Martyrs (2008)

I cant quite figure out how I feel about this movie. It's classified as a Horror, and there are Horror elements, but it certainly is not a Horror movie in the classic sense.

It centers around Lucie and Anna. Lucie escapes from a captivity in which she endures unspeakable levels of torture and isolation. After being placed in a home for troubled youth, she meets Anna, and the two form a strong bond. Lucie is a tormented soul and grows up seeing horrific visions and haunted by an unknown spectre. It then veers into a revenge movie, in which Lucie seeks to exact revenge on a family she is convinced are responsible for he captivity and torture. This is the point of the movie it shifts gears, and focus's on Anna, who finds herself the victim of the same captivity endured by Lucie. It moves with brutal efficiency, yet can be repetitive.

There is no doubt this movie is brutal. Many reviews have called it "torture porn." I honestly would not go as far to call it that. The 2nd half has many cringe inducing moments, and as the plot unfolds you begin to find the reasoning behind the brutal torture that is inflicted. But there are no rape scenes, and the torture is not sexual in nature.

It is a movie that sticks with you. Some people may not be able to handle the subject matter, but for those who can, will find it a powerful but flawed movie. The only problem I have with it, is it just doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. You think you are watching one kind of movie, and then it quickly switches gears, not once, but twice. That being said, i recommend it. Turn the lights off and get ready to be freaked out a little.

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End of the Line (2007)

I saw the boys over at Aint it Cool News do a write up on this movie. It got me pumped to see it. Boy was i disappointed.

It centers around a small group of strangers who band together after the subway they are traveling home in shuts down, and they are then faced with a group of religious nuts armed with daggers in the shape of a cross running around killing people screaming about saving their souls. There is ZERO believability in that the slow moving fanatics really are not that intimidating.. some kids, an old woman, a few nerds... they are not scary at all.

The movie starts out promising, but just falls apart. You keep expecting the hero's to be doing battle with the so called demons or something sinister rather than a cool aid drinking cult.

There are some ok scenes, its just not a very scary or interesting film... I updated my iPhone apps in the middle of it.