September 3 marked the anniversary of Martyrs, a film I still can’t quite shake.

Released in 2008 and directed by Pascal Laugier, Martyrs is one of the most infamous works of the French Extremity movement, a wave of films that tested the limits of psychological and physical horror. It tells the story of Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), who escapes horrific childhood abuse only to return years later with her closest friend, Anna (Morjana Alaoui), to take revenge on those she believes responsible. What begins as a story of trauma and vengeance spirals into something far more terrifying: an exploration of cruelty, faith and the human capacity to endure suffering.

Even among horror fans, Martyrs is divisive. Some hail it as a masterpiece, others reject it as needlessly brutal. Yet, unlike many shock films that rely only on gore, Martyrs marries its violence to a deeply disturbing idea: that suffering can be engineered to force transcendence, and that human beings (especially women) can be pushed to the threshold of martyrdom in service of someone else’s vision of truth.

I’ll be honest: I don’t watch much horror anymore, and this film is one reason why. There are scenes so difficult to endure that they leave you ill long after the credits. But what lingers isn’t just the brutality, but the ideas behind it. Martyrs forces you to think about how faith can be twisted, how misogyny cloaks itself in the language of transcendence, how power structures manipulate bodies in search of meaning. Few films dare to wrestle with such themes so directly.

For all its controversy, Martyrs remains one of the most thought-provoking films in a genre that too often exploits trauma rather than interrogates it. Sometimes the hardest stories to watch are the kind that tell us something we’d rather not see. Seeing beyond pain informs this episode.

Playlist

Abismos Y Espaldas
Symphonia Ena
Migration Pictography
Symphonia Ena

Computer Cantata: Prolog to Strophe III - Strophe III
Lejaren Hiller, Robert Baker
Hiller, Baker, Melby: Computer Music
NWCRI

Everything is unreal - Valentina Magaletti EDIT
Astrid Sonne, Valentina Magaletti
Great Doubt EDITS
Escho

Anepigraphe
Herbert Brün
Roots of Electronica Vol. 1, European Avant-Garde, Noise and Experimental Music
BRAIN DISCOS

It Could Be As It Was Forever
Martyna Basta, claire rousay
Slowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering
Warm Winters Ltd.

Cirqualz
Gordon Mumma
Gordon Mumma: Electronic Music Of Theater And Public Activity
New World Records

Mientras caía junto a luciérnagas
Un rêve,Mar de sombra
Como árboles al cielo... encuentro
Luces en el jardín

Scambi
Henri Pousseur
An Anthology Of Noise And Electronic Music Vol,1
Sub rosa

Enfrente
Mabe Fratti
Sentir Que No Sabes
Unheard Of Hope

Untitled 2
KYO
Potentiel Musik
Posh Isolation