The Secret Killer

The Secret Killer

Original Title: Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro

Aka: Eyeball

Aka Wide Eyed

in the Dark

Directed by : Umberto Lenzi

Italy /Spain 1975

Giallo, 89min

Distributed by: Marketing Film

Story:

A group of American tourists in Spain find themselves having a terrible holiday when a homicidal manic with a passion for chopping out the eyes of the victims strikes among them. Tension and paranoia set in as they try to figure out who is stalking and killing them, and everyone is fast on the hand to point out a assailant.

Me:

Umberto Lenzi, a fantastic director to say the least. I usually say that he’s mostly know for his cannibal movies [Man from Deep River 1972, Eaten Alive 1980, the infamous Make Them Die Slowly 1981] and the rather cheesy, but ever so atmospherical Nightmare City from 1980. But in my opinion I have to put my money on his decent amount of Gialli and Poliziotteschi which are so much more superior to his gut-muncher movies, and if I was ever forced to write a top ten Gialli list, Umberto Lenzi’s splendid Seven Blood-Stained Orchids from 1972 would definitely be one of the selected few. But today I cast my left eye and thoughts on The Secret Killer (or Red Cats in a Glass Maze as the original title really translates as) which Lenzi directed in 1975.

Obviously there is a reasonable amount of doubt as one sits down to a Gialli. Will it be one of the great ones, or will it be a mixed up jumble like so many other have been. The Secret Killer is quite often refered to as a mediocre Giallo which lack

s plot, a critique often aimed at the Giallo genre. A critique that definitely is unjust, as the plot definitely is there; Who is the killer, and what is the killer’s modus operandi and added to that there are all the cryptic subplots that shave the viewer searching high and low for the right answer. And unlike so many other detective or criminal movies you can almost never predict the outcome of the Giallo as it plays with a completely different set of rules opposed to convention, which is why they still fascinate audiences once again on digital media.

The Secret Killer sees a band of American tourists in Spain being driven round and shown the sights in your general touristy manner. At one stop Reverend Bronson [George Rigaud, who’s face will be familiar to genre fans from Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks on High Heels 1971, Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Womans Skin 1971, One on Top of the Other 1969, Sergio Martino’s All the Colors of the Dark 1972 and Lenzi’s Knife of Ice 1972] is the first to reach the scene after a young woman is brutally stabbed by an offscreen killer who for a change wears red gloves instead of the genre trait black gloves. The cops, Inspector Tudela [Andrés Mejnuto], who only has a week before retirement, and his young assistant Lara go to the autopsy, where Lara drops the classic line “Excuse me Doctor, are you saying that the killer is a sadist?” to which the Doctor replies “I wouldn’t really doubt it!” That’s the sort of tickling dialogue Lenzi and co-writer Félix Tusell come up with in this fine example of the Gialli. Félix Tusell was originally a producer and went on to continue producing movies after writing the screenplay for The Secret Killer, and that’s kind of a shame, as The Secret Killer has a lot going for it as I will point out shortly.

During the autopsy and later towards the end, when they know who their main suspect is, you will also see a policeman played by Fulvio Mingozzi, who frequently had bit parts as detectives, policemen or agents in almost all the great genre pieces. Do check out his resume, it’s an impressive list to say the least!

Anyhow after questioning the Reverend, setting up the first of many red herrings, the cops leave and the group of tourists continue their holiday. During this set up we are introduced to Paulette Stone [Martine Brochard, who had previously been in a few Nunsploitation flicks and Sergio Martino’s Poliziotteschi Violent Professionals 1973.] the secretary and former mistress of Marc Burton [John Richardson, who starred in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday in 1960 and later Martino’s Torso 1973]. Burton, who mysteriously arrives at the scene of the crime to comfort Paulette and try to swoon her back into his arms. But Paulette won’t be seduced so easily, at least not until Marc is divorced from his wife!

This sequence introduces the major mulligan of the plot; in the very opening after the credits we see a woman in an airport rebooking her flight to New York for a flight to Barcelona instead. We will pretty soon realise that this woman is Alma [Marta May], Marc’s wife, and our knowledge that she took a flight to Barcelona definitely sets her up as our prime suspect, especially as the next victim of the gloved killer is one of the tourists. The killer is moving in on the group!

