Martyrs (2008)

Director: Pascal Laugier

Starring: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: They did not finish to be alive...

Plot: A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.

My Rating: 8

Would I watch it again? Absolutely

This is going to be brief. MARTYRS is different than any horror/torture film you have seen. HOSTEL is Mickey Mouse compared to this. It's a revenge film of sorts with lots of torture but the difference between this and HOSTEL, and others of it's like, is that the torture has absolute purpose to the story which builds to a very profound climax.

It's only in the closing short minutes do we understand why what has happened had to happen. It's easy to dismiss this as being another torture horror film but at least with MARTYRS, the torture has weight and meaning. This is not for the feint of heart. It will get under your skin and largely because you don't know the "why" until the very end. And even then you're likely to spend some time afterward trying to make sense of it all. This is great, fucked-up cinema. If you think you've seen it all...you haven't. WOW!