'K, Martyrs...That's Enough.

Halloween night I chose to forgo the dress up and candy pander in favor of a doubleheader in front of a glowing screen. My first movie was Pascal Laugier's Martyrs, a French/Canadian production that I'd heard it was pretty intense, most commonly summed up with the caveat "torture porn." When I hear that I'm thinking violence along the lines of Se7en, Saw, or Gaspar Noé's incredible but often tough to stomach Irréversible. I've seen Pasolini's notorious Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom, so I'm pretty doughty when the shit goes down, so to speak. But I wasn't really prepared for an entire film that is a nonstop, paralyzingly on-edge gut-check whose tamest moments make the harshest parts in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo seem like a tea party in Care-a-Lot with Strawberry Shortcake and the My Little Ponies. After I finished I was in no state of mind to finish the double feature.

Scott Tobias of AV Club does a great job unfurling the plot if curiosity compels you to wonder what the BFD is, so I won't rehash it here. It is extremely taxing and not one that I would casually recommend or be in a hurry to watch again, but it is also a very good, well made and inciting movie, provoking thoughtful debate, especially with its open-to-interpretation ending that I'm still mulling over 2 days later. I just wanted to put down for posterity that I indeed finished it in one undeterred sitting and remarking on it felt like a good way to culminate an October spent almost exclusively watching horror/monster movies. After Martyrs, I am left with the ultimate takeaway of the month that once we are reminded that humans can be the worst monsters imaginable, then every other thing we can fathom is a lot less scary.  

Speaking of scary: one or two final splashes of political films are on tap for this pre-election weekend. Hope everybody takes some time to study up on their ballots and make good informed selections this Tuesday.