Martyrs Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Martyrs Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 8, 2011

Winner of the Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold at Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival, French director Pascal Laugier's "Martyrs" (2008) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Entertainment One Films. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features included with this release. In French, with optional English, English SDH, and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free. Please be advised that the film contains disturbing footage that is not appropriate for minors!

Out

A severely traumatized girl, Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), who has been missing for well over a year, is discovered by the French police. She is in stable condition but unwilling to talk about her captors. The few bits of information the police are able to get from her reveal that she has been tortured at an unknown location. Eventually, they discover where Lucie was held captive – in an abandoned industrial building with a sophisticated torture chamber – but the case is dropped.

Fifteen years later. Lucie rings the doorbell of a lavish suburban house. A man appears and Lucie immediately blows him apart with her rifle. Then, she proceeds to kill the man’s wife, daughter and son. Lucie’s best friend, Anna (Morjana Alaoui), appears. She attempts to clean up the mess, but something very unusual happens.

Director Laugier gathered plenty of attention with Martyrs. Because the film was initially slammed with the French equivalent of our NC-17, and then, after a much publicized support from a number of top French critics and film directors, rerated, it de facto earned more publicity than its creators had hoped for. To be honest with you, I also doubt Martyrs would have gotten the type of studio support it did outside of France, had there not been so much controversy surrounding its theatrical release.

On the other hand, Martyrs is unlike anything I have ever seen, so I certainly understand why so many critics and fans feel strongly about it. This is a brutal, cold and disturbingly serious genre film; one that scares you primarily with its intelligence, not its graphic visuals.

There are three key shifts in Martyrs that completely transform one’s initial perception of the film. The first one occurs rather early, when we see Lucie killing the suburban family. Pay close attention to the little details here; a lot is hidden in them.

The second shift occurs after the torture chamber is revealed. This is where director Laugier welcomes you into a world you cannot even begin to imagine, not even in your most intense nightmares. There is nothing kitschy about what you are going to see, so be prepared.

The third and final shift occurs approximately twenty minutes before Martyrs ends. Director Laugier introduces some interesting philosophical overtones that infuse a completely different flavor into the story. This is where Martyrs transcends beyond the conventional boundaries of the horror genre - there is something incredibly disturbing in the manner in which all of the torture that you would see is justified.

Many years ago, I attended a screening of Peter Hyams’ Outland (1981), a film about an ambitious police martial who confronts a group of drug smugglers on Io, Jupiter’s innermost moon. Halfway through the film, one of the drug smugglers is detained. He is given a special suit with a hose attached to an oxygen tank and thrown into a vacuum chamber. Later on, someone unplugs the hose and the man in the suit explodes. Hayms’ camera gets close enough to show us what's left of him and then zooms away. For years, I could not get this scene out of my head.

Martyrs is a film that will probably have a similar effect on me. There is something indescribably visceral about it that makes it look shockingly real. I’ve seen most of the new wave horror films that have recently come out of France - including Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s highly regarded À l'intérieur- but they all had that compromising campy vibe; Martyrs does not. This film is very, very serious about what it shows.

Martyrs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Pascal Laugier's Martyrs arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Canadian distributors Entertainment One Films.

This is a solid high-definition transfer, and from what I could tell practically identical to the ones used by Optimum Home Entertainment in the UK and Wild Side in France for their corresponding Blu-ray releases of Martyrs. Generally speaking, fine object detail is very good and contrast levels pleasing. Once again, there are minor clarity fluctuations, most of which occur during the underground scenes, but they are inherited (and also present on the UK and French releases). Color reproduction is strong - the variety of cold browns, grays, greens, reds, and especially the blacks look terrific. Finally, there are no serious stability issues to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

Martyrs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Entertainment One Films have provided optional English, English SDH, and French SDH subtitles for the main feature. Please note that the English, English SDH, and French SDH subtitles are in very light (almost white) yellow.

The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is very good. The bass is potent and punchy, the rear channels not overly active but very effective (there are two perhaps three scenes during the second half of the film that are incredibly impressive), and the high-frequencies not overdone. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and very easy to follow. There are no balance issues with Alex Cortés and Willie Cortés' atmospheric soundtrack either. Finally, I did not detect any pops, cracks, hissings, or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Martyrs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are absolutely no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc whatsoever.

Martyrs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My only complaint about this Canadian Blu-ray release of Pascal Laugier's Martyrs is that it does not contain any supplemental features. The technical presentation, however, is solid. The price is also right. Additionally, unlike Optimum Home Entertainment's Blu-ray release, which was the only English-friendly Blu-ray release on the market until now, the Canadian Blu-ray release is Region-Free. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.