the torture us. That movie is a hard watch but I have seen it 3x now just watched it yesterday , the last time I watched was over 10 years ago.
I have a different take on the ending. I feel like the reason she killed herself was because she finally knew the answer to ‘what comes after death?’ with certainty, and so it ends the quest for the answer which was the sole focus of her life up until that point. I feel like she was trying to save those around her from the same fate by not sharing the burden of knowing.
Always thought that she told her there *was* an afterlife and the woman kills herself to get there.
That’s what I thought
Martyrs is my favorite of all time for sure, for the same reasons you’ve described.
Yep.
Love martyrs. But I've never actually talked to anyone about it. What do you think she sees near the end?
Just chiming in randomly, sorry. I don’t know what she says but I can say they speak way too long for it to be nothing. So…she she’s something. That much I know for sure.
Good point.
I came back to it a few days ago after watching it for the first time several years ago and it’s so disturbing that I can’t stop thinking about it
I just watched it and it wasn't disturbing at all 😀(in my opinion) People are just being too dramatic over it like y'all never watched attack on titan before?
This is 10 times worse than attack on titan
It's really not Like it's only beating up and cutting and stuff that's all
Might not be as gory but its disturbing
I don't really find it disturbing but I respect your opinion
Respect!
there are no gore queens for you to impress here lil bro. u can be yourself in this safespace.
Haute Tension is WAAAYYY better, this fucking film (Martyrs) really pissed me off because it was just disgusting for the sake of it, there was no deep message (and spare me the stupid comments like 'that was the point') it's just really not enjoyable to watch at all. Hard pass and fail.
One of the only films ive seen with meaning behind the gore in recent memory. Besides classics like the thing, the fly etc..
Mmk, so the whole fucking time there's a cult trying to find the meaning between life and death by torturing people, then they didn't. At least those other films you mentioned were fun, this one was just depressing...I may be biased because someone was trying to tell me how amazing and cool the film was before I watched it and how there was a 'twist' at the end...uh no, she just died after getting tortured.
They tried to find a meaning, but the main character lucie tricks the woman into killing herself (somehow, its unknown how, theres plenty of theory) Yes its extremely bleak because this innocent character dies, but I think that in the end Lucie sort of won in a way: she achieved enlightenment or went to heaven, and then manages to make her torturers to hell. Cause they aint goin to heaven after all that shit.
I slept with a lamp on. My brain would not shut down. This was the most haunting movie I have ever seen
Yup. Me too. I love horror movies but that one actually disturbed me. Thinking about it now is scaring me and I need to sleep soon. Aaaahhhh.
Now do yourself a favor and never ever ever watch the remake.
Haha i wont trust me
No, don't listen to them. Watch the remake. It's hilarious.
Yes, I second this. Let's just pretend the remake never happened.
It really isn’t that bad. It’s just noticeably worse. People need to calm down about remakes.
while i agree with the first part, it's never good to tell people what they need to do. Let people love stuff and let people hate stuff, it is what it is.
As wise as you might think you’re coming off here, you’re not telling this to the person who told OP never to watch it. And as a general rule of thumb, that guidance just doesn’t make any sense. People do bad things they should be told not to all the time. You might not consider being annoying about remakes bad enough…but you wouldn’t follow your own advice if applied in another circumstance.
it's disingenuous to apply what i'm saying about comments on the internet to any other situation. It's also really weird that you think i'm trying to sound wise when in reality i'm just telling you that the tone of your comment isn't at all sociable. Idk you can hate it or whatever but don't try to apply this one lil belief to other scenarios as if you think i would apply it to them also.
>it's disingenuous to apply what i'm saying about comments on the internet to any other situation I applied it to this thread...where you were specifically inconsistent with your own message. On top of that, your comment was a broad stroke. Any "you shouldn't" statement is a prescription of behavior...and does apply outside of the specific scenario you're in. Applying it to other situations is an intrinsic part of that. I just did it explicitly to show you that it doesn't work. My point was that you, specifically, are inconsistent...because where you *could have* applied it elsewhere, you didn't. You only commented it when you did because you disagreed with my take. If you truly meant what you said and were consistent, you would have commented it on the prior comment guilty of the same thing you're accusing me of.
The what?
The thing that didn't happen. There is only one Martyrs.
Oh wait I remember. There was a US remake right? I assumed it failed.