Keeping the confusion high and pointing fingers in the wrong direction is frequently used throughout the first half of the movie, we learn of further connections between the group in Barcelona and Marc’s wife Alma. Gale Alvarado [Silvia Solar] tells friends in the group that she used to go to school with Marc’s wife, and that she doesn’t think Alma would like to learn about his romances with his secretary on the side. Marc gets a note from Reverend Bronson that his wife called and has taken up residence at the Hotel Presidente on the other side of town. As you see there are major forces working towards pointing out Alma as the gloved killer, but do we really want to believe that our leading lady is the killer? Red herrings are renown to shove the audience in the wrong way!

The second killing, the murder of Peggy is a wonderful sequence that takes place inside an amusement park ghost train ride. Filled with creepy masks and sudden shock effects the killer strikes and once again chops out the left eye of the victim. Once again the cops round up the group of tourists and start going though their suspects. This gathering of the group could have been a pace killer if it had not had been used in an interesting way which works in favour of the narrative. Every time the group are assembled after a killing, they start pointing fingers at each other, hence leading us on and planting new red herrings. After the murder of Peggy, there are several threads at play, and Marc goes to the Hotel his wife is supposed to be located at, obviously she isn’t there, but Marc finds a bloodied dagger in the suite which generates the first of a series of flashbacks related to Marc and Alma. He has returning flashbacks to a situation where he found Alma fainted in their garden with the same knife he found in the hotel in her right hand and an eyeball in her left… he can’t put his finger on it, but something is wrong with the image, and his is a subplot that will later have great importance.

It’s quite fair to say that from this point on Marc becomes the primary protagonist of the story, and even tough we don’t completely free him from suspicion, he will be the character who leads us through this mysterious Giallo. As viewers familiar with the genre will know, you can never be determined until the last scene has played out, these movies constantly pull the rug from under our feet and in some cases even the most obvious becomes the opposite in the flash of a knife.

The finest example of the finger pointing occurs after a young woman outside the group is murdered as she feeds her pigs on a farm they are visiting. There are several leads pointing to various members of the group and a great montage showing the whereabouts of our favourite suspects enhances this. The murderer stalks and kills the farm girl and the soon inspector, cursing that he has to solve this case before retiring and handing his position over to his young assistant, comes to the scene yet again. But then the splendid twist is that as the police question those we favour as prime suspects, they flip it around and point towards Paulette, our secondary protagonist. Once again, we have been following the tale through the narrative of Paulette and Marc, and it couldn’t be Paulette donning the red gloves as that would be illogical wouldn’t it. Or would it?

Burton learns that Alma is to catch a flight back out of Barcelona and races to the airport to confront her, but in a last minute decision Alma cancels her flight ticket and once again she slips through Marc’s fingers leaving him non the wiser. Although he does encounter Lisa Sanders [Mirta Miller] a photographer who is part of their little group and uses ever possible moment and location to photograph her girlfriend Nabila [Ines Pellegrini, who starred in a few Pasolini movies, including the infamous Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom]. Marc asks her to keep her professional eye open for Alma, and to photograph her if she sees her in Barcelona. He then goes back to Paulette and tells her about his suspicion that Alma is in town, killing all these people in an attempt to frame him!

Needless to say Lisa becomes the next victim in a beautiful sequence that easily is among the most finest of the genre. Antonio Millán’s cinematography peaks here as composition and pacing climaxes in a stunning sequence utilising deep focus and vivid colour schemes. I could go as far as referring to his as the must see scene of the movie. Nabila walks into the apartment and see’s Lisa’s body, screams waking the rest of the group, once again invoking a wonderful series of mis-en-scene where we are presented with possible suspects. At this point we have a fair idea of our own suspects, but we need to go yet another round before it is all exposed. The group take a trip to Stiges (yes Sitges of the legendary horror and fantasy festival) but as a change the group is separated in yet another cunning subplot to lead us astray. Nablia is in hospital following the attack, and Reverend Bronson stays in Barcelona to visit her, Marc has to check some last details of Alma’s whereabouts, and this is obviously when the killer strikes again! This time it’s a failure, and Nabila escapes once again, but the cops are in the killers trail, and soon their prime suspect will be captured.

