A young girl is seen escaping from a building, bloodied and battered. The girl is Lucie Jurin who was abducted and tortured for over a year. She is placed into care where she befriends Anna. Years later, Lucie finds the couple who abducted her and goes back to enact revenge on them.

Martyrs is a French film from 2008 that has a reputation as one of the most violent films ever made. And it really lives up to this reputation! No punches are pulled in its depiction of this violence and was either banned or censored in many countries. However, here in the UK, the film was actually passed uncut by the BBFC.

But, whilst the film is extremely graphic, the violence is integral to the plot. There is so much within the film that is thought-provoking and allegorical. The nature of abuse is explored, how the most extreme abuse can manifest itself with its victims (Lucie is seen to be pursued and further tortured by a naked woman. This turns out to be one of the women Lucie saw being tortured in the institution but couldn’t save. This woman now becomes symbolic of the shame she feels because of this), the nature of the cruelty of institutions and the duality of a public image which hides an ugly truth beneath its surface.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away as I don’t want to ruin this film and its twists and turns for anyone. But, please proceed with caution. This is a brutal but brilliant film.

Director Pascal Laugier said that he was inspired to write and direct Martyrs after seeing, ironically, Hostel. But Martyrs is no torture p*rn genre film in that it doesn’t use graphic gore as its whole raison d’etre. It is graphic but is a sterling example of this device being used to illustrate brilliantly the darkness at the heart of the film.

I’ve mentally added Martyrs to the category of films that I judge as ‘tough watches’ alongside Irreversible and Last House on the Left. You might want to jump into the shower after seeing these films but they are rewarding experiences because the camera doesn’t shy away from the darker side of life and they are so much better because of it.

4.5 out of 5 stars