Movie: Martyrs (2015)

I've been MIA lately because running Cats Like Us during the holidays takes up a lot of time, BUT I did have minute to squeeze in watching Martyrs (2015). I read all the hype surrounding the movie and how people can't get through viewing it in it's entirety because of all the graphic content. Hmmm, we'll see about that! I rented the disc from Netflix and popped it in. It started and I thought it was supposed to be in French and subtitled. Derp, I ended up with the American version! Netflix doesn't have Martyrs (2008), so that was a little disappointing. I continued to watch it though. From what I can tell, the stories are the same. (Side note: I did watch what I could find online of the French version. Not as gory as you would think, but gorier than this one. Maybe I'm just desensitized?)

***Warning Spoilers***

From the get-go you are sucked into a train ride of a movie. It starts with a young girl ~ Lucie ~ running away from captors, or at least that's what's hinted at by her clothes, chains, and bruises. You never see who else was with her and they are never found or shown.

She gets placed in an orphanage and becomes best friends with a girl named Anna. Anna is sympathetic to Lucie's past monsters but doesn't fully trust that it's not all in her head. They grow up together and go their separate ways until...ten years later...Lucie finds her torturers. Ironically, they look like a quaint and loving family.

Anna & Lucie at school.

Lucie is a tour de force. She storms their house shooting mom, dad, son, and daughter in a wave of blood splatter and bullets. Lucie calls Anna to show her. Anna arrives and is stunned at what she did, still questioning if Lucie is fabricating parts if her past. Anna begins to call 911, but stops because of Lucie. While cleaning up the house and bodies Anna finds a hidden basement prison where young girls are being tortured. Lucie was telling the truth the whole time!

The house is then taken over by men and one leader (?) woman that were tipped off by the unfinished 911 call. We find out that they are part of a cult that experiments on young women to cause them so much pain they transcend this mortal plane and see what's on the other side of living. They see past the pain. Some victims have a mental break. Lucie shows some signs of that. Few women can survive the trials, but the organization always felt that Lucie could physically endure the torture. They are excited to have her back.

Lucie gets chained back up. Meanwhile they try to bury Anna alive. Little do they know she's a survivor too! She gets out and this time Anna is the one rage killing. She makes her way to Lucie in the basement, but not without getting fatally wounded. She finds Lucie who has now been partially skinned alive, drilled through, burned and is hanging on a cross like Jesus in front of all the followers that want to know more about the after life.

In the end, Lucie whispers to Anna, possibly what she has seen on the other side. (It's undecipherable to the viewer.) The priest of the cult hears it and kills himself. The cult disperses. Police finally arrive. No final girls left in this story. The end.

Overall, I thought the acting was good, the story original ~ even though it wasn't the original movie version ~ and the gore was there. I wanted to know more about the cult. Unlike the creepy basement experiments that were held in Get Out, the only explanation you get is that this group has people in it looking to find out what you see when you die. Their proof that something is seen when you die comes from looking at photographed pictures of dead people, specifically their eyes. This didn't explain enough for me. I give it 3.5 bullets out of 5. I've included the trailer for the French version at the end, I think it's helps the back story a little more, plus you can see Lucie completely skinned alive except for her face. Unsettling right?!