.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Wow!

It takes a lot to provoke the 'Wow Factor' from me. I can go years between seeing a movie and sitting glued to me seat long after the lights have come back on where I am still in absolute astonishment of what I have just witnessed.

Having just sat through Martyrs, I have a Wow!

Martyrs is a French horror film that will remind North American audiences of all the great gore-porn-torture films that have graced our screens in the past decade.
It starts off with a bang. Literally. Lucie, is a young girl who was abducted and savagely abused. She escapes and fifteen years later, she shows up at the door of an unsuspecting family and blows them away with a shotgun. It was the first of many 'wow' moments during the viewing. The shotgun blasts as they penetrate through the sub-woofer were chair rattling and as the blood gushes from each of the victims, you will find yourself sitting with your jaw on the floor wondering what is yet to come.

Enter Annie. Lucie's friend whom she met at the institution 15 years ago. Annie arrives and tries to help Lucie clean up the mess (by mess, I mean blood and guts). Annie is a good friend and she has long been compassionate to what Lucie experienced at the hands of her captors and to Lucie's skin ripping nightmares that she has had since her escape.

We soon learn that the gunned down family may be those that were responsible for Lucie's incarceration. The actions from this point forward in the lives of Lucie and Annie bring dire consequences and a few twists that I didn't anticipate coming.

No. Change that. The dire consequences and few twists I REALLY didn't see coming. In fact, the story goes down a path that was engrossing gross and had surprises for me at every turn.

When it comes to gore-porn there have been too many movies that would have us gasp or look away from the screen without actually providing us with any story or relevance (Hills Have Eyes, anyone). Martyrs separates itself from the pack and provides the viewer with a wicked story that is backed up with enough violence and gore to do two films.

Oh. And it's scary too. A couple of scenes that include the girl that haunts Lucie were downright frightening. A bathroom scene with the two got my legs off the floor and onto the seat to which I was sitting.

By the time a group of aristocrats types show their interest in a martyred Annie, you will be exhausted. I was. But in a good way. A bloody good way. It will be no surprise to anyone that watches this film what director Pascal Laugier has been given the keys to the remake of the Clive Barker classic, Hellraiser.

So there you have it. Martyrs has all the great elements of good horror film. It is gory, scary, at times terrifying and downright disgusting. Every year there is one great horror film that stands out from the rest. In 2009, Martyrs is my one to beat.