Martyrs

Though almost maddening in its unevenness, Martyrs ultimately comes off as an unusually provocative horror effort that’s sure to leave viewers thinking and talking about it long after the end credits have rolled. Filmmaker Pascal Laugier has infused the proceedings with an almost schizophrenic sensibility that certainly proves a test to one’s patience, with the dull and surprisingly pointless nature of the movie’s first half hardly indicative of the far more compelling story that inevitably occupies the third act. The erratic storyline – which essentially follows two young women (Morjana Alaoui’s Anna and Mylene Jampanoi’s Lucie) as they seek revenge against their childhood tormentors – initially possesses few elements designed to capture and hold the viewer’s interest, with the flat visuals and head-scratching plot developments essentially highlighting the film’s various flaws. There does reach a point, however, at which Laugier takes the proceedings in as unpredictable a direction as one could possibly imagine, as Martyrs‘ relatively tedious set-up paves the way for an audacious and downright jaw-dropping climax that effectively justifies the movie’s entire existence. And while the end result isn’t quite the genre-reinventing endeavor its been hyped up to be, Martyrs certainly deserves credit for its challenging, thoroughly uncompromising modus operandi.

*** out of ****