JUNKFILM

Excuse the opening comment, but…

Holy shit.

It’s been a while since a film has not only intrigued me with deep thoughts that plunge into psychosis, emotional revenge, and religious twists but also entices my gore-hound lust with a beautifully crafted violent array or red mist and eye-covering horror. While I have read a few reviews casting this film aside as nothing but mere torture porn (ie, Hostel, August Underground), but I stand firmly against this and highly believe these fuckwits are simply fast forwarding through the story and just seeing the violent scenes. The deeper meaning is something far more than simply finding revenge or displaying gore for the audience to shock… it’s a vivid telling of morality and what happens after what we already know. In short, Martyrs is the living shit on multiple levels.

The French film came out last year, directed by Pascal Laugier, to film festivals and after seeing the trailer for the first time I was instantly hooked and wanted to see more.

I thought it might be available on DVD, however I was let down to know it was circling festivals (usually meaning the DVD is far off)… but I was lucky enough to score a copy from the review stack at our main office. The movie is a wicked telling of finding one’s self through outward actions and casting your inner light to who you think and who you really are. That might seem confusing, but I don’t want to spoil the story by telling you what the movie is about. I think finding it out along the way was so powerful and compelling that I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else.

The film is unapologetic and relentless… and more than importantly “BALLSY” enough to show what they show.  they never show the gore or terrifying images just to show imagery for the gore hounds in the audience like so many American Horror films frequently do (ie, the Saw series, the Texas Chainsaw remake and everything else that graces the screen), but rather they use the imagery for certain purposes and building certain emotional triggers in the viewer.  When we see the horror we instantly feel weak inside… until you find out why the horror was committed.  Your insides twist and you start to feel for the killer far more.  And when you see the “demon” you get scared… until you see where it came from, then you feel for the “demon.”  It’s beautifully crafted into a mind fuck for the viewer to move from one emotion to another from the very first scene of the film up until the very last shot.  Your emotions flip several times over, constantly keeping you engaged with the story rather than the visual violence.

While Ritilan and I were watching this, she brought up a very valid point: American films find themselves slotted in a very identifying genre for each film that comes out. It’s when good films break these molds we question what genre they fall into. On the other hand it’s seen more often in foreign films that the genre slotting is more blurry and less definable. And I think this may be an arguable reason why people are drawn to films not from their own culture.

I believe this is why people crave good films that stray from the culturally static images of genre specifics and that, my friends is one detrimental reasons that makes all the difference in good story telling and thus… in good film making.