Martyrs Of Blood

In a movie like "Martyrs" we have serious religious undertones but the film itself isn't outright philosophical. It is indeed a horror film and a grisly one at that. Sometimes foreign movies are more extreme because U.S. movies can seem watered down. Not always, but that can be the case. This is a French film and I can't say I've seen too many horror movies from there so it's a nice change. The story revolves around two friends that met at an orphanage. One of them seems really disturbed. Now I have to say this is a really gutsy movie and probably one that you can just tell wouldn't be made in the...

In a movie like "Martyrs" we have serious religious undertones but the film itself isn't outright philosophical. It is indeed a horror film and a grisly one at that. Sometimes foreign movies are more extreme because U.S. movies can seem watered down. Not always, but that can be the case. This is a French film and I can't say I've seen too many horror movies from there so it's a nice change. The story revolves around two friends that met at an orphanage. One of them seems really disturbed. Now I have to say this is a really gutsy movie and probably one that you can just tell wouldn't be made in the U.S. at all. I mean we have scary horror too but not quite of this caliber. There are sickly horror movies coming out now but I think this one really stands out. It wasn't even advertised very much here so I just thought it was another run of the mill horror movie. I was wrong. It shocked me and I kept watching like as if passing a car crash polarized by the horror. Now jump to 15 years later and the disturbed girl shoots up a family. She says they tormented her, which is hard to believe by looking at them, but it turns out to be true believe it or not. I was totally shocked at that. What a screwed up family. They get their jollies off torturing some innocent girl in the basement and then live the normal life above, complete with kids. It's disturbing and harrowing. This isn't the end of the nightmare though. You think the madness stops there? No! There's a girl in the basement that she frees only to witness her murder. It's sick what they did to her. Unfathomable. It seems this family was keeping the girl down there for a group of psychos that want to find the secrets of the afterlife through sacrifice and torture. That's messed up but I could imagine that. They think in their self righteousness that they could create a martyr to divulge the secrets they want. The thing is they didn't take into account their own afterlife. They just assumed it would be the same for everyone. So the girl's friend kills herself and now only the sane one is left for the captors to take into the basement. What happens next is true horror. You couldn't imagine what lengths these people would go to in order to find some secret. I felt so sorry for her. I wanted to kill those people myself. That's when you know it affects you. You want to make them pay for their atrocities. The old woman in the end learns the hard way that the afterlife may have other plans in store for her for what she did to her. Now this may give a lot away but that's just part of the way I review movies. I like to go over every part, or almost every part. It's a harsh look at religious zealots and their own madness unseen through their actions. They felt they were doing no wrong basically. In their own minds they felt justified. That's called abnormal psychology. They bring up martyrs of the past and talk of a transcendence through pain, as if similar to what Pinhead speaks of in "Hellraiser". But martyrs are not made. They are self sacrifices. This is the big philosophical debate. It's too easy to inflict pain on others but we don't do it to find secrets. The only reason anyone would do that to anyone is for their own release of pain through infliction of pain. I think there is a great message here and this movie transcends the stereotypical notions of cinema. It pushes boundaries.


Guest Commentator FATHER DIABOLICAL says: "You can't find heaven by knocking on the door to hell folks. 2 doors down!"