Eventually Marc is too close to the killer for his own good and the police, persuaded that he just tried to murder the last victim and not chance the killer as he states himself, take him into custody. Once again I point out the common misunderstanding that Gialli have no plot or comprehensive storyline and only use cheap tricks. But here you go, evidence proving the opposite, in the autopsy scene, the doctor pointed out that the wounds where made by a right handed person which is later in the end of the movie proves a possible suspect to be innocent!

All good things come to an end and even so The Secret Killer. The murderer is exposed and the motif for slicing out eyeballs of the victims too and bizarrely enough there’s even a happy ending for one of the lead protagonists to wrap things up nice and tidy. Ironically there are several small clues and questions that get revealed during the final scenes. Answers to suggestions and questions which I would think may be seen more coherently by an audience perhaps not to familiar with the genre. I say ironic because with knowledge of the genre and the “anyone can be the killer” twists that frequent the Gialli, it’s a rarity that the most obvious killer is there right under your nose.

The Secret Killer has a fabulous score by the late Bruno Nicolai, who composed some of the finest scores ever set to Gialli movies, This one much in the same suave style of his previous scores for Guiliano Carnimeo’s The Case of The Bloody Iris 1972, and Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is A Closed Room and Only I Have the Key also from1972. But on the down side, this fantastic score is misused and brutally wasted on this film, or perhaps overused is a better word as it keeps coming in every now and again without any regards to what mood the scene is playing for what so ever. Sometimes it’s just plain annoying and distracts from the narrative. But on it’s own it’s a great soundtrack.

Image:

2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono English, Dolby Digital 5.1 German, Dolby Digital Mono German, no subtitles available.

Extras:

The theatrical trailer, filmographies for Umberto Lenzi, John Richardson, Martine Brochard and Ines Pellegrini, a slide show of stills and promotional materials. Finally a bunch of trailers for other Marketing Film’s releases, but nothing of real genre interest unless you like your Hong-Kong actioners dubbed to German.

Poultrygeist - Night of the Chicken Dead

Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead
Directed by Lloyd Kaufman
USA, 2006
Comedy /Horror, 103min
Distributed by: Troma Entertainment Inc.

Story:
Life is rolling on for young Arbie as he completes his summer of love by finally laying Wendy and being fingered by Native American Zombies in the cemetery. But in just a semesters time his life is turned upside down when he runs into his girlfriend Wendy, who is back from college to protest the newly erected American Chicken Bunker franchise in Tromaville. Arbie realizes that Wendy has turned lesbian during her time at college and devastated, he takes a job at the same fast food joint that Wendy (and most of Tromaville) are protesting against. But little does he stop to think about the fact that the fast food joint has been built upon the sacred Native American burial ground! Low and behold as Teenage lust, Indian burial grounds, Zombies and Fast food blend into the gore fest orgasm called POULTRYGEIST –NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD

Me:
Being a fan and friend of Lloyd Kaufman and Troma for a very long time, it’s only obvious that I at one point in time have to slip in the latest offering, Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead into the DVD and see if it holds up to the previous installments of Kaufman’s celluloid legacy. Keep in mind that Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead is a movie that I have feared for quite some time…

Well to be honest, Poultrygeist isn’t The Toxic Avenger, it isn’t Terror Firmer, it isn’t WAR, it isn’t Citizen Toxie, and it sure isn’t kosher in any way at all, but then again that’s part of the reason that you turn to Troma; for fast, violent, laughable, gory schlock entertainment, and I mean that in the most positive and respectfull way ever. Nobody can make blood-soaked carnage as hilarious as Lloyd Kaufman.

