AFFF log

Fighting demons to discover God
Links: AFFF / imdb

It's usually a good indication when I leave the cinema silently and not wanting to talk about the film that I have just seen with other people who have seen the same film. It is almost like me and the film need some time for ourselves, to reflect, question, argue and fight over the merits and flaws.

Martyrs is many things. For starters, it consists of two distinct parts. The first part is a scary revenge horror film where fighting your inner demons is taken literally. There is a lot of drive and impulse in this part, with unapologetic violence. The second part is a sick study into the process of creating a martyr (in more than one sense) and lessons to be learned.

The topic seems to be surfacing often, but the question arises here as well: is this torture porn and nothing more, or is that just the outer shell of a more intricate story being told? I think the way the film is structured and given the climax (which I won't give away here) this is not yet another mindless violent film. In a way Martyrs throws us back to a time before the Stone Age, it questions how our behaviour is susceptible to the interaction with our environment, and how it can create a monster or a god.

I still feel some reservations preventing me to call this a masterpiece. The twist in the final act gives everything that happened before a broader context and reason which is excellent. But at the same time it feels a bit like the writer/director cheated by trying to link Big Ideas (the meaning of life etc) to a nihilistic concept like Evil.
Rather than exploring the notion that some people derive a sickening satisfaction from being in complete control of someone else - evil as a noumenon, a thing-in-itself (see also Meta-ethics) - he almost suggests to understand altruistic motives (and he judges them as well).

But perhaps I shouldn't confuse my own world view and that of others with the game of chess the director has offered in the form of this film. I can analyze the moves, express my opinion on the path that was followed, offer alternatives and marvel or rebuke its outcome. The fact alone that the film still leaves me wondering and rethinking what I have seen on the screen makes this film stand out.

Rating: 9