r/horror • u/kaloosa Evil Dies Tonight! • Jun 01 '15
Discussion Series Martyrs (2008) /R/HORROR Official Discussion
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5
u/Horrorquestion Jun 02 '15
Martyrs is one of few horror movies that left me with an absolute sense of emptiness once it was over. I wasn't prepared for the ending because of the cliche beginning scenes with the monster reminiscent of asian horror movie ghosts. I didn't know what to expect since I didn't know a single thing about it. Once the credits rolled, I sat there contemplating my life and felt depressed for days.
I'm extremely disgusted that it's getting an American remake, because from what I've heard they're taking away the hopeless feeling the original gives you and replaces it with a happier ending.
The only other movie that left me with a feeling like this was Irreversible, although it's not considered a horror movie.
2
Jun 02 '15
I tend to agree. I wouldn't quite say I was contemplating my life and depressed for days, but what it DID do was have me rethink why the hell I just watched this (the last third, really) and wonder if I can ever get that image out of my head (I've been unsuccessful so far). I've never seen Irreversible, but I have seen JK's The Girl Next Door which is the only thing I can compare this feeling with - that movie made me question whether its healthy for me to watch horror movies, although of course I came back to them in a matter of weeks.
4
u/Oddball12 Jun 01 '15
What does everything think what was said at the end of the movie???????
16
u/countjack Jun 02 '15
I'll be honest, I hate focusing on this kind of question. These sorts of mysteries in film are usually a signal to the audience to consider the film itself, rather than the question it posits.
For example, in Inception, the ending is about the audience, waking up to the reality that it's just a movie.
In Martyrs, the ending is about considering our obsession with a question, that we are all going to know the answer to anyway, and what the cost of that obsession is.
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3
u/wingnutzero Jun 01 '15
My two cents: she said something that made someone else want to end their life immediately, yet not share that information with anyone else. So it must be something that, if everyone knew it, would cause mass suicides and basically wipe out human life on earth. Something like "this world is actually hell". Which would make sense considering what the protagonist went through.
3
Feb 15 '24
It seemed obvious to me Anna out-thought her captors. She had enough time to think about it, and Mademoiselle laid out their plan and goals right away. So Anna thought of the most tempting thing to tell them about an 'afterlife', to hopefully induce them to want to die right away. And I guess it worked at least once.
2
u/viken1976 Jun 01 '15
She told her there was nothing. An endless void. No afterlife, no heaven, no hell. Nothing. Everything they did was meaningless.
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Jun 01 '15
3
Jun 01 '15
She lied and said there was something there...
After all the poor girl had been through, whether she saw anything or not I think she would be in a transcendent state. She's not going to be alive much longer, her brain has already done massive endorphin dumps as well as DMT, the later of which pretty much ensures she sees "something" regardless of whether or not anything is there.
I don't believe she would be in a state of consciousness where revenge or deception are still on the table.
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u/simplefilmreviews Jun 01 '15
Easily one of the best horror movies of the past 25 years. Yeah it may be a bit of gore porn, but at the same time it's so much more than that. There is a reason for the violence and it works! I loved it...
3
u/canadevil Jun 01 '15
By far my all time favorite horror movie, I actually have a tradition of watching Martyrs and À l'intérieur ( Inside ) on Christmas eve. It is just such a great and well shot film, I love the transitions into basically three different movies. It starts as a supernatural ghost story and then turns into a revenge film and then transitions into a cult/torture film.
Martyrs is also my most prized Bluray
3
u/wingnutzero Jun 01 '15
By far my all time favorite horror movie, I actually have a tradition of watching Martyrs and À l'intérieur ( Inside ) on Christmas eve.
Invite me over next year. I'll bring the pizza.
3
u/Mepsi Jun 01 '15
I didn't like the way the torture scenes were set to music towards the end.
I felt like it trivialised the violence and revealed the films intent of coolness over meaning.
It's been a while since i've watched it, but I never really understood the protagonist's motivation for doing certain things and feel like it was just an excuse to show off some gory visuals.
These two things are what hold it back from being a classic for me.
1
u/countjack Jun 02 '15
The music over the torture sequence "trivialized violence?" but the cartoony shotgun blast didn't? Are you sure you just couldn't handle the torture scene's intensity?
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u/mare-frigoris Jun 01 '15
Meh. The first half is engaging, the second half isn't.
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u/countjack Jun 02 '15
I disagree. The second half is utterly engaging, it is the most horrific torture sequence I've ever seen in cinema. Forget Passion of The Christ and Serbian Film, Martyrs is where it's at.
2
u/yiyopuga Jun 03 '15
The second half did nothing for me personally. Really wanted to like it but it was just meh. First half was awesome though.
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u/PoesRaven Jun 02 '15
I really, really, really wanted to love this movie. I heard about it a year before I actually saw it, and wanted to see it so bad. I finally got my hands on the unrated version and was..vastly disappointed by the second half. It to me, looks like they shifted gears in the middle and gave me the second half of a different movie. The people with the Martyrdom obsession weren't really talked about in the first half of the movie, or drowned out by Anna's unfortunate semi-insanity. So that kinda screwed with things for me. It was an interesting movie, but not one I'd gladly say is a favorite.
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u/countjack Jun 02 '15
You don't understand how the two halves of the film are connected? You don't see how an obsessed religious group, torturing people related to a girl's need for revenge and self-punishment?
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u/SugarShane333 Oct 06 '15
For me this is one of the most overrated horrors that is always brought up. Good movie for sure, but not nearly as deep or amazing as most people claim.
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u/kitty_tickler9000 Jun 01 '15
I really wanted to like this movie because I had heard so many good things about it, but I just couldn't get into it. The first half was great and I wish it would have been drawn out more. The second half really threw me through a loop, it was just a bit far-fetched for me.
Maybe if the first half hadn't been so realistic I could have bought the second half, but the total shift in both the feel of the movie and the realism made me lose interest. I think I would have liked the movie a lot more if the first half would have been extended and the second half would have been cut out.
That's not to say it's a bad movie; it definitely isn't and I don't regret watching it or anything. I thought the cinematography was great and the story really is a cool concept. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
1
u/I_Love_Pringles Jun 02 '15
I can honestly say that this is the best horror movie of the last 10 years, maybe even the last 20.
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u/inconsistentseas Jun 01 '15
One of the very few films that really stuck on me after watching for the first time. It really had nothing to do with the actual gore (though there is plenty.) Just the actual concept...left me with a very..uneasy feeling.