No matter how wild and crazy these movies get, you can never ignore Lloyd Kaufman’s engagement and statements, as each movie takes the time to criticize, mock and raise awareness for the topic of discourse, even if it's done sublimely and suggestive. Don’t start ranting on about how sexist these movies are and what a shitty view they take on women, because if you do, you are out of your league. I can’t think of a company that makes movies that celebrate sexuality, male, female or in-between as respectfully and interestingly as Troma. The Toxic Avenger was in many ways a poke at the health craze of the eighties, Class of Nuke Em High a raised fist against the dumping of toxic waste (themes also used in Toxic Avenger of course), Troma's WAR was a poke in the eye the arms dealers and US involvement in overseas conflicts, the second and third instalments of the Toxic Avenger series: Toxic Avenger Part II and Toxic Avenger Part III : The Last Temptation of Toxie both shot back to back in 1989 are obviously comments on global corporations and the era of the sharp dressed, backstabbing cold hearted businessmen. And then there’s Terror Firmer which made Lloyd the poster boy for his whole getting off your ass and making your own damned movie mantra as he shows that even a blind man can get his stuff in the can.

And this is why I say that you can't ignore Kaufman’s movies, as he goes after his topics and nails them by the balls to the wall. As the name indicates, Poultrygesist is a comment on the fast-food industry and the franchise globalization of the world. You can’t miss it, unless you are an idiot, and this is one of the finer points of Troma movies, they do have a message, even if it lost on the masses.

Needless to say the movie is effective, I avoid chicken products like the plague, (especially those fast-food grinders and anything that isn’t sliced and diced by my own hand) and this movie definitely makes one even more hesitant to chicken. There’s so much chicken carcasses, ground chicken, chicken slime, chicken sliver and chicken guts that you may never want to eat chicken again. So yeah, this movies message is loud and clear, and definitely comes across without any misinterpretations at all.

Also the fact that Troma have pioneered so many fields and areas that they have been completely ignored for that it is a crying shame.

Years before putting a new spin on the classics, like the recent Jane Austen vs. Zombies / Cthulhu fad of the past year, Troma and Kaufman where already light years ahead of their time., with films like Tromeo and Juliet 1996, at one point in time I recall Citizen Toxie was referred to as The Tale of Two Toxies. That’s TROMA and William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens! You don’t get that reference in your average schlock horror, but Troma knows their classic story telling and that’s why their movies, especially the ones written and directed by Kaufman himself, all rise above the average corny horror that is force fed onto fans of the genre. The last horror/comedy I tried to watch got shut down and slipped back into the case before I even got half way through, and that was the critically acclaimed Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. But never has a Troma movie been halted by my hand, and probably they won’t either, because as I said, there is a heart and soul to these movies no matter how you twist and shake it.

Secondly, technology! Back in the late nineties when other studios where still writing “animated menu” as an extra feature on their DVDs, Troma where dishing up exclusive audio commentaries, extended cuts, an amazing amount of extras so that you never, NEVER felt screwed buying a Troma DVD. And just look at the DVD titles they release today! The majority of their own movies all come with a complete extra disc of exclusive feature length documentaries giving a full insight into the movie making process and how it’s all done. So for a few bucks you are in fact getting your film school education while you laugh your ass off! Now you can’t complain about that now can you!

In many ways Poultrygeist is a great Troma movie, high on Troma values. Ass jokes, nudity, lesbians, fantastic effects, dorky protagonists and all round cheesiness (what’s not to like about that?) The fundamental narrative is here, the classic Troma storyline: The dorky underdog who comes out on top and saves the day. Yeah, everyone loves an underdog and that is probably why it’s always been Troma's main plot device, but Poultrygeist didn’t quite leave the impression I wanted it too. Sure it is a hillarious movie, all the regular Troma “guest actors” are there, the jokes and gag’s are up to usual Troma standards, and there’s even the craftsmanship of the story, yeah I said story, and even though YOU may not expect to find one in a Troma movie, it’s in there and if you have missed them, then that’s just proof of your ignorance, the underdog and the fight against unfair callous corporation! Remember I pointed this out earlier, there’s social criticism in these movies!

If you want another example of the genius of Mr. Kaufman here you are; all the major characters are named after US fast-food chains! Arbys, Wendys, Paco Bell and so on, and also if you fail to see who Robin Watkins General Lee Roy is supposed to be they you must be blind. See it’s all very sublime and highly effective! Perhaps it was the song and dance numbers that didn't work for me, as I can’t stand S&D numbers (apart from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Grease that is…) and I definitely don’t want singing in my lesbian romp scenes, it just confuses me. But the soundtrack will have you singing the theme over and over again for the next few days after seeing the movie, so it's not all bad is it.

