10 Home Invasion Horror Movies With A Twist
3. Martyrs (2008)
None of Pascal Laugier's horror films have gripped the subconscious of the horror world quite like Martyrs (2008).
Originally premiering at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, this French-language horror stars Mylène Jampanoï and Morjana Alaoui as Lucie and Anna, two young women who suffered abuse as children and who have now come seeking revenge. The shock of Lucie's initial actions, breaking into a family home and gunning them down with a shotgun – and the potential that Lucie's anguish and identification of her abusers is all in her head – is soon tipped in the opposite direction as Anna discovers a secret underground chamber within the house where another brutalised woman is held captive. But hold onto your hats because that's not all.
The house is the base of a cult who believe they can uncover the secrets of the afterlife by torturing people – martyrs – to the point of pure agony and near-death. And Anna is to become their latest victim, suffering successive beatings, abuses, and even being skinned alive.
Few films are as unrepentantly vicious and grim as this; and no other home invasion film reaps such dire consequences upon the invaders. Like most great foreign films, there is also an English-language remake floating around out there in the ether. But the less said about that, the better.