Martyrs is a French mystery-horror film written and directed by Pascal Laugier. It is Laugier's sophomore feature effort following Saint Ange (House of Voices). It was first screened during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival at the Marché du Film. The film is set to be released in France publicly on September 3, 2008. The Weinstein Company has bought the US rights for Martyrs and will likely release the film on their Dimension Extreme imprint.
Plot
France. A night at the beginning of the 1970s. Lucie, a little girl missing for over a year, is discovered wandering by the side of a country road. Near catatonic, she can say nothing about what has happened to her. The police quickly find the place in which she's been incarcerated - a disused slaughterhouse. Every indication is that she never once left the empty, freezing room in which she was imprisoned. Filthy, starving, dehydrated, the child's body nonetheless bears no traces of sexual abuse - this was no pedophile abduction, but something far stranger. What happened in that icy room? And how did Lucie escape?
After Lucie escapes, she is put into an orphanage where she befriends Anna. Years later, Lucie busts into the home of a family of four, a man, his wife and their teenage children. Lucie kills them all with a shotgun, but is followed and attacked by a creature.
Production/Background
Director Laugier said that "the film was rejected by all the big French studios, by a lot of actresses, too. (...) The film was really supported by Canal+, the only television channel in France that still finances some unusual projects." He also comments that the main difficulty other than the technical issues such as special effects was to keep the actresses crying all the time, and that was too demanding.[2]
Reception
The film was categorized as a new example of new era French horror films akin to Inside (À l'intérieur) by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury with regards to the level of violence it depicts.[2][3] It received mostly positive reviews. Todd Brown at Twitch called it "without a doubt the single most devisive film to screen in the Cannes Marche Du Film this year",[4] while Ryan Rotten at shocktillyoudrop.com claims that the film "is the new yard stick against which all forms of extreme genre films should be measured against."[2]
The film received an 18+ rating in France (unsuitable for children under 18 or forbidden in cinemas for under 18s) which the producers of the film have appealed.[4][5] The French Society of Film Directors (SRF) have also asked the Ministry of Culture to re-examine the decision remarking that "this is the first time a French genre film has been threatened with such a rating." The Union of Film Journalists has adopted the same position as the SRF, claiming censorship.[6]
Cast
Crew
Seppuku Paradigm — Composer
External links
References
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