French film Martyrs is one of the most horrifying movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a whole lot.

Director Pascal Laugier delivers a tale that comes on fast and shakes you to the core on a primal, visceral and intellectual level.

Gore hounds will be happy as there’s plenty of nasty graphic violence on display, but it’s not a ‘look kids, intestines!’ Cannibal Holocaust-style caper (no disrespect for the mighty CH intended). This is simply something else. Something approaching unique.

The problem with that is; revealing too much of the story will ruin the elegantly timed twists and plot turns Martyrs takes – so we’ll tread lightly.

Lucie, a ten-year-old girl – escapes from a mysterious location where she’d been tortured and abused (in every way except sexually). She is put into a hospital and befriends Anna.

Fifteen years later Lucie and Anna ring the doorbell of what looks like the home of a nice, average family. When they open the door Lucie is convinced these gentle folks were her torturers.

Lucie has a shotgun.

From there the film takes you places you’d expect, albeit in an unflinchingly hardcore fashion, but around about the middle everything changes – and that’s all we have to say about that.

An endurance test for the senses, Martyrs is the scariest thing to come out of France since Marcel Marceau. Brilliant.

SCORE: 4.5/5

UPDATE: Just to give you folks an idea of how sincerely fucked up this flick is, it received an 18+ rating in France. Okay, not blowing your mind yet, but it should be n0ted that the French Society of Directors (SRF) remarked: “this is the first time a French genre film has been threatened with such a rating.” Naturally an American remake is in the works – expect horrible things, and not in a good way.