The story obviously focuses on Arbie [Jason Yachanin], yet another Troma underdog fighting for the good stuff and right values in life. It’s a pretty uncomplicated tale of how he tries his darnedest to regain the one true happiness he ever had, Wendy [Kate Graham, possibly the most “Girl Next Door” ever in a Troma movie], and how life constantly has other plans for him forcing him to take actions outside of his underdog, geek character trait.

The subplot of Arbie meeting his “Older self” [played to masterful perfection by director Kaufman himself] is great, and echoes the; if you really want something, “get off your fat ass and make it happen” mentality associated with Troma. A guide line for the entire “Make your own Damned Movie” philosophy that Kaufman and Troma stand for. Do it! If Troma have been able to make movies for 35+ years, then so can you!

And finally the one to bring in the final laughs, the one scene you always will find in Kaufman’s movies, the car flip – explosion scenes that cost them a million dollars back in 1990 when they shot Sgt Kabukiman NY.P.D. Ever since then that scene has been masterfully woven into all of Kaufman's movies and has become almost like Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo, you know that at one point during the movie, it will be there. In Poultrygeist it fills a very nihilistic and ironic function tossing the movie into dark ground and making it the The Unbearable Lightness of Being of horror comedies, as happiness is once again punished with ironic sudden death. Cherish what you have as it may be gone tomorrow.

You can huff and you can puff, but you can not blow down the house of Troma, an impressive institution that has been making independent movies since 1974 that’s over 35 years of real independent film making, 35 years of supporting independent filmmakers, and 35 years of showcasing that anyone who really wants can make a movie. And herein lays one of the inspiring magic of them, their passion for what they do and their ambition to make others get up and be active. Get away from the dronish dream state of fantasy, get off your asses and make your own damned movie. Then give Troma a call, and who knows they may even distribute it for you and give you that break you never thought you would get!

[And buy their movies right now, as even true independance has a price!]

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen

Sound:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
Well as I stated above, Troma DVD’s are packed with extras, this one no exception; There’s the full length commentary track by Lloyd Kaufman and co-writer Gabe Friedman (no stranger to Troma himself), there’s the trailers for all your favourite Troma movies, music videos outtakes and loads of greet stuff, then there’s the stunning disc two with the feature length Poultry In Motion - Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken documentary on the making of Poultrygeist (see here’s the film school Troma style again) and also a shit loads of great stuff to, deleted scenes, further exploration of how to make a movie. Like I said, loads of stuff to keep you happy and satisfied, so go get it now!

J of Cinezilla with the always charming Uncle Lloydie in 2006.

Martyrs

Martyrs
Directed by Pascal Laugier
France / Canada, 2008
Horror, 95min
Distributed by: Pan Vision

Story:
Two young woman become friends in an institution during the seventies. As adults one of them takes her revenge on the people who held her captive as a child. This revenge is the start of an ordeal that will take them both beyond the limits of human suffering…


Me:
There’s been a lot of really great movies coming out of France these last years, and if you start with Haute Tension, and follow the blood line from there, Haute Tension [Alexandre Aja 2003], Calvaire [Fabrice du Welz 2004], ils [David Moreau & Xavier Palud 2006], Frontièr(s) [Xavier Gens 2007], À l’intérieur [Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury 2007], Vinyan [Fabrice du Welz 2008], and now Martyrs [Pascal Laugier 2008] it’s definitely worth calling it the New Wave of French Horror that gets darker and darker, and so much more sinister with each movie that is released. Perhaps much more than the recent wave of Spanish horror, the French stays more on psychological ground where the Spaniards have made some very impressive ventures into the real of the paranormal. And we all know that a realistic psychological driven horror movie will scar you more than the average ghost story does. So yet again a French movie storms the scoreboard and pushes France back to the top of the current European capital of horror once again.

If you have not seen this movie, I will for a change stop you here and advise you to watch this movie, because I have been thinking about this film for the last two weeks, and I’m going to blow this one right open here and now and I will spoil the crap out of it for you if you continue reading. But the choice is yours, you could read on and then watch, or if you have seen it, read on and let’s discuss this amazing movie.

