The Scream Project

mar·tyr:

ˈmɑrtər/ [mahr-ter] –noun

1. Witness

When I first grabbed this movie I thought I was putting my hands on a run-of-the-mill revenge/retribution movie. Lucie was tortured as a 10 year old in this below ground chamber slash slaughterhouse, and now that she’s older and free she wants to track down the woman who did that to her and kill her. However, early on in the movie you realize that, nope, that’s not all this film is. The reason Lucie wants to kill her previous capture? Because she’s being haunted by the ghost of the girl she could have saved when she left the underground torture chamber, but didn’t. Lucie decided to run and free herself, and even though she was consumed with guilt for leaving this woman behind, the bitch still haunts her.

Woo! Let us tie in some ghosts into this already bizarre film. Upon seeing the ghosts I get a little worried. Maybe it’s going to be that kind of movie, too!

Lucie hunts down and kills the woman who tortured her, as well as this woman’s family. That’s when Lucie’s friend, Anna (who may also be her lover, but were not sure since the movie alludes to this but never actually says if its true) shows up, and helps her friend get rid of the bodies. Lucie, however, is still being tortured by this ghost, even though she killed the people the ghost wanted her to kill. This ghost tortures the hell out of Lucie, and fans of gore films will enjoy this, because it certainly was gore. Some excellent torture scene ensue. Lucie, as it turns out, realizes that this is never going to end, and ends up offing herself to escape. Of course, Anna has to take care of the huge mess, and bury all the bodies. While she’s doing this, she finds a room under the house, which is YET ANOTHER TORTURE CHAMBER! This chamber is complete with another young girl undergoing the same disgusting attacks as Lucie had 15 years ago.

Anna tries to help this girl (and this montage is littered with more gore which actually makes your insides hurt) but the girl turns on Anna anyway, and while being attacked by this poor girl who only wants to be free of all of her captures, she is saved by a group of people who kill the attacker. This is when we discover that the woman Lucie killed isn’t the only torturer- she’s part of a much larger group!

Now, I don’t want to spoil the ending, so I’m only going to tell you this: If you settle in for a redemption film, or even a paranormal film, you’re going to be very surprised at the twist near the end. I hope I didn’t give away said twist with the above definitions of the word “Martyr”.

This movie, when I picked it up at the video rental store surprised me because it had a warning right on the cover telling you that this movie contains scenes that may disgust you, disturb you or cause fear. Which I found pretty amazing because you don’t see too many warnings like that. However, the warnings are bang on. This movie certainly will disturb and possibly disgust you. I found myself sitting up, and holding my stomach during some of the scenes. This is rare, during most horror movies with attack scenes, I’m at the tip of my seat giggling and clapping because it’s so completely implausible. Not with this one. Everything is perfectly plausible, which is why it’s so disgusting. It really makes you wonder how much the human soul can take because just giving out. It also makes you wonder why and how someone could torture another human being the way these people torture these girls.

That being said, if you can stomach the gore and the complete disturbing aura this film has, I implore you to watch it because it is definately worth it. The twist is amazing, and the whole premise is just beyond comprehension. Above all, the ending, which is meant to shock you and completely succeeds, is one of the better endings, I find, in all the horror movies I’ve seen. Therefore: I loved this movie, and I think you should see it too. Go. Do it now. I’ll wait here while you do.

Blood, Brains & Rock ‘n’ Roll,

MISS B

(read MISSB’s review at BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM )