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Originally Posted by Sculpt
Just a quick followup.. You mentioned you showed it to your folks. What'd they think of it?
I been reading some reviews of it, they seem pretty polarize, between saying, at the conclusion of the film, it's nihilistic or " one leaves the theatre more enamoured with humanity than ever". I don't take any pleasure watching 'torture' in any form, but as a horror fan, it's not the issue. I'd certainly consider it if it was meaningful, but not if it's ultimately nihilistic.
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I assume you're asking about Inside because that's the one I showed my parents. However, it sounds like you're describing Martyrs.
So... Inside...
My parents didn't have a lot of words to say afterwards. My dad tried to make a joke, but neither parent was particularly chatty, which leads me to believe they just wanted to move on and forget about it.
Based on your comment about torture, I'm not sure that you'd like this film. It doesn't actually really have any torture in it, but let's just say that the level of physical and psychological stress that the main character endures is way up there. The movie most certainly has meaning, but that depends on the individual's interpretation. One conclusion that can be drawn is somewhere near the the opposite of nihilism, as long as you can either empathize with the antagonist, or draw broader conclusions from her actions. Her value of life is so overwhelming that she is willing to destroy anyone in her path. I don't want to say any more than that though.
If... you're asking about Martyrs...
Martyrs, I imagine would be even more polarizing. Inside, is essentially a slasher, but one that bastardizes the formula (as the French are currently doing). Martyrs, on the other hand, takes elements from a variety of horror subgenres, but the end result is a whole new beast. IMO there's not another movie like it. This one does include torture, and a lazy analysis would be to dismiss it because of that. Also, unlike, say, Saw, where perhaps some of the fun is watching the various ways people get trapped and killed, there's no pleasure whatsoever to be had in the torturous scenes in Martyrs. Instead, it's an exhausting experience for the viewer. The theme explored is whether or not one can experience a level of pain beyond what you could possibly imagine, to the point where the only means of existence is to embrace the pain and rise to a new level of existence. Forcing the viewer to endure this is essentially a parallel experiment on the viewer. I won't spoil the ending, but it's intentionally vague, and a variety of conclusions could be drawn from it. This, and the difficult subject matter and imagery are sure to result in some pretty polarizing opinions. Based on your comment about torture though, I would not recommend watching it.