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Apr 2020
Now that Tromafreak mentioned the movie in his top 100 (calling it the best horror from the last 20 years or one of the best) and it's still in the running in the movie KO on MovieMeter, again a certain question popped up. One I have been wondering about not long after I had seen the movie the first (and still the only) time.

I had been critical of the movie. I reckon it is shocking. And I must say I was into it until about 45-50 minutes. I'm not saying it was great but it kept me curious enough to know what it was all about. And the revelation came why these girls were tortured to death. I was like yeah all right (still wondering if the motivation of the bad guys was either clever or just plain stupid but in the end I went for the latter) now we know and we still have like 30 or more minutes to go?


I was like the only thing that can happen next is that our main girl is going to endure similar torturings the old lady had been talking about. And that's what happened and as expected she was going to be that chosen one who could make the revelation the whole organisation was waiting for. The viewer waited for nothing since the old lady doesn't reveal anything and just commits suicide.

Of course those beatings and the crap she has to eat are not fun to watch but it gets so repetitive that its becomes tedious and boring (instead of shocking me more). It became more of an annoying exercise in patience to see if there is still anything interesting the movie could tell me. That didn't happen. For me it didn't matter if those scenes went on 5 minutes or half an hour. I already knew why, I already got the point, get on with it. I don't see the purpose to stretching it to such length with that knowledge you already gave me. To shock me until I looked way, well that didn't work. The movie went pretty fast from the start but the revelation came way too early, it stagnated and came pretty much to a halt and eventually there was no conclusion. Ok all in my point of view of course


Similar feelings I had with the final scene of Megan is Missing. It sucked for the girl but after 1 minute I knew she is not going to be rescued there is no point in stretching that scene for so long (to me anyway).


Anyway that's what I been wondering, no one else expected the main girl was going to be tortured? I haven't read or heard anyone predicting this.


I don't think I lack empathy but I think I'm still too aware I'm just watching a movie. Yesterday the local news showed some images of people in Ecuador literally dead on the street because of the Corona virus. That was very shocking to me.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#1

Apr 2020
I agree that this movie is overblown pretentious torture drivel. I'm glad the wave of extreme French gore movies faded out because those movies had little merit to them. Apparently, a lot of horror fans bought into it though. I wasn't one of them.

It's been a while since I've seen it, but remember the lot of the movie feeling pointless, especially when you throw in dream sequences like seeing that woman attack her who wasn't actually there, but I could be mis-remembering as I tried to wipe my mind of this movie afterward. And I really hated how vague the suicide conclusion was, because it comes off as a lack of an ending to me.


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Johan_WoW says:
#2, Reply to #1

Apr 2020
Well I was not much into horror the previous decade which was when the French horror was most popular. So when I saw all these French extreme horror as they are called the past few years they didn't feel that fresh to me any more. I saw most of it copied from mostly American classics. Frontieres is for example a pretty blatant Texas Chainsaw rip-off. But a change of country or language is for some people a good enough change from the usual English spoken products. Or some people already seem to give bonus points for movies from exotic places. A horror movie from Pakistan yay even though you saw those ideas already a 100 times before.

Martyrs certainly has its merits and I do think the director did a really good job until the revelation. Maybe I just don't buy into the violence that is portrayed isn't there just for the shock but it as a deeper meaning, it does have a purpose theory. Same with High Tension the movie was pretty dumb but brutal and entertaining but than there was this old almost predictable twist that the director popped in at the end. It's rather funny that some people think it made sense while there was no way it could. Dreams and it was all in the head yeah that's too easy, you can explain anything that way. That's not creative any more IMO.


Obviously it did make a lot of people uncomfortable. To me all that violence and torture pretty much loses its purpose when they come up with this idea we do it for some kind of higher cause (a peek into a possible afterlife). I find it much scarier and shocking when people get killed because of a sick individual loves doing so or nature and viruses who take lives with no regard to status, gender, age or whatever.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#3, Reply to #2

Apr 2020
I hate hate HATE when movies introduce councils as some form of governing body to explain why shit happens. I think that shit makes it seem political and thus boring as fuck. Leave that shit out, IMO. One of the big reasons the Matrix sequels sucked hard ass.

I will admit, I absolute LOVE High Tension, even though the twist is dumb as shit. RIP to the lead villain Philippe Nahon who died a few days ago.


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Johan_WoW says:
#6, Reply to #3

May 2020
Not only political but spiritual too. It felt like because Jesus Christ suffered so much people people can only really go to heaven if they suffered the same. Did I now just analyzed and explained the whole thing?


I think Inside is much better than High Tension at least no dumb twist there. But for modern French horror Livid is the best IMO all the rest is nothing I would miss if I didn't see it.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#7, Reply to #6

May 2020
Still haven't seen Livid, but I have a mild interest in it. It's from the same guys who directed Leatherface which was okay.


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markus-san says:
#4

May 2020 *
The reason the torture scenes are so long and drawn out is because the viewer is supposed to endure the suffering she is going to go through. It is supposed to be tedious. A kind of endurance test. It is also supposed to be a journey of transcendence. She is becoming a "martyr". In the end, instead of fighting against her tormentors, she begins to accept her fate. This could not have been told in 5 minutes.

Yes the ending is purposefully ambiguous. The knowlege that Anna acquired through her transcendence, through her ordeal and suffering of whether there is or isn't an afterlife is purposefully kept hidden from the audience. And when she tells Mademoiselle, the old woman realises that this kind of knowledge is too great for those unwilling or unable to suffer for it and so decides to kill herself instead of passing it on.


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Johan_WoW says:
#5, Reply to #4

May 2020
A good answer and I think that explains why the scenes were so drawn out. However I do have a problem with "supposed to" as if you don't have a choice. Instead of saying ah stop it I can't take it any more which was clearly the intention I was like yeah I already saw that coming so to me it was just boring. We already got enough hints of what the organisation did to its victims. It doesn't need to last that long to get the point. So yeah I got impatient and just wanted the movie to come to a conclusion as I already knew why they did these tortures. They were not something to reflect upon. Even though there is much more story and philosophy and hullabaloo than the standard torture flick I really can't see what it does better or where it is deeper. But that's just me unwilling and uninterested to go into that jouney of transcendence like you described it. For me it even felt a little pretentious but that's more because of reviewers praising it because it would be so much deeper. That it is thought provoking yes but whether it is great or deep or clever stays a matter of opinion I think.


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