Martyrs
 

This was one of the most shocking movies I've ever seen and I've seen quite every horror movie. It was really disturbing and quite intelligent. Every self-respecting hardcore horror fan must see this. It left me with a very dark feeling. Those who have seen it, what did you think?

Very bleak movie indeed! I saw a few horror movie fans leave the theater because they just could not bear the abuse anymore. You could hear people in the room gasping at some scenes as well. Really liked it for my part, but true, its a deeply disturbing movie even for people used to nasty movies.

There is just no fun in these torture scenes as opposed to most other flicks that take the same angle, its just too grim and psychologically harsh. I rarely discuss the psychology or the story of a movie of this kind after seing it (who cares anyways), but this time we all did. A very cold, intelligent, thought-provoking piece. I highly recommend it as well, but this clearly is not a movie for everyone, even hardcore horror fans!

MINOR SPOILERS :

Pretty shocking as well, once you learn the motive behind the actions of this "circle". Doing all this just out of some quest for "illumination"? Wow.

I care. What I enjoy most from a horror/scifi/fantasy film is the ability to present huge themes within an audience-friendly framework.

I liked Martyrs, but I didn't find it to be ground-breaking or brilliant.

It's brutality loses its impact after a while and simply becomes numbing, which may be someone's intention, but hardly the way I want to feel after viewing a film.

I found the "reason" behind everything to be silly & foolish & half-baked. Yes, the filmmakers tried to elevate the torture genre (aiming high is a wonderful thing) but their reach exceed their grasp.

Totally agree with this. Although I haven't seen this film, any film which shows torture scenes, especially prolonged ones, always seems lazy to me. There is more to horror than seeing someones fear and pain, and while it serves a purpose, there should always be a reason behind torture scenes. Anything else is just sadism, which can be horrific, but not horror.

Need to see this soon.

What is the considered best version and producer of this and where can i get it from.I have seen it on various sites and with differing covers but unsure which to go for.

I am now rather intrigued with this movie and though I keep hearing conflicting thoughts on it (which isn't too surprising since horror can be rather picky), I definitely want to see it. France has really become the leader in horror these days.

I checked Amazon and it comes out on unrated dvd on April 28th here in the States.

Added it to the queue at Netflix.

I really liked - it was kinda hard to watch in parts (mostly the self cutting stuff) - though the ending was kinda contrived I still though it was interesting.

The "who cares" was mostly aimed at torture flicks, where there usually isn't much to seek your teeth into psychologically speaking, just to be a bit more precise.

Well, I for one did not think they missed their aim with this "elevation thing", as well as the numbing of the scenes. But hey, to each his own as they say :)

I had my chance to watch this flick last night, and I really enjoyed it.

The first 45 minutes had me blown away - This was my kind of movie. The next part was great as well, I just wish they had elaborated some more on the plot, since they chose to go that way.

As to the "gore" part, I really do not see how you can all talk about people leaving the theatre. I didn't really find this movie to be that harsh to watch. I'm not sure what you all mean, but if you a refering to the whole torture part at the end of the movie, I actuallly thought Girl Next Door was more disturbing.

Honestly, I'm not really sure I caught the whole point, as this copy of the movie was not subtitled.

They wanted to "produce" a martyr, which is a person that sees into the world of the dead, in order to know what it is like?