The Original Spice Girl Few movies have affected me the way this movie did. Sure, it is gory, brutal, violent, and very disturbing. But unlike so many other movies it is not there for chock value, but rather to show the awful journey of the protagonist, from bad to worse. As strange as it may sound, it brings depth to the story and even more so to the characters. Yes, it is slightly depressing, but in all its dark cruelty there is beauty, which balances the horror. When watching it the first time, it came to a point where it was almost too much cruelty, but then the end came, and made it all worth it. So if you've got a strong stomach, and want to see a movie that will remain with you for a long time, then watch this masterpiece. And watch it through. It'll be worth it.

drpakmanrains Having seen Pascal Laugier's "The Tall Man", which I absolutely loved, I had heard a lot of praise for his first film, "Martyrs", and finally saw it today (2017) on DVD. I can't believe all the reviewers who praise this film lavishly. It is over 90 minutes of torture porn, and while there is a revenge motive, there is little if any satisfaction to be gained by the victims or the viewers, and it is IMO, the viewers who are the ultimate victims, despite the clever twist at the end. One reviewer said that those who like "Hostel" will probably like this film too, and vice-versa. Well, sorry, for I really liked "Hostel", but this exercise in non-stop cruelty and torture was so over the top as to make it hard to care, and nobody could survive the tortures shown for ten minutes, let alone years. Huge disappointment.

kriscmill I realize this is an incredibly polarizing movie in terms of audience response, but for the life of me I cannot see why. It's absolute trash. It's gratuitous torture porn, made worse by it's highfalutin attempt to trick us into believing that it's deep. The fact that the movie blatantly states women make the best martyrs (aka recipients of emotional and physical torture) is particularly disturbing. I'm just going to recap this for you guys, so you can do yourselves a huge favor and skip this pile of garbage [ *spoilers to follow* ]. Lucie, a young girl, is the victim of ritualistic torture, who has recently escaped from her brutish torture chamber and her two abductors. She is placed in a psychiatric facility where she meets fellow woebegoner Anna. The two form a close friendship. Flash forward 15 years, and Lucie thinks she's found the couple responsible for her childhood suffering from a photograph she sees in a newspaper article. A revenge style home invasion ensues. After Lucie has hacked her way through this seemingly idyllic family of four, good ole loyal Anna shows up to help clean up the bloody mess. While Anna is playing maid and grave digger (seriously Anna should rethink this friendship), Lucie is coming to terms with her demons - literally. There's a psychological component that is actually pretty scary, but with a twist that is so obvious it could've been spelled out on the walls in blood. If these first two acts had been flushed out with a little more storyline and a lot more subtlety, I think this would have made for a decent movie that explores the depth of emotional trauma in abuse victims. But, of course, it doesn't stop there. There's a whole third act of depravity left to endure. Anna discovers a new and improved torture chamber below the house, that is accessed through an unlocked cabinet in the living room. I can only assume that the couple's two teenagers were in on their parents' unusual weekend hobby because what kid hasn't looked inside every cabinet of their home (gotta find that secret stash of booze amirite?). It would be sort of hard to miss the tunnel leading into darkness behind that Ikea cabinet by the television. So the audience is now asked to suspend belief on one of two seemingly impossible realities - A.) that the children were really that dense to never realize their parents had a giant, gleaming, modern underground bunker beneath the house dedicated to Satanic style ritualized torture and murder, or that B.) these seemingly well adjusted, star athlete high schoolers were living in full knowledge of their parent's alternate lives. It's the Devil's Rejects meets the Brady Brunch people! This is the plot holiest of all plot holes, and deserves at least five eyerolls. But anyways… So Anna, keeping with her shtick of having poor freaking judgment, decides its in her best interest to go explore said chamber of Satanic Doom. I refuse to go into all the terrible things that happens next, except to say there's a cult and some more ritualistic torture, but trust me when I say it's hard to stomach. There are visuals in this film that I reacted to as strongly as I did the first time I saw pictures of Holocaust victims. The brutality that's depicted in the final act is just gut wrenching. I wanted so badly to turn it off, but I kept thinking there was going to be some culminating purpose. And what was I left with? A sense of regret, and a bad taste in my mouth. I simply cannot fathom what the meaning of this film was supposed to be. People can transcend their suffering? Yes, it's called disassociation. At the end of this twisted journey, there is no answer to the question "why did I just watch this?", there is no justice for any of the poor, brutalized women depicted, and there is no deeper meaning. This is M. Night Shyamalan levels of pretentious debauchery.My advice: SKIP!

dandbone I had it for a long time in my watching queue. I'm not much into horror movies which deal with torture, but this one was well worth it. Yes, there is torture, and I'm not sure what is harder to watch, the part that is shown, or the part that isn't.The first half of the movie didn't feel surprising. There were a few small twists, but nothing to predict the second half. Though some of the scenes were hard to stomach, the movie kept me guessing until the end. And it was a horror movie end, utterly devoid of hugs and kisses.The reason I think this movie was great, is that there was a philosophical angle to it. Though there is no talk or even mention of religion, they went from screams and slashing straight to Jesus Christ and the meaning of life and death in one flash (maybe less than 5 minutes). That's some brave artistry.I won't spoil the movie, for those who want to watch it, but do yourselves a favor, and toss that Eli Roth and Tom Six garbage into the trash bin and watch this instead.