This is a very dark, misogynistic disturbing movie. Really it is. It’s nothing like those other movies claiming to be the most violent horror of the decade and all that bull. This is the real deal and honestly you will be disturbed, you will be affected and you will feel nauseous. But at the same it’s perhaps one of the most fascinating movies of the wave of new nihilistic horror that has been put forth during the last five years, as Pascal Laugier actually manages to tell a story through the disturbing violence and sadistic torture scenes that make up the core of Martyrs.

The movie opens in the late 70’s where a young girl, obviously battered and assaulted, stumbles out of a desolate building and starts running down the street. The further away from the building she gets, the more she starts to realize that she has managed to escape (from an off-screen threat) and starts sobbing in relief in a scene that for sure had me conjuring up mental images of those iconic Nick Ut photographs of the naked Kim Phùc running down the road after the South Vietnamese napalm bombed the hell out of her village. And I can’t say that it’s unintended that Laugier wants these images to be brought to mind, as this definitely is the sort of imagery that will be used in the narrative later on. Anyhow, the young girl, Lucie is placed in an institution with other disturbed children and soon befriends Anna. After the exposition we understand that something really terrible happened to Lucie in that dark house, so terrible that she won’t talk about it. The pre-title sequence comes towards its end, and just as a sense of calm settles around the two young girls, the demon haunting Lucie makes its entrance. Calm bursts into unease once again. Cut forward fifteen years. A family goes about its morning rituals. Effectively the family is established, the good daughter, the dropout son, the proud father, and a wonderful red herring, the strong independent mom who has been fixing the water mains in the garden. As an audience we start looking for identification traits to see which of the two girls from the prologue is here. Is it Anna or is it Lucie who has been adopted into this happy family?

But you will soon understand that neither of the two pre-title girls are part of this family as Lucie [Mylène Jampanoï] makes her dramatic entrance into the house and slays all of the family with a shotgun and her emotional stare. This is also the first of many cunning plot twists that Laugier has written into Martyrs. Deceiving the audience into believing that one of the girls from the prologue is part of the family is a cunning device, and it also plays along with our familiarity with the genre. The poor traumatized child gets adopted and adapts into a new family before all hell breaks loose. But here the hell breaks loose as Lucie storms through the house taking her vengeance on the people she claims to be responsible for her abduction and torture all those years ago. Also we generally think of people who adopt lesser fortunate children to be nice people, so this really makes us uneasy, as we are not prepared for these “Seemingly nice” people to be gunned down. Little did we know, and this is an interesting topic for discussion; how do we define good and evil?

Just as in the pre-title sequence, when the calm returns and the gun smoke settles, Lucie’s demon appears again and this time we take part of the full fledged attack. Despite Lucie putting her hand in the blood of her victims and showing it to the demon, it still attacks, proving that it probably wasn’t the demons blood lust that drove Lucie to killing the family. But something else… The Demon savagely attacks Lucie, slashing at her back and body driving her out of the house and into the arms of her childhood friend Anna [Morjana Alaoui].


Anna arrives at the scene and starts to sort things out. Lucie tells Anna of the unseen demon attacking her again, and Anna indicates that she’s not quite on the same page as Lucie when it comes to the demon. But still, her love for Lucie is her drive and she goes about disposing of the bodies. Anna is the stable counterpart to Lucie’s frenzied psychosis. Anna sends Lucie to bed and starts clearing the bodies from the house. As mentioned in the pre-title sequence Anna has taken quite a mother role towards Lucie, and apparently still does, as she comforts, tends to and cleans up after Lucie. As Anna tries to dispose of the bodies, she also realizes that the mother is still alive!

Torn between her loyalty towards Lucie and her senses and values, she tries to help the mother to escape. A complex problem, as she acts out of empathy, but betrays Lucie at the same time. Once again the question of what is good and what is bad is raised. Should she help the surviving victim even though her lifelong friend was held captive and tortured by her? At the same time makes it known that she doesn’t really believe in Lucie’s motive for the killings. The heart broken Lucie observes Anna trying to aid the mother out, and after attacking the mother and making sure that she is dead this time, she turns her sights to Anna.

