Crow Pilot

Unlike the torture-porn films dissenting critics would like to assign this film to, Pascal Laugier's MARTYRS is predicated on the big Existential questions, not on sexually sadistic gratification. Though let's be clear about this: MARTYRS is an uncompromising exercise in pain, both physical and psychological. Some may be put off by the graphic violence; others by its pessimistic world-view. And that's okay. This movie isn't meant for everyone. But if you like your horror served up with lashings of gore, with torture, with imprisonment, and with despair, you should certainly check MARTYRS out. Laughier scripted this film while in the grip of clinical depression - and it shows. Everything from Lucie's guilt-induced psychosis and self-mutilation to Anna's tormented dehumanization paints a bleak canvas that will leave many audiences feel like hanging themselves, but left this reviewer praising the writer / director and the two leads for bringing this grim vision to the big screen. And the denoument is as intriguing as it is tragic.