4. Martyrs (2008)
Little Lucie flees from a disused abattoir, where she has been tortured, and is subsequently placed in an orphanage where she becomes very close to a girl called Anna. Several years later, Lucie guns down a family that she believes were her torturers. She phones Anna to help her clean up, but this slaying of the family does not ease Lucie's demons and she commits suicide. Anna wanders around the house and finds some hidden stairs. Investigating further she discovers a woman who has undergone severe torture. Anna tries to help the woman but in through the doors come a squad of people with big guns. They tell Anna that they are torturing women to see if they can tell them any transcendental information. To do this, the women must become "martyrs." Anna soon finds out what this is all about as the clique decide to make a martyr out of her. She is imprisoned, beaten, starved, humiliated in a cell. Lucie appears to her in a vision and tells her to give in to the pain. Anna is deemed the most advanced candidate for martyrdom that the group have produced thus far. She is taken to be flayed and survives - in a euphoric state. The leader of the group goes to see Anna, to find out any information she can impart. At a group meeting, the members ask the leader what she found out from Anna - is there a life after death? Written and directed by Pascal Laugier, Martyrs is a mind-blowing film which has a tendency to split people down the middle - viewers tend to really like it or really hate it. I wouldn't say I love it personally - love is the wrong word - but I appreciate the originality of the story, the honest depiction of extreme violence and the film's visual flair. It is a daring and well made piece of the New French Extremity movement which every serious horror fan should check out at least one.