Once again the narrative makes a 180 turn and sports the two women against each other. Love and betrayal are strong themes that drive this part of the movie, as Lucie devastated and heartbroken after realizing that Anna has betrayed her, and on top of that exposed the tormenting demon to be just an inner demon of Lucie’s has a final break down. All these years of torment are too much for her and she rushes out of the house only to take her own life! The audience gasps in shock! This is probably the most effective shock death of the lead character since Hitchcock first thought up the device back in Psycho in fifty years ago. It hits really really hard, and the audience never sees this one coming. Once again a brilliant plot device used to perfection by Laugier and this is still only early stages of the movie.

With her best friend and love interest dead, Anna turns to the only person that she has left in the world, her mother. Once again the Love/betrayal/disappointment card is played as the comfort she seeks in her mother is not received. At the same time the mallet that Lucie previously trashed the apartment with topples into a cavity behind the wall revealing an entrance to a hidden underground dungeon. Anna puts down the receiver on the counter and investigates the secret passage only to find that there is indeed a dungeon down below. A rush of insight hit’s us/Anna, as we realize that Lucie was telling the truth. The people she killed where the fiends that kidnapped and tortured her. Ironically the neglect of belief led to her suicide and Anna has to deal with the guilt of disbelieving her friend. But to make things worse, Anna finds a captive woman in the dungeon, solidly proving that this is the family Lucie was searching for all those years.


Anna helps the woman up from the torture chamber, tends to her wounds and tries to communicate with the harrowed figure but in a final twist the members of the cult responsible for the kidnappings, break into the house and seize Anna, imprisoning her in the dungeon.

Finally the movie moves into shocking new ground as it with out resistance moves into the harrowing last third of the movie, an even darker tone that what has gone before. Anna, now a held captive in the underground dungeon, meets Mademoiselle [Catherine Bégin], the ringleader, who explains what the cult are dedicated to; creating martyrs. By showing Anna images of severe death and torture (remember the Kim Phùc reference earlier on? Well here those images come back as part of the narrative), where the victims, have reached an almost trance like state. Mademoiselle explains that these people have overcome their pain and have found peace in their suffering, hence becoming Martyrs. Needless to say the twenty five minutes that follow are horrific and agonizing as Anna is tortured and battered continuously in the cult’s strange attempt to create a martyr. But at the same time there is something rather unique that happens here, as Laugier uses the final torture sequence to tell his story. Avoiding the traditional convention of close-up’s on special effects and shock realism Laugier’s prolonged suffering becomes part of the narrative.


Be warned, this movie is disturbing, very disturbing. And Laugier has said on record that the movie is the result of a severe depression in which he envisioned the movie, which is appropriate, because it is a very dark and depressing movie. But after letting it sink in I started to appreciate the finer details of this movie, the innovative way that Laugier tells his tale and despite the terrifying ending actually gives us a somewhat “Happy Ending” and just how the hell do get to that conclusion you may be asking? Well with the smart and cunning use of a contrast frame which forces us to choose the lesser of two evils you can interpret this movie in the following way, but first ask the following question; Does Anna simply become a victim of the cult and die a terrible pointless death or does she turn into a heroic figure as she becomes a martyr?


Here’s how it works: the cult have been capturing and torturing young women systematically for years, and the chance of Anna escaping is minuscule. We understand that Anna will be beaten and tortured repeatedly until she dies in pain, goes insane or becomes a martyr. (And then dies elevated above the pain. Remember that’s what Mademoiselle told her happens to martyrs.) We come to the insight that Anna gives in to the pain and suffering when she hears the voice of Lucie telling her it’s Ok to let go and rise about the pain. (Lucie is Anna’s inner demon, but instead of a terrorizing one, she is a supportive, loving one. Facing your inner demons is part of the martyr process; Lucie had the caged woman she failed to save upon her escape, meaning that her demon is metaphorically her guilt coming back to haunt and punish her.) The tremendous amount of disturbing imagery we view as Anna is pushed further and further into oblivion, and finally skinned alive, we know that if she becomes a martyr she will be in no pain. So obviously by using the contrast frame we are manipulated into hoping that Anna becomes a martyr, for then she will be free of her suffering and will feel no pain of a continued beating and torment until she goes insane like the woman she freed earlier on in the movie.

