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First off, while some of the more extreme reaches of horror aren’t always my cup of tea, I always appreciate the inclusion in lineups. I’m in total agreement with Joe and Bruce’s annual commitment to present a varied stylistic, thematic, geographic, time-spanning lineup.
In the recap thread Mr. Neff makes a pretty compelling argument about some of Martyrs thematic merits and draws excellent and appropriate parallels to science-horror forefathers like Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau. He mentioned a few things I hadn’t considered when mulling the movie over that gives me maybe a little more appreciation for what Laugier was up to now than I had in the moments after it ended.
However, I still don’t completely buy it. This is what I can’t shake -- I don’t think the end justified the means. The violence is so pervasive and relentless (especially in the final third where the beatings and the feedings, to me, were far more disturbing than any of the gory cutting of the first two thirds) that it felt exploitative to me.
To make an inappropriate comparison, it’s like Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes or Hot Rod falling down a hill after punch-dancing out his rage -- just as those lengthy scenes start at funny progress to annoyance but return to being hilarious (at least to me), Martyrs started out horrific pushes it to a limit where the point it wants to make could be made, but then goes beyond that limit into exploitation.
I think it’s fatal flaw is that there is no development of any of the characters. The script is constrained by time and space to not allow time for development, but by having no one to truly invest in, the characters on screen are just pieces of meat (not really that different from the one-note characters in much less ambitious horror films) and they’re treated as such.
By comparison, last year’s button-pushing choice, Irreversible, had two leads that are developed that you can invest emotion into (granted, this process comes in reverse due to the nature of the movie) but their plight is all the more tragic once you work back to the start of their day. I had no such investment in Martyrs other than the human impulse to wince at punches and razor slashes.
Ultimately, it felt like Laugier wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to push the limits then judge the viewers for watching him push the limits. I think its exploitation with a faux-intellectual bow on top and it just felt dishonest to me.
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