6. Martyrs (2008)
A young girl called Lucie escapes from an abattoir where she has been systematically tortured. She goes to live in an orphanage and makes BFF with a girl called Anna. Lucie remains tormented by her demons. Flash forward several years, we see a supposedly normal family sitting down to breakfast. Lucie comes in with a shotgun and wastes them all. She calls Anna to help her clean up the mess. Anna is not entirely convinced that Lucie has shot the right people. Lucie, still in torment from her demons realises she will never get rid of them and commits suicide. Anna is pottering around the house when she finds a stairwell. She descends it and comes face to face with a ghastly wretch of a woman who has been horribly tortured. She tries to help her but a bunch of people come into the house, shoot the tortured woman and explain to Anna that they are members of a society who are trying to create 'martyrs'. They do this by painfully torturing women so that they go beyond the pain barrier and reach a state of transcendence. They have not managed to achieve this yet. So they take Anna as their latest test subject - severely torturing and humiliating her in a dungeon. Lucie appears to Anna in a vision and tells her to give into the pain and degradation. Anna reaches a suitable state of transcendence in order to be flayed. She reaches nirvana and the leader of the cult - a middle aged woman asks her what it is like and Anna whispers in her ear. In a meeting with the cult, the woman is asked about life after death. She says 'keep doubting' and shoots herself dead in front of them all. Martyrs is an extremely violent and disturbing film. There is the vision of a young Lucie running screaming from the abattoir, a whole family getting shotgunned, Lucie's demons that haunt her, the tortured wreck of a woman, Anna's humiliation and enforced physical agony. It is, what I would call, a good film - decent acting and direction and an interesting premise - but it is a very hard viewing experience and most people will find it repellant. Even the most hardcore horror fans. They will find it compelling and interesting but they will wince at several scenes. I defy you not to!