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Old 21st August 2013, 08:07 AM
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Originally Posted by nosferatu42 View Post
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Just finished watching 'Martyrs', must say that i thought it was very good.
I'd heard differing opinions of the film but tried not to hear too much about what actually happens in the film.
Heard it was very harsh and brutal, and it is, but i didn't feel at any time that it was exploitative or overly gratuitous.

It is hard to sit through at times, but the two main female performances raised it above the crowd for me,i thought they gave very good performances.

I generally dislike modern torture style horror films but this was centred around the effects of captivity on the victim and therefore had to have difficult scenes to make us aware of the impact it has on the victim and the villains of the piece are in no way glorified.
In the villains there is more reasoning and motivation than i expected which makes them seem even more chilling, they have a purpose. (even if it is pretty warped.) I will not go into detail but i did not expect this element.

The film was well made and quite creepy in a few of the earlier scenes, and i was impressed by the amount of dread the director created.
The plot takes a few twists that i did not expect and kept me gripped throughout.

I think a lot of the reason it has it's haters is that the film is very serious and doesn't try to just entertain us but provoke thought and it seems very realistic in its violence.
Not a film i can easily recommend because it is quite an ordeal at times, but i am glad i watched it. I'm sat here thinking about it now writing this and i can tell it's one of those films i'll be thinking about for a while ( this in my mind is a good thing.)
Hard to recommend but if your'e looking for something a bit challenging i would say go for it. 8/10
I didn't mind the extreme violence and know Mark Kermode said it was different from a 'torture porn' film because the torture and violence meant something.

But one of my favourite of the 'New French Extremity' films and one I've seen quite a few times. If you're interested, here's my review – Martyrs | Film 365
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