This Day in Horror History: Pascal Laugier’s MARTYRS Was Released in France in 2008
On this day in horror history, writer-director Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs with Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï was released theatrically in France in 2008.
Rated R for disturbing/severe aberrant behavior involving strong bloody violence, torture, child abuse, and some nudity, it was controversial upon its release and has been associated with the New French Extremity movement which also includes films such as Them, High Tension, Frontier(s), and Inside.
Pascal Laugier says he was inspired to make the movie after seeing Eli Roth’s Hostel. But instead of making a movie about suffering, he wanted to make a movie about pain. Laugier has also confessed that he wrote the script in a state of depression, bordering on suicide, which might explain why the flick is so nihilistic and depressing. It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
It tells the story of Anna, once a missing little girl, found wandering a year later on a country road virtually catatonic after suffering some sort of physical abuse. She grows into a comely young woman, but she’s got serious issues. She also has a close friend, Lucie, who she ultimately calls after she finds herself in an unusual house in the middle of the forest. There’s something very disturbing about the Bauhaus-esque home, something Anna can’t quite put her finger on.
The film sports a 63% approval rating over on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: A real polarising movie, this Gallic torture-porn is graphic, brutal, nasty and gruesome and not to everyone’s taste.
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