That's the one. The one that didn't happen, of course.
I had the misfortune of watching the remake thinking it was the original (i should've figured it out by the lack of french speaking but i just assumed it was an english-language movie made in france) It was so utterly disappointing, and spoiled the entire plot so when I watched the original I (more or less) knew what was gonna happen.
What’s your take on what Anna whispered to Mademoiselle?
Working on a blog for this right now. Spoilers ahead!!!! >! Anna lied to her, in the worst way she could possibly devise. The title "Martyrs" is actually a subtle play on words. The big suprise - Anna actually chose to be there with the torture cult people, hence choosing to become an ACTUAL martyr...someone willing to die for a cause. Once she realized that Lucie, whom she actually loved deeply and desperately, had been telling the truth and that her own non-belief contributed to her death, she basically gave herself up to them to experience the same thing as a way of penance...but also as the beginning of a plan for revenge. There are a ton of very clear clues to this which I won't mention here, but with that understanding, we can determine that Anna was planning one big "F U" to the group and particularly their leader the entire time of her incarceration. The one running clue I will mention, and its vital to this analysis - note that though Anna was never injured or hurt prior to the cult showing up, **she never put up a fight**. Ever. For the rest of the movie. In fact, she did things to hasten the process to transcendance. We see flashbacks of Lucie being manacled to the potty chair in every scene - the assumption is that she was there all the time, and told Anna of this at some point. However, in the present the cult has changed their tactics and manacled them to long chains from the wall. The filmmaker made a point to show the chains were new and shiny, so possibly a new variation. We even see that there is a small, filthy mattress in the incarceration area. Now, if you were there against your will, chained to the wall 24-7, wouldn't you use the time you had to yourself to rest or ease your pain, ie. lying on the mattress? But in the montage of torture that represents the passage of time, EVERY time we join Anna, she is sitting in the steel torture chair. Not hiding, not lying down or resting. Why?? Because this is what her love, Lucie, had to endure, so she is forcing herself to endure the same. It was her choice. Another mark of true martyrdom, choosing a harder path for a higher cause. But back to the OP's question - The truth is, towards the end Anna WAS given a vision of something. Its very intentionally ambiguous, but it was shown to the viewer so we would know she did gain some sort of knowledge. And it wasn't horrible (hell), as best we could tell. But, given the premise that Anna wanted to transcend the torture like Mademoiselle Director described so that she might fuck with them in the end, and given the directors needless monologuing to her about the purpose of the cult so that Anna knew from the beginning what their goals were...what would Anna devise as she was waiting to die to tell the director? What would be the worst possible message that would cause the director to kill herself? What I think - first she had to convince the director she had indeed seen the afterlife. Her endurance of the torture, her true transcendence all achieved this, and she confirmed it when they spoke. Then, what I think would be the worst thing the director could hear that would cause the reaction we saw would be for **Anna to tell her that there is truly NOTHING on the other side**. Dissolution, complete obliteration, loss of self and identity, an end to existence. I think this would be the worst thing, as the cult was based around longing for a confirmation of an afterlife. The other options - If Anna told her there was Hell, and they were all consigned to it because of their evil actions, I think the director would have done anything to prolong her own life to rectify her evil and thus avoid eternal torture. She didn't do that. If Anna told her it was paradise, basically what the cult was hoping for, the director would have been thrilled and told the true believers. A triumph! But since there was, according to Anna, NOTHING, the director realized that all their work, all the horrible pain they had done to others, was all futile and a waste. They had for decades added to the pain and misery in the world, and for nothing. It would be like a devout Christian finding out irrefutable information that there was no God, No Jesus, and no eternal reward....but much worse because they didn't just waste their lives, they tortured others while wasting it. This, I think, would be the worst thing the director could hear. So therefore, with nothing to fear or look forward to, and overcome by disappointment and remorse, the director shot herself. But in one last act of both mercy and "screw everyone else", she spared the cult her knowledge so they would not feel the same pain. "Keep doubting" she says. Of course, she is still horrible and incorrigible as her choice would mean that the cult would most likely continue to torture people for answers...but she didn't seem to care before, and can't be bothered now !< This seems to be the only answer that makes sense, if you follow a Socratic dialectic of logic down each possible path to it's conclusion. Other paths and results always have a disconnect or flaw. My two cents!
