Boring movie with trying to be some reason twist in the end. Its like evil dead just worse. I expected much much more.I recommend A Serbian fillm to watch

One thing that I have noticed about some of the reviews on this film is how bloody, gorey, violent, etc. it is and how it's violent to just be violent. I cannot agree with that statement at all. The film tells a story of revenge at first and then shifts to a psychological thriller for the second half. Lucie is the first half and her story is to make you sympathize with the character while Anna's story is meant to provoke thought. When Lucie'sstory was being shown there was a moment where I thought maybe she had killed this family of four for no reason other than she mistook them for her captors 15 years earlier. I was on the fence about it and so was Anna when she tries to help the wife escape until Lucie kills her with a hammer. It isn't until Lucie ends her own life and Anna finds a woman that has been kept down in their torture room for at least 15 years, did I realize that Lucie wasn't crazy and really truly sympathized with her character. After freeing the woman some people in all black come in and kill the girl and take Anna prisoner as they subject her to horrible experiments designed to break her will and cause her to give up all hope. After awhile she finally does this and upon "letting go" she is able to become a witness, or martyr, and see into the afterlife without having died. This is what the cult like group wanted all along. They wanted to have the knowledge of what was on the other side. The head of the group, a rather old women, comes and asks Anna what she saw. Anna whispers to her what it was but we as the audience never actually know what is said. It is after this that the woman goes into the bathroom and takes her own life. But before she does this she tells one of her servants to "keep denying" when talking about the afterlife. This statement is what the entire film is about. Denial is what keeps us going and keeps us from doing certain things. In the case of the writer it was stopping him from killing himself since he wrote the film while being horribly depressed. Not knowing what the afterlife holds helped him realize he didn't need to kill himself, because if we know what lies behind death then life would be meaningless.

Few movies have affected me the way this movie did. Sure, it is gory, brutal, violent, and very disturbing. But unlike so many other movies it is not there for chock value, but rather to show the awful journey of the protagonist, from bad to worse. As strange as it may sound, it brings depth to the story and even more so to the characters. Yes, it is slightly depressing, but in all its dark cruelty there is beauty, which balances the horror. When watching it the first time, it came to a point where it was almost too much cruelty, but then the end came, and made it all worth it. So if you've got a strong stomach, and want to see a movie that will remain with you for a long time, then watch this masterpiece. And watch it through. It'll be worth it.

Having seen Pascal Laugier's "The Tall Man", which I absolutely loved, I had heard a lot of praise for his first film, "Martyrs", and finally saw it today (2017) on DVD. I can't believe all the reviewers who praise this film lavishly. It is over 90 minutes of torture porn, and while there is a revenge motive, there is little if any satisfaction to be gained by the victims or the viewers, and it is IMO, the viewers who are the ultimate victims, despite the clever twist at the end. One reviewer said that those who like "Hostel" will probably like this film too, and vice-versa. Well, sorry, for I really liked "Hostel", but this exercise in non-stop cruelty and torture was so over the top as to make it hard to care, and nobody could survive the tortures shown for ten minutes, let alone years. Huge disappointment.