My wife often asks of Christina, "When does she sleep??" when I describe all she does in a given day. My question is, "HOW does she sleep?" Especially after watching a movie like Martyrs.
I've actually seen a lot of non-American films, and I generally like them because they don't follow American movie-making convention. We are very predictable over here in the states, and I often can predict a movie's plot-line and sometimes verbiage from a single hearing-loss-enabling bass-filled movie trailer. That guy is going to die; they are going to be fed to the alien; lol she's going to say, "I can't believe it was [name of obvious villain]" and so on. The lead role never dies, and the comedic relief is always there to let us laugh between predictable tension moments.
Martyrs is a weird kind of masterpiece. A 2020-level progressive beating that shifts perspective as you go. Will the lead live through it all? That's not the question. Who is the lead, really? When will the pain and suffering stop? That's also not the question. What will the suffering change into is more accurate.
This movie very masterfully leads you down a relentless path that starts vehemently differently than it ends. I imagine the director was not thinking so much, "how much money can we make?" as "how far can we go before someone in the audience vomits?" And then secretly delights in the knowledge.
It's art to watch this movie take you through the regular "oh I recognize this kind of horror" scenarios into completely different areas. Supernatural thriller! Not exactly. Hack/slash? Sort of, but maybe not. Bloody, visceral mess? Yes, but also so much more.
As you are relentlessly taken through what is incredible terror and real life trauma, the balm eventually turns into an entirely different kind of terror and I was at some point desperately looking for the token fall guy to get pantsed so I could laugh in between retching and compulsive fingernail chewing.
Despite its visceral pain (and if you are sensitive to, well, any of many disturbing things you may want to watch with extreme trigger caution), the architecture of the storytelling and process of the movie is not only simply perfectly different than US films, it's an impressive flow on its own. They need to make a sequel with kittens and a puppy so I can recover but still be amazed.
This, as a second movie, gave me serious pause. Because 2020 has been so generally relentless, I started thinking, hey, it would be nice not to have someone else's terrible experiences added to that. But I guess I am tougher than expected. Or dumber. Here let me poke you in the eye for a while and see how you do.
Incidentally, my wife and I were both so disturbed we had to watch Lilo and Stitch afterward. I needed brain sandpaper or something as benign as Disney to make me feel US-oblivious again. Well done, Martyrs, on fulfilling the role of Martyr in Horror Bingo, 2020 edition.
1 comment:
Insider info: This movie greatly influenced my book The Waning. A friend showed it to me when we were in high school. I didn't watch it until years after I had published The Waning, and I was like, holy shit! That's where ALL OF THAT came from! He was horrified because he hates that book hahaha
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