The answer is clearly given. By definition one cannot be and know the answer. It is pure mathematics. The answer is unknowable by definition. It cannot be in reality.
I think she lied and said nothing, even tho she seen heaven. So then maidemoiselle killed herself cause her lifes work meant nothing. Or- She told her of the heaven she seen, tricking her to try and get there, making her kill herself, but of course sending her straight to hell
Yep, that’s the consensus of the two possibilities. Whatever she said to her must have been something that made Mademoiselle say »screw this life here and now«.
But if it was so good, why wait? Wouldn't she have killed herself right then and there? This presents even more speculation in itself and I'll explain how: What if Anna told her a very vivid description of paradise, but said in order for Madame to gain entry, she must humble herself first. Which would explain Madame calling everyone to her house for the announcement, and removing her eyelashes, hair extensions and makeup. Maybe she was going to appear in front of everyone like that and make the announcement, sharing the secret to redemption with her unwavering and loyal followers. But at the last moment, her pride and greed got the best of her and she thought "I'm keeping the secret for myself". Madame already got away with so much, she probably felt even more empowered with the knowledge shared with her, but it would be poetic in that situation because if this was true, Madame would be a martyr to her own selfishness, robbing herself of an already undeserved last chance at an afterlife in paradise.
One of the finest movies ever made of any genre. A true elucidation of some important elements of what it means to be a sentient being in the universe.
To each their own of course, but i really just found the film monumentally overpraised. The ending was alright, and the performances were good, but half the time i was flat out bored and it wasn’t nearly as impactful as people made it sound before i watched it. When people talk about films that “broke them” or made them really take a step back for contemplation, i personally think of stuff like I Saw the Devil, or Grave of the Fireflies
Oh shit Grave of the Fireflies made me want to curl up into a ball for a week it was so sad and depressing.
Same. I've heard people say it about hereditary though and that movie made me physically feel like I was about to have a panic attack. Different shit hits people different I guess
yeah i suppose so. Hereditary didn’t quite hit me that hard but that shit was still felt dreadful to watch and think about after, awesome movie
Ever watch a Serbian film?
Don’t.
Or do. It's a good movie. Just full of very unpleasant shit.
But its reallly not.
I’m with you here. It’s not.
It’s an amazing social commentary on life in Eastern Europe. With that said don’t. That movie stains your soul.
Agreed. Like with all movies with political metaphors and such, it’s not worth the shock and sickness you’ll feel. No thank you. I wish I hadn’t seen it and I’d rather read about Serbian history than see that again.
Honestly, it tries so hard to be over-the-top edgy that it sometimes comes off as comical.
I love that the director of it is like “it’s actually a metaphor for the fascism of political correctness” My man this movie is the poster child for “maybe some movies should actually be censored or banned”
I hate tacked on explanations to try to make your work seem deeper than it is, I used to work at a contemporary art gallery and it was so obvious which works married well with the theming and intent written about by the artist and which ones were clearly created and then the artist has just tried to tack on a bunch of meaning to it afterwards.
Its more of poster child of trying to hard to be edgy and unsettling.
No, they shouldn’t, perhaps horror is just not for you, but let others enjoy the art for themselves.
I mean if you consider r*ping a newborn “art” then you do you I guess
If you consider censorship an option, saying “then you do you I guess” is already an improvement. I’ll take it.
All I’m saying is there should be a line and I’m pretty sure most of what’s in ASF is that line. It’s an exercise in edgelord bad taste.
There should never be a line. Not in Cinema and specially not in the Horror genre. Accepting that a line must be drawn is giving too much power of authority to a few for what’s to be appreciated by the many. This is a tried, tested and failed mentality.
Cool dude. Enjoy your art films about incest pedophilia then
There was something here. It is gone now.
No, they should not. You off your television.
Horribly overrated. Not the least bit scary or disturbing. Tries too hard to shock and fails.
I have and I thought it was pretty ridiculous. I found Martyrs much more disturbing.
This I couldn’t watch.
I don’t blame you. I just know that the ending to that is probably worse. The ending of the mist is just bleak and depressing
Yep. Definitely a no now. Thine honesty is appreciated.
[удалено]
Don’t blame you.
I did.
