10 Horror Movie Scenes Worse Than Death
3. Anna's Torture - Martyrs (2008)
No horror subgenre is as sadistically deprived as what’s become known as New French Extremity. Out of this collection of deeply disturbing and graphic films, it’s Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs which stands out as being one of the genre's most notorious films.
Martyrs delves straight into its hard-hitting violence by opening with a family being gunned down as they sit down for breakfast. The shooter is Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), who it’s soon revealed was seeking revenge on the family for subjecting her to extreme torture when she was a child. She’s there with her friend Anna (Morjana Alaoui), who was also abused by the family when she was younger. However, events become even more twisted when Anna discovers a secret door leading to a basement where the extent of the family’s barbarism is unveiled.
Later, following even more deplorable acts of violence, Anna is captured by a secret society whose goal is to discover the secrets of the afterlife by inflicting extreme suffering upon women. Unfortunately for Anna, she becomes their next victim and, in the film’s most harrowing sequence, is subjected to extensive cruelty that ends with her being skinned alive.
Martyrs is every bit as brutal as its reputation suggests.