Spoiler Warning: The Movie
February has been a bit all over the place when it comes to our film programming, hasn’t it? First we celebrated Joe’s birthday with an in-depth discussion on the troubled production of Hellraiser: Bloodline (aka Pinhead goes to space!) and then joined in on the Valentine’s Day festivities with the ladies from Double A Horror Highway to discuss the love at the center of Single White Female. Now we’re taking another look at female friendship with Pascal Laugier‘s 2008 film Martyrs. Yay?
In the film, two young women (Mylène Jampanoï and Morjana Alaoui), who were both victims of abuse as children, embark on a bloody quest for revenge only to find themselves plunged into a living hell of depravity.
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Libsyn, Google Play, and RSS.
Episode 61 – Martyrs (2008)
You asked for it (well, at least one of you did), and so we are finally covering the listeners’ choice that was selected from our 2019 Listener Survey! That’s right, we’re discussing Pascal Laugier’s controversial 2008 film Martyrs (or the most anti-spoiler film ever made)! Big thanks to listener Brian Conmy for helping us pull the trigger on covering this masterful and deeply upsetting film.
Major trigger warnings for anyone who has never seen Martyrs, because this film is one of the most disturbing films ever made. That’s not hyperbole!
Join us as we discuss what might be the most extreme example of white privilege ever put on screen (seriously, these people are so rich that they seemingly have all the time in the world to torture young women just so they can find out what happens after we die) and assign a few different readings to the film, including a very positive queer reading that might turn a few people around on the film.
We’ll also try to answer questions that have followed the film since its 2008 release, including but not limited to: Is its torture porn? Is it misogynistic? Does it have a purpose? Why would someone make this endurance test of a film?
Oh! And as an added bonus, both of us secretly watched the 2015 American remake without telling the other one, so we spend a little bit of time comparing the two films (hint: the original is better).
Cross out Martyrs!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re celebrating my birthday next week by letting me finally make Joe watch Jordan Rubin’s 2014 classic creature feature Zombeavers!
– Joe & Trace
P.S. Be sure to check out all of our online articles right here and read our latest on 1971’s Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde.
P.P.S. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to our Patreon you can listen our audio commentary on 2001’s Valentine, as well as a full-length episode on Blumhouse’s latest disaster Fantasy Island.