The Brutal Moralism of MARTYRS (2008)

Martyrs is a film that I had been putting off seeing for a long time, mostly because I knew that it is the film that came closest to driving film critic and personal idol Mark Kermode out of the cinema without actually doing so. It is a strange anomaly for me, because usually I jump at any opportunity to experience a new piece of extreme cinema, but I just had a feeling that Martyrs might be too much for me. 

And let me say up front, this is a film that absolutely deserves its reputation as one of the most full-on horror films in recent memory. In fact, I think Martyrs is one of the most deliberately unpleasant films I have ever seen. The question that I desperately wanted answers to, though: 

Is it any good?

© Kojo Pictures, 2008

The short answer to that question, having finally managed to see it in a crowded late-night screening in Sydney, is yes. However, is it as good as some of the film's biggest defenders would have you believe? I can't say that I think it is. 

There are two main things that keep me from absolutely loving the film, despite my admiration of it. The first is some of the more traditional horror elements that take up much of the film's first act. Granted, there is a nice subversion of the home invasion trope towards the beginning, but beyond that I found some of the more stock-standard jump scare moments and quieter moments of creeping around corridors to be annoyingly generic and plodding. My thoughts on these moments are muddied, however, by the way that these moments fit into the film as a whole, and are re-contextualised by the time the film ends - but I'll get to that shortly. 

© Kojo Pictures, 2008

The second major gripe I have with the film is the extended series of torture scenes towards the end of the film, just before its final act. This is where the film started to push up against my limits and tolerance for sadistic and mean-spirited violence. Once again, it makes complete sense to me why it is included in the film now that I have seen the whole thing and can place those scenes within their proper context, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I found those scenes hard to get through. 

This is, of course, exactly what the film is about, so I feel torn about whether or not I consider that a criticism of the film itself. It achieves what it sets out to achieve in depicting violence, regardless of how uncomfortable and uneasy it made me feel to endure it. 

There are images in Martyrs that quickly sear themselves into the brain of the viewer; images of some of the most degrading and sadistic torture imaginable, with acute focus on what that does to the psychology of a person, not just the physical body. There is a sequence during which the narrative of the film takes a dramatic twist that left me feeling sick to my stomach; not only at the way the human form had been degraded and disregarded, but at just how little humanity was left in the victim. The inherent human spirit of optimism and perseverance completely eroded away, left only with complete nihilism and death drive. That image of the stainless steel apparatus over the victim's head is one that left me deeply upset.

But where I think Martyrs transcends the "torture-porn" label that it is easy to throw onto a film like this is the way that it keeps pushing through that violence into something else on the other side of it - something at the very root of the human condition. 

We can ask this question of ourselves watching a film like Martyrs, just as the characters ask this question of each other:

What are we willing to do to find certainty in our existence?

© Kojo Pictures, 2008

There is a nagging question of our place in this universe at the heart of every person, and Martyrs offers a deeply nihilistic answer to the question, and answer that just serves to re-contextualise the violence of the film as even more upsetting and pointless as it appears on first glance. If the point of pain and suffering is to discover what life is really about - as is the literal goal of the secret society in this film, to put the human body through enough pain and suffering to experience the other side without actually leaving this world - then to be told that there is nothing at the centre of our existence, that there is ultimately no point to anything, is to suggest an even deeper meaninglessness to the horrors depicted on screen. While some subconscious part of our brains may have been looking for an answer from the secret society to at the very least rationalise our decision to endure the film itself, the ultimate discovery of complete and utter nothingness numbs the film in a way that is properly transgressive and ultimately a subversion of what this type of film typically sets out to achieve. 

Where "torture-porn" typically sets out to stylise, fetishise and ultimately glorify violence and bodily mutilation, Martyrs wallows in the meaninglessness and numbing quality such violence on screen instills in viewers. 

Another element of the film that I actually found to be really engaging was the archetype of the Ghost. 

Usually on-screen depictions of ghosts can be divided into two sub-catergories: Western and Eastern. Without going into the history of ghosts in cinema for too long, traditionally the malevolent ghost or spirit out to harm the protagonist which needs to be defeated is a very Western or American idea. What you get elsewhere in world cinema (particularly in Japanese ghost films) is a depiction of the Ghost as something unfinished or unresolved from the past demanding to be dealt with in the present. The Ghost is something that you make peace with, not something that you have to defeat. What I mentioned earlier as an initially generic horror trope that took on new meaning later on in the film was the "ghost" that follows who we think is the main character for the duration of her time on screen. Something that she thinks is an external force looking to cause her harm is actually trauma from her past resurfacing, only appearing to be malevolent in nature to the extent that she allows it to be. 

When re-contextualised with trauma and a need for forgiveness and reconciliation, this horror trope takes on rich meaning and tragedy when viewed a second time. 

That is, assuming I ever watch for a second time, which I'm not sure I will actually have the stomach to do. 

© Kojo Pictures, 2008

It's a must-see genre picture for people at all interested in horror and extreme cinema, but it has to be one of if not the most gruelling experiences watching a film I have ever put myself through. But hey, if the film is to be believed, and if nothing means anything and the end of the universe is just empty, why not go out in a blaze of glory watching extreme cinema like Martyrs? There are plenty of good answers to the question, I know, but I do think that if you can stomach it Martyrs is a worthwhile film to watch. 

Ultimately there is a tension at the heart of the film that I can't quite reconcile, and that is stopping me from completely buying into the film as a truly important piece of work. For a film that is so concerned about highlighting the brutality and needless sadism at the heart of human behaviour, it tips over into territory that is difficult to discern between depiction and glorification. Not to keep going on about it, but that final act before the climax is genuinely hard to watch, and for me starts to detract from the point that the film is ultimately trying to communicate. 

But maybe that's the point: any decently thought-out ideas or preconceived attempts at meaning are squandered and scattered by violence, leaving only numbing blackness in its wake. 

Martyrs is available now on blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment.