This movie blew my mind! It is like full blown murder plus haunting plus Hostel all in one film. I could never tell what was gonna happen next and I thought the movie was over but it was only halfway done. Then finally at the end you understand everything and I just sat there thinking for like 10 minutes after it was over lol. I recommend this cause i was floored. The subtitles are really easy to keep up with too so that is always a plus.
Just wanted to throw in a recommendation for The Audition if you havent seen it. One of the most messed up foreign horror movies I have seen in a long time! Im a big fan of Asian horror movies and this one is at the top of the list for me
You gotta love those Foreign films! lol
But this is a movie I can say I have never ever seen before.
Both sick, twisted little gems. Audition is like two movies in one. Very cool and demented.
Audition is really one of the more badass Asian movies you can check out. The sheer terror this film brings out is a nice twist on the dating scene!
Good call. Both of these are on my personal "Favorite Foreign Films" List. Another one you all should see, if you haven't, is INSIDE.
It'll fuck you up.
J.N.
Martyrs I found to be a very unnerving viewing experience... The last 30 minutes or so are actually torture to sit through... Cant say I enjoyed watching it.
JessiJoy Wrote:This movie blew my mind! It is like full blown murder plus haunting plus Hostel all in one film. I could never tell what was gonna happen next and I thought the movie was over but it was only halfway done. Then finally at the end you understand everything and I just sat there thinking for like 10 minutes after it was over lol. I recommend this cause i was floored. The subtitles are really easy to keep up with too so that is always a plus.
Just wanted to throw in a recommendation for The Audition if you havent seen it. One of the most messed up foreign horror movies I have seen in a long time! Im a big fan of Asian horror movies and this one is at the top of the list for me
YES! thank you for posting this. one of my ALL TIME fav thriller/horror/genre flicks. Litterally broke my heart to watch.
I have not yet seen Audition, I tried once, but was damn sleepy at the time and could only get through to around the scene in the office with the folder... afterwards, I read on IMDb that the horror isn't supposed to start until the final 10 minutes. Audition fell to MUCH lower on my to-watch list upon reading that.
I still do not truly know what to think about Martyrs. It kept me guessing for damn sure, and I too had not an idea in the world about what was going to happen after the first 30 minutes or so, and I sure as hell never would have guessed what really did happen.
The problem is that what happened was such a departure from what came before, it felt like a major ass-pull. One has to keep in mind that not all horror is gonna be realistic, but the first half hour of Martyrs made me think it definitely was going to be realistic, whereas where the story went decidedly wasn't. Regardless, the "twist" disoriented me, and I found the latter part of the film just about as frightening in its ritualistic brutality as the former half was in its unpredictability. The ending straddled the line between creepy and dumb... but I lean towards it being fitting.
It's a really hard film to rate, but I'd give it an 8/10 on this bank and shoal of time. It got a deep reaction out of me for sure.
I find Audition, for the most part, incredibly dull. The last minutes of gore do not in any way make up for how utterly boring the rest of the film is.
Martyrs isn't as well done as Inside in my opinion, but I'd watch it over Audition any day. The ending irked me somewhat, but I believe its supposed to.
They are on my favorites list
i never understood they hype about Audition, it wasnt that good but Martyrs is a masterpiece, one of my favs
I agree, I wasn't overwhelmed by Audition. Though when I saw it, a guy did have a freak out and had to be taken out of the cinema by his girlfriend. She kept shrieking "But you've seen it before!!".
THAT was entertaining.
I thought Martyrs was brilliant. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it first time round cos I was thinking, "Is this going anywhere or is it just an exercise in how much I can take?" but by the end, I was won over.
Imeeh Wrote:I thought Martyrs was brilliant. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it first time round cos I was thinking, "Is this going anywhere or is it just an exercise in how much I can take?" but by the end, I was won over.
I was afraid it was going to be like that for me before watching it. In all honesty that kind of
lazy "push the envelope, true horror relying on suspense and alienation be damned" attitude is why I haven't bothered with the August Underground stuff and movies like it as of yet.
Martyrs was pleasantly surprising in how it handled its subject matter in an intense, yet somber manner.
I never thought Audition was as brilliant as certain people made it out to be. It's interesting and then the last few minutes are batshit insane. Once she threw up into that bowl and had that thing that used to be a person consume it, it becomes pretty jaw-dropping.
I haven't seen Martyrs in ages, but it was very interesting from what I can recall. I remember it starting off differently than how the rest of the film plays out. The brutality in it is just crazy and I loved the initial message it gave at the end of the film.
Mr. Briggs Inc. Wrote:I was afraid it was going to be like that for me before watching it. In all honesty that kind of lazy "push the envelope, true horror relying on suspense and alienation be damned" attitude is why I haven't bothered with the August Underground stuff and movies like it as of yet.
Martyrs was pleasantly surprising in how it handled its subject matter in an intense, yet somber manner.
You need to view August Underground. You may not like them but it gives you a little more insight into different kinds of gore films. There's a lot of stuff out there that I don't like but I will view it at least once before I will praise it or condemn it
I tried to sit through Martyrs again recently... Couldn't do it. It give s me that dirty uncomfortable feeling 'Irreversible' gave me.
Honestly are films like that suppose to be enjoyed?
The first half is a direct enough revenge movie with a ghost twist.... Very scary and pretty intense. Second half descends into a vicious assault on the senses. Is it a social commentary on how religious nuts destroy the innocent for their own evil goals? Is it just a cheap torture porn movie? Have I lost my Horror 'balls' in my old age? Should I stop watching horror and listening to Manson and trade it in for Twilight and the new Keane album???? I dont know the answers.... But I do know a hot chick getting tortured for 40 minutes is not my thing....
[MENTION=17634]Oldman[/MENTION]: Not saying I won't watch it, but from what I've heard of the trilogy, it doesn't sound impressive in terms of actual horror E.G. suspense/uncertainty.
[MENTION=424]Fangenstein[/MENTION]: I dunno if Martyrs was meant to be enjoyed in the traditional sense of the word, but I definitely enjoyed it in the sense that I was looking for a damn scary horror film, and found one!
I think the whole film is up for interpretation, but I certainly don't find it to be simple "torture porn;" the torture scenes seemed much too dark and down to earth to be exploitation and nothing more. To me, the scare factor of the latter half came in the form of the still-uncertain "end goal" of the situation, yet how ritualistically brutal and inescapable it was. It pushed hard on one's endurance for bleakness, mixed in with the usual empathy for pain and fear a lot of horror has.