On the way to Halloween Night 13: “Martyrs” and “Cannibal Holocaust”

Good evening, horror! I’m afraid that tonight is your unlucky evening. Because the thirteenth day of October holds a complete shock to your system that you arrogantly assume has been finely tempered by years of horror fandom. These two films are tough and penetrate every defense mechanism you have.

One takes us back to the French Quarters of extreme horror, the other is the evil forefather of found footage fear films! Leave all tender natures, you who enter here…

Martyr (2008)

And here we are! Some of you out there have already seen this movie, and I can feel many of your uneasy eyes turning away from its name and afraid to even look at it. Because you already know what’s waiting for the new arrivals this evening. This film is what separates the die-hard horror fans from the real Blue Maniacs.

French director Pascal Laugier was at a low point in his life, suffering from depression that bordered on thoughts of self-termination. After watching Eli Roth’s 2005 torture porn classic, hostelhe set out to make his own film about suffering, an outlet to channel that bad energy. This disturbing masterpiece is the end result of this cathartic cleansing. This has been the case since 2008 martyr…

The year is 1971 and young Lucie Jurin (Jessie Pham) escapes imprisonment in an abandoned slaughterhouse after being missing for a year. Because of her trauma, Lucie is unable to explain to the authorities exactly what happened to her. She is taken to a youth home where she meets her future best friend Anna (Erika Scott).

She finally breaks out of her shell for Anna and tells her what happened when she was held in that slaughterhouse for an entire year, which included being terrorized by a shadowy, croaking female figure (Isabelle Chasse) who Lucie mutilated and (apparently) the vengeful spirit of one of her fellow prisoners. She begs Anna not to tell anyone, and her friend agrees.

Fifteen years pass and Lucie (now played by Mylène Jampanoï) shows up at the door of the Belfond household one fine morning at breakfast, shotgun in hand. She starts bucking until the whole family is dead and then calls Anna. She arrives at the scene and is obviously horrified by what she sees.

Lucie tells her that the Belfonds were part of the group that kidnapped her all those years ago and that she recognized them after seeing their faces on TV. The female character shows up again to attack Lucie, and that’s when Anna finds out that the sporadic ghost is just a hallucination and that her best friend is actually a homicidal maniac who has been mutilating herself this entire time.

You’ll have to see for yourself what happens next. Let’s just say it doesn’t end well for anyone, including the viewer. It is hard, unwavering and will be etched in your memory for all time. All the performances are great and you can’t help but feel sympathy for each character – which makes it all the more difficult to watch helplessly as their fate brutally unfolds.

martyr appeared at the beginning of the New French Extremity movement, but Laugier rejects this label for his film. No matter what anyone says, this film is French and it’s as extreme as it gets. Not only martyr one of the best horror films of the 21st century^st Century, but it will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.

Walk the path to martyrdom on TUBI and keep doubting, but see if you can watch the trailer first:

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

If the last feature didn’t drive most of you out of here, this closer will certainly clear up the rest of the room. Here is the legendary blood festival from 1980, Cannibal Holocaustby the late Duke of Controversies, Ruggero Deodato. I don’t want to hold the door, but every horror nerd with something spooky is at least familiar with this infamous classic, even if they don’t have the backbone to watch it themselves – not that anyone can judge it too harshly.

This film is quite rough and like a hot needle to the soft eyes of sensitive viewers. To all those who cannot stand the sight of injured animals: now is the time to abandon my ship, for we are headed to the Green Inferno and there will be no turning back.

An NYU anthropologist, Professor Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman), heads to the South American rainforest to track down a missing film crew. They were last seen leaving the Colombian town of Leticia, deep in the jungle on the border between Brazil and Peru. These high-spirited children were there to document the existence of cannibal tribes in the more inhospitable parts of the jungle. He comes to meet the suspicious tribesmen and even helps them fight a war with an enemy tribe.

Professor Monroe gains their trust and discovers that the film crew has embraced the evil side of these man-eating jungle creatures and paid the ultimate price. He finds that their bones hang in a morbid, horrific way, along with their undamaged film equipment on the ground below, and that the tribes performed rituals to cleanse the jungle of their spirits. After tasting most of the man-made delicacies, Monroe is allowed to leave with the doomed crew’s footage.

He brings the film back to New York and presents it to his colleagues. It describes the false journey of ace director Alan Yates (Gabriel Yorke), his unhappy girlfriend and “screenplay girl” Faye Daniels (Francesca Ciardi), and his equally stupid friends Jack Anders (Perry Pirkanen) and Mark Tomaso (Luca Giorgio Barbareschi), who are called Cameramen act. I won’t spoil the moronic decisions these people make that lead them to their hideous fate, but let’s just say it’s hard to feel sorry for them (especially after what they do to poor Mr. Turtle ).

Their first mistake was going there and the second was not leaving even though it was obvious they weren’t welcome in those areas, but they really screwed themselves up (BUH-DUM-TSSS) by leaving the Angered locals. Even if the consequences of their actions are not unfounded, it is still not pretty to look at.

Cannibal Holocaust triggered the entire planet upon its release. The film was banned in several countries and Deodato was even charged with murder unless he could prove that the actors were still alive. This film continues to generate excitement and remains the best found footage horror film of all time. It’s available for free on Peacock if you’re brave enough to watch it.

Or be a wimp and just watch the trailer:

READ MORE: Heading into Halloween Night 12: “Night Of The Creeps” and “The Deadly Spawn”

This article was mentioned: Bounding Into Halloween Cannibal Holocaust Found Footage Grindhouse Horror Italian Horror New French Extemity October Ruggiero Deodato Violence

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