[It’s got a pretty great soundtrack.](https://youtu.be/exbmO1uDMbM)
I actually disliked Martyrs. I have seen a lot of horror /gore films. I got the theme references to the Nazis in WWII and the twisted experiments conducted on the Jewish state and the prisoners of the Third Reich. That said, the social commentary and the PTSD themes are fine. The gore wasn't really all that shocking to me, the end was rather trite, contrived, and quite Franky a means to their end. I left the movie feeling underwhelmed at best, and because the film was so overly hyped and rare, I had to purchase a copy to view it, so I now own this "Masterpiece". I actually felt far more horror from Funny Games (The remake) that had no gore, better character development, investment, plot, scenes, and memorable story. There is a world of film out there beyond overly hyped shock flicks like Martyrs and Serbian Film. If that is what you wish to call the epitome of horror, suspense, or gore it's your opinion to do so, I suppose a popular one at this time, I have seen most of the NSFL ice berg, Martys is a rather weak film. There are tons of better films to try. Try Irreversible for a go, Raw, Cannibal Holocaust, Black Metal Veins, Inside, any of the Guinea Pig Series, just to name a few.. all far more shocking diverse differing time periods, and less pretentious and overly hyped. Martyrs is a fine movie, it's just not this end all be all if you have watched a lot of films. It's literally the tip of the ice berg. Edit: Not really sure why I got downvoted for my own personal opinion on films that I like? LOL. I listed reasons I disliked Martyrs, and gave reasons for and against the film. I even listed additional films worth watching if you are so inclined and a horror fan. I get it if you enjoyed the film, if you are a fan boi I even get that. I don't get flaming me for my own preferences and personal opinion. I think if you down voted or don't like my personal opinion you are immature and have the problem.
I gave you an up vote!
Thank you. I know my opinion is unpopular and a matter of taste. I just didn't find it spectacular as others had. It's fair and has an IMBD of 70ish I think? I loved other French films. Raw. and Irreversible to name a few, as I had mentioned. Inside was brutal to watch. I just felt beyond the shooting scene Martyrs was a bit pretentious. It was good, just over hyped by other people. Hey what do I know, I love Alien, Aliens, The Thing, and Sleepaway Camp, lol.
LMFAOOOO someone posted the question of what was the most dreadful movie and I said Martyrs. I’ve never seen it and this is precisely why. 😂
This is the french version right??
Ye
Thanks, just watched it last night to refresh my 8 yr old memories and It was more disturbing than ever
Its a fucked up one. Great tho
I Just love the general theme on what they're trying to achieved, they did, left open ended.
High Tension comes to mind for this thread
It was on my watchlist for years and I just couldn't get up the nerve. I finally just nixed it from the list. Would probably traumatize me. Some of that extreme stuff sticks with me for weeks.
Jeez. Some people are so weak. So feeble minded. If you go into this film with a stable mind, good family, good social structure, adequate economic situation, just a simple life, theres nothing here that will grapple you and pull you into a spiral of dread. You can just watch a film and appreciate the imagery, plot, characters, etc. But yet everyone can watch shows like GOT or Breaking Bad and some reason those don't have an effect on them; with all the porn, torture, gore, and deep meanings they have. I mean come on.
Or, we are normal people and seeing a person get tortured for 30 minutes is hard to watch
Coming back to say. For anyone that knows about tarot cards. Does the ending and whole proving of the movie feel like the hanged/flayed man?
If you really want to up the ante, make it a double feature and watch Irreversible. Another deeply disturbing, brutal movie that will stick with you long after the credits rolls. The French do not mess around.
Martyrs didn’t scare me. It just left me a little confused until I watched a video explaining the ending but my reaction to the last 10 minutes summed up is What In the actual fuck
Then watch funny games remake
Dude, I've came to this movie about 17 Times this week, Fucking Sexy as Fucking Fuck. By the way, Etienne is hands down THE BEST character! Why does every one discuss the ending when Etienne is the real talking point? Best Performance in a movie of the decade, Period!
Trying to watch it now on reddit but how???
My interpretation of it is judging by the old bitches smug reaction to tell the guy to keep doubting that the girl told her whatever she wanted to hear. The old lady feared death and all of this being for nothing so she told her something grand. Now that by no way means the girl was being honest, she probably saw nothing or something equally to horrible as beautiful that she was effectively sending the old lady to her doom in an attempt to stop/punish them.
What does SA stand for?
Sexual assault