Anchor Bay’s remake of Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs is now in limited theaters and on Digital HD.
The Goetz Brothers (Scenic Route) directed the U.S. version that will also arrive on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray February 2, 2016
In the film, “Ten-year-old Lucie flees from the isolated warehouse where she has been held prisoner. Deeply traumatized, she is plagued by awful night terrors at the orphanage that takes her in. Her only comfort comes from Anna, a girl her own age. Nearly a decade later and still haunted by demons, Lucie finally tracks down the family that tortured her. As she and Anna move closer to the agonizing truth, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare – if they cannot escape, a martyr’s fate awaits them…”
The original is one of the most intense and brutal genre films ever. We caught up with the Goetz Brothers who talk to us about their favorite violent and extreme films:
IRREVERSIBLE (2002)
Gaspar Noe’s extreme film told backwards with a scene that literally unwatchable even when clocking it at something like 10 minutes long. It’s usually the horror of the human race that scares us the most. And as disturbing and downright unwatchable that film is, you can’t look away. Noe’s style is so singular and unrelenting that it’s a film that stays with you whether you want it to or not.
THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
Our first foray really into the genre. A film school nugget where Peckinpah told us its okay to be bloody. Heck, it can be downright emotive. The Wild Bunch was a movie not unlike our Martyrs, where the main characters will simply do whatever it takes to survive.
OLDBOY (2003)
This film by Park Chan Wook introduced not just physical violence, but emotional violence, which, for us, becomes even more terrifying.
WOLFEN (1981)
Albert Finney starred in this 1981 film where killer wolves live in the slums of the South Bronx. This was the first and last film we ever saw at a Drive-In-Movie theater. Its use of the POV of the wolf took our fear to the next level. And we can’t really say we saw WOLFEN, not entirely, because let’s just say moments after the detective was decapitated, we were very happy to be able to crawl under the movie seat and hide- although still forced to hear the wolf’s attack over and over.
BODY DOUBLE (1984)
Brian De Palma. It seems the early 80’s, during our formative years, someone was allowing us to watch these movies… Maybe we caught it on HBO when the parents where out and the babysitter had fallen asleep- but when the Indian man uses a handheld drill to murder Deborah Shelton, we just about lost it- plus the voyeurism aspect was so creepy- definitely a movie that once again has stayed with us forever.
