TIFF Review: MARTYRS
Posted by Todd Brown at 10:00am.
Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Horror, Continental Europe & Russia, Frightfest 2008, Toronto Film Festival 2008.
Like Nacho Cerda’s Aftermath, Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs is destined to acheive instant notoriety worldwide thanks to its unflinching, shockingly realistic depiction of some truly unsavory behavior. Also like Cerda’s Aftermath, Martyrs will no doubt be lumped in with a group of far lesser films - films with less understanding of the material they’re handling and films that cannot hold a candle to this one when it comes to intelligent layering in of subtext and issues of substance. Yes, kids, expect the torture-porn labeling and Hostel comparisons to be flying fast and thick. And then be prepared to ignore every one of them because graphic content or no - and Martyrs is, indeed, a stunningly graphic film - Martyrs has virtually nothing in common with the films it will be compared to. In fact you could argue that Martyrs is an anti-exploitation exploitation film, a film filled with incredibly extreme elements, true, but a film that has no interest in using those elements to titillate or fill the audience with vicarious thrills. No, the shock elements are there to open the door to something far more substantial.
