Fantastic Fest 08: MARTYRS, Briefly

Before it crashes and burns in an extended heap of steaming, stinking pretentious crap, Martyrs amply demonstrates that Pascal Laugier is a very talented director. As a writer, not so much.

Up until that point, Martyrs precariously teeters on the edge of insanity, a pile-driver of stomach-cramping tension and hair-raising, incredibly bloody violence and despair. Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï star as two young women who were imprisoned and tortured as children. One of them breaks into a home where a happy family is enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast. The calm morning is transformed into a hellish nightmare of screaming shotgun blasts and punishment appears to have been meted out today for the terrifying sins of yesterday. But from somewhere in the country house an animalistic cry emerges, and the two young women have miles to go before they sleep.

Laugier strings together several explosive sequences that could well serve as climatic setpieces for any number of horror thrillers. Once he's shot his load, so to speak, it's time for The Real Meaning to be unfurled, and it's here that Laugier trots out an overbaked, extended, and frankly boring third act that made me impatient for the ending, which was ridiculous, as expected. Laugier strains for meaning and symbolism but is grasping at existential straws.

There's no doubt that Laugier is talented in the composition of the action scenes and the orchestration of blood and guts. The editing is sharp, the photography is gorgeous, the performances are strong. And when the movie is moving, it gallops like a tornado.

It's only when it slows down and reveals its high school-level philosophical bent that it quickly loses steam. Perhaps if the opening scenes had involved the characters to a greater degree -- beyond the broad sketches of the childhood horrors they suffered, we know little of the two young women -- we could empathize more with them as their plight spirals into the worst that Laugier can imagine.

As it is, Martyrs exists to shock audiences and pretend to have greater meaning. Of course, as often happens here at ScreenAnarchy, both Todd and Rodney were far more impressed than me. Mack is sitting across from me typing his review; I don't know what he'll think. Need I add, "your mileage may vary"?