So in a sinister and poetic way, by becoming a martyr Anna achieves the ultimate goal, she became free of our world and feels no pain hence escaping the tortures of the dungeon and the cult. Anna wins.

The added ending, with Mademoiselle and the cult is strange, but does offer a wide range of suggestive ending interptetations. Did Anna tell her what the afterlife is like, is there an after life or not? There are many questions to ask, and I feel that this ending, contrary to what many others have said, does not justify the violence towards Anna. This is a simple chance ending with no real logic, and I feel that this small appendix should have been clipped. Keep the ending with the cult gathering to show their respects and worship of Anna the martyr, but ditch this confusing last scene that really doesn’t add anything to the movie. The shock death of Lucie works, but you won’t catch me twice, so as soon as Anna is dead so is the movie. Time to brush off the popcorn, find the remote and flip over to the extra features…

In many ways I feel that Laugier actually manages to achieve what many before him have feebly tried, but only failed. He brings the pain - pleasure, life- death full circle and by using a contrast frame he manipulates the audience to finding relief in the death of Anna. Her martyrdom becomes our salvation too.

In a brief summary the movie can be broken down into three parts with three different approaches to the narrative. All with equally disturbing impacts at the climax of each part. The first sees the back-story of the two young girls which ends with Anna being appointed a “real mother [platonic] to Lucie” and the crazed demon attacking Lucie. We understand that she is still not free of her tormentor.

The second part is the revenge and divergence of the two women Lucie takes her revenge, Anna helps to sort things out, we understand that Anna still is the Mother character in this relationship, and when Lucie takes her life Anna regresses to a child again, and calls her own mother for comfort.

The final third is the horrendous torture and suffering of Anna at the hands of the cult. Abandoned by all, Anna regresses even further, and when Lucie talks to her (through visions) the roles are flipped over, it is now Lucie who is taking care and comforting Anna, by speaking to Anna in her visions, Lucie clearly forgives the previous betrayal and allows Anna to give in to the torture, feel no pain and achieve the martyrdom.

Let me wrap this one up with some fun trivia, during the two weeks I have been turning and flipping this movie over in my head since watching it, I conducted an interviewing with John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of fantastic book Let The Right One In for the TV show I’m working for. We ended up talking about Martyrs, which he saw at a horror convention in London, and his impression of the film was briliantly summed up the following five words; “Great Movie, Don’t Watch It!”

It’s a fascinating movie that Laugier presents, it’s vile, foul, evil, disturbing and at the same time very poetic, philosophical and existential. We all have a fundamental fear of dying; it’s in our basic programming as humans. So forcing us to participate and by facing that fear and pushing boundaries is obviously part of the reason why people make and fans watch horror movies. And I definitely feel that Laugier manages to turn torture porn into torture art and in years to come I’m sure that the polarized Martyrs camps will still be as far apart as they are today, but Martyrs will have become a landmark movie in gene history.


Image:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
French Dialogue, Dolby Digital 5.1 Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian subtitles are optional.

Extras:
An 85 minute long documentary on the Making of Martyrs where Laugier talks about the movie his feelings about the movie, the process of making it. (Although no reference to that depression but references to his previous movie House of Voices) Cast and crew talk on the movie and there’s the equally amazing story of the cursed shoot with its accidents and obstacles to make this a very interesting insight into the film making process. Subtitled in English. Teaser trailers and the theatrical trailer.

Saturday Special! A - Z Taught By Italian Exploitation Movie Posters.

C is for Cat O'Nine Tails
Il gatto a nove code
Directed by Dario Argento, 1971
[UK Semi-Quad - Signed]

C is for Challenge to White Fang
Il ritorno di Zanna Blanca
Directed by Lucio Fucli, 1974
[Australian Day Bill]




C is for City of the Living Dead
Paura nella città dei morti vivanti
Directed by Lucio Fulci, 1980
[UK Quad]



C is for Conquest
Directed by Lucio Fulci, 1983
[US One Sheet]