Horrorthon'08: MARTYRS (2008)

French horror MARTYRS is a somewhat hot title on the festival circuit at the moment, having built up a reputation for being one of the more shocking horror films of recent years.

It's certainly unpleasant, I'll give you that, but since most modern horror films labour under the misapprehension that making something as unpleasant and tortuous as possible means it's great horror it's not exactly breaking new ground in the genre. Truth be told, once you immunise yourself to the unpleasant effects of a woman getting spectacularly beaten up, there's not much else to it.

The plot initially concerns a young woman taking revenge on a family that she claimed subjected her to horrific torture as a child. What we end up with is the first half of the film being a variation on fellow French shocker HAUTE TENSION, followed by a second half in which a woman is beaten and tortured.

The reason for all this is revealed eventually but unfortunately it's limited to a couple of throwaway lines quickly spun out to justify the gruelling torment that preceded it. It's a real shame because, despite probably being a little tasteless, the reason is an interesting one. Unfortunately the filmmakers clearly thought that further investigation of this wouldn't be as interesting as seeing a woman being beaten up some more.

I should confess however that after being left a little cold by it to begin with, it did grow on me slightly in the days following it. However, it's not the masterpiece its being heralded as and if you're a hardened gore-monger there are probably a few scenes to make you squirm but mainly a feeling of "so what".