Martyrs

Last year, I heard a lot of things about this French horror film, Martyrs. I finally ordered it and watched it blah blah... Of course it's amazing, but that's not the reason I'm writing this. I may be alone in this feeling, but I've noticed a trend in a lot of your better horror (aka NOT American) films... what is this, you ask?

I don't think they are horror movies. Yes, they are graphic, gory and very violent. But, I almost want to call them dramas; some new genre of extreme torture drama. These movies don't evoke the same emotions as your genre defining horror films. Like Martyrs, it started uneasy like most horrors, but then you become so sympathetic with the characters and although the people who inflicted the pain on them are horrible, they are not "frightening" the way the witches in Suspiria were frightening. I was crying for these girls, like I was watching Atonement, not Rec.

Funny Games! Another not-horror "horror" film. Yes, the main characters are serial killers and the cinematography is graphic and suspenseful. But the same elements are present in Law & Order: SVU. And we don't consider this a horror series.

Whatever you call it, this movie is disturbing but worth the discomfort. It's the best thing I've seen a long, long while. I've never cried during any "horror" film before.

There is a very well written bit about it, with many spoilers obviously, that shares my interpretation of it HERE.