Martyrs, and the state of modern horror

2008
Writer/ Director- Pascal Laugier

I’m still trying to make my mind up about horror films. Most of them just don’t look that good really. Frankly most of them aren’t. But I still want to see more- when horror is good, it can be really fucking great. The problem is, the extent of my horror viewing goes no further than the old American classics, your Halloweens and Exorcists. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both very fine films but I suppose I am feeling a little more adventurous now. I guess what’s mainly stopping me now is, well… I hate to admit it but maybe I'm a little bit scared of what I’ll find.

The two most obvious trends going right now seem to be the Paranormal Activity/ Insidious slow build jumpy scare flicks and the gratuitous Saw-type torture porn debacles. The problem is neither seems at all daring or interesting. It doesn't help that the main example of a recent jumpy horror film I’ve seen was The Fourth Kind, which frankly was terrible- you know you can do much better when people are getting freaked out by smiling owls and glowing lights. I know there are better ones out there, yet still they look the same, and watching a film where the entire purpose is simply waiting for the bit where something jumps out screaming hardly seems entertaining.

At the other end of the scale is the all-out assault on decency and tolerability that are the gorno films. Unlike the ghost stories, these just shove everything on screen whether it needs or even should be on there. Saw was a surprisingly good film because whilst the context was fairly heavy, it had a point to it- there were characters with motivations and layers and some semblance of a plot. Yet the sequels and imitators seem to be nothing more than a perverts’ eye-view of showing people agonising in increasingly outlandish and graphic ways which I really can’t be doing with. I don’t see the appeal of watching people being mutilated, unless the films' popularity is down to some need to make oneself feel better by seeing how much worse it can get? Okay so maybe I’m a bit squeamish but it’s hardly engaging watching something which is no more than visual pollution for my eyes. It’s not body horror- David Cronenberg’s work proves that onscreen gore and distortion can say something, can really get under your skin and make you feel what they feel, which is what the best cinema does.

So I suppose my biggest fear here is simply wasting my time with a load of pointless crap. Sure the good films are probably going to horrify and upset me but that’s the point: I want to see something that will warp my worldview and change my thinking, show me something I’ve never seen before. Where can I find this then? One route I could take instead could be the arthouse horror film? As flawed and bizarre as it was, I have a great deal of admiration for Antichrist, though this is mainly down to my being a big fan of Lars von Trier and his brand of cinema which deliberately pushes audiences for reactions and does whatever the hell it wants to. A trend that’s caught my attention is the rise of the New French Extremism movement, French horror from the last 10-15 years that take a no holds barred approach to sex, violence, suffering both physical and mental and the general breaking of taboos. I’m intrigued as to why this trend has been happening in France of all places, what might be happening socially and culturally that would foster such a transition; maybe similar to the rise of J-horror in the 1990s? Some notable examples have been Irréversible, Switchblade Romance and Ils. Anything I’ve read about them has talked of how they’ve polarised audiences due to their graphic content yet received some great acclaim from critics as great works of cinema.

Martyrs, therefore, must be as good a place to start as anywhere. 52% on Rotten Tomatoes, with comments ranging from it being “unforgettable (not necessarily a good thing)”, “sadistic”, and “garbage” to it having “gravity and beauty”. One thing all agreed on was how unremittingly brutal this film is. It starts with 10 year old Lucie escaping from a decrepit building, having been abused and tortured for a sustained period of time. She’s taken into a children’s home, but remains plagued with visions of a savage and horrible creature that only she can see. 15 years later, Lucie and her friend Anna turn up at the home of the people she believes were behind her captivity, seeking revenge. What follows is a descent into violence, suffering and extremes as the full extent of Lucie’s past is revealed.

I don’t want to ruin it by giving anything away but Martyrs is definitely an endurance test of a film. It is ruthlessly intense and unwaveringly graphic- nothing is hidden away, some of which was a bit too much for me as I clutched behind my cushion. It’s also intensely nihilistic, depicting a world where humans are without any trace of humanity, where people are willing to abuse and torture others to get what they want. You can’t help wondering whether it was all genuinely necessary- do they really need to show every injury and every attack in such detail? It’s undeniably powerful and will definitely provoke a response as intended but it surely could have done that without being so bloody?

Either way, whilst Martyrs is definitely a torture porn film, what distinguishes it is what it’s trying to achieve. This is a film about the nature of suffering and the quasi-philosophical issues this raises about the relationship between body and mind, the conditions of the material world and the capabilities of humans for evil alongside compassion. Whilst this all sounds a little pretentious, it isn’t an overwhelming factor of the film- instead that is given to the sustained scenes of abuse and violence. But these themes do give Martyrs some sense of purpose beyond the usual mindless torture films, as well as ideas that dwell on the mind after the credits have rolled alongside the pretty unforgettable images.

However the film works best in the first two-thirds when it is less about the reasons behind the events that have happened and more about what is actually happening. The appearances of the apparition are horribly tense and unpleasant, producing the genuine scary moments (at least for me, I don’t know whether a more hardened horror viewer will think as much of it). It’s all very visceral, as we see Lucie and Anna’s friendship tested by the extremities around them. The appearance of a new nameless character halfway through genuinely disturbed me, as the plot thickens and some really horrifying images are shown. It’s just in the final third that the course of the film changes- we are presented with the monotony and severity of suffering rather than the effects of it as shown before. The reasons behind it are interesting to consider but in the end it doesn’t have a great deal to say, finishing with a bit of a cop-out rather than a conclusion.

There’s no denying Martyrs is a very well made film, with magnificent visual effects and two brilliant performances from the two leads and overall it is an effective horror film that really pushes boundaries and affects the viewer in a number of ways. It’s not an enjoyable film; I don’t think I ever want to see it again. But I’m glad I have seen it and would recommend it if you can stomach it. The problem is that whilst the film is offering a condemnation on violence and the conditions that promote it, at face value it often looks like simply a depiction of the brutalisation of women in the way that it dwells so garishly on the bloodletting. It’s deeply problematic- it succeeds where Michael Haneke’s Funny Games failed thematically but the very nature of the film itself seemingly undermines the message it’s trying to promote. This film can work, but maybe you shouldn’t think about it too much and just simply experience it for what it is.