86
Summary: Two friends meet at an orphanage. Anna whose mother was unfit to care for her, and Lucie who was rescued from the streets after claiming to be tortured and kept in a dungeon. Lucie later convinces Anna to help her enact revenge on the people she believes to be her captors. Martyrs is part of the New French Extremity movement.
WHAT’S HOT: This is the second New Wave French Horror movie that I’ve seen (Inside) and I think for my own sanity I will need to stay away from this genre for a little while. These movies are long, rough, and decently scary. Martyrs follows Lucie and Anna, whose complex relationship and ever evolving characters are breaths of fresh air in the ever repeating registry of Horror characters. Martyrs is beautifully shot, well acted, and full of surprises. But definitely not for the faint of heart.
WHAT’S NOT: You have to hand it to the creators of the Saw series. I’ve seen four of their movies, and not once have I sat through twenty-five minutes of unadulterated torture. Now that I have sat through twenty-five minutes of unadulterated torture, I can safely say that I never ever want to do it again. What Saw does so cleverly is to intersperse torture with current plot events, generally police or detectives trying to piece together clues. It’s emotionally taxing and not really fun to watch someone tortured again and again with no plot breaks or anything.
*You may want to read the breakdown of my rating system or my glossary of terms before continuing.*
BASIC (22/25)
Plot: 3
Dialogue: 5
Setting: 4
Acting: 5
Uniqueness: 5
CHARACTERS (25/30)
Protagonist: 7 (Anna)
Antagonist: 10 (Mademoiselle)
Sidekick characters: 8 (Lucie)
TIME LINE (14/15)
Opening: 5
Title sequence: 5
Ending: 4
THE “HORROR” (13/15)
Gore: 5
Suspense: 3
Special effects: 5
MOTIVES (8/10)
Protagonist motive: 5
Antagonist motive: 3
Was it scary: 4
Overall: 86
This House is Haunted 