MovieChat Forums > Martyrs (2008) Discussion > Why didn't she call the cops?

Why didn't she call the cops?

posted 9 years ago by VivienCastro
16 replies | jump to latest

This is the only thing that bothered me in this movie, which I very much enjoyed. Why wouldn't Anna call the cops and ambulance as soon as she found that girl in the basement?

She could easily tell them the truth about everything without facing any punishment since now its easy to prove that the people killed were her friend's kidnapers, although she tried to help Lucie clean up, I doubt she would be considered anything but a hero.

And considering he person she is, she would think that helping out the basement girl is the most important thing, and can't be that stupid to think she alone can help her, so I don't really see any motivation behind her not calling the cops.

[–] MaximusXXX 9 years ago

Time-wise it's tight. So maybe she would have if she had more time.

Destination: Rad-City

[–] VivienCastro 9 years ago

Not really. Wouldn't you call ambulance instantly rather than make a bath and bathe the woman, and all the other nonsense things she was doing. I mean I wouldn't dare to bathe her with her wounds. She was trying to mend her wounds herself, which is silly when you can just call the experts.

[–] terrytsilvester 9 years ago

I couldn't understand why she just didn't call the cops and then just run away.

[–] marshal-m-2009 9 years ago

It's perfectly natural to place yourself in the shoes of the protagonist, especially in a horror film. But you're ignoring the traits of the main character as portrayed in the actual story. Think about the things we learn about Anna throughout, and consider why she may have thrown away a promising future to devote herself to someone like Lucy in the first place.

[–] Connor_Kenway 9 years ago

She could easily tell them the truth about everything without facing any punishment since now its easy to prove that the people killed were her friend's kidnapers, although she tried to help Lucie clean up, I doubt she would be considered anything but a hero.

Yeah, no. Even though she didn't pull the trigger like Anna, she was very much an accessory to her crime. She would've been charged just as bad as her friend, because she was dead, therefore there was no one else to take the punishment, and someone always needs to take the punishment. She would have an equally hard time trying to convince any law enforcement officers, that she wasn't partaking in the murders, considering all the blood on her, and the fingerprints she had left.

Regardless of that, I just don't think she knew where to go from there. Her first and foremost job, was to help that other girl. She was the only thing on her mind at that time, and I doubt she could've foreseen what was coming, considering they had been all alone in the house for days. In situations like these, it is essential that you think things through, before you involve any authorities, and the longer it took for her to do that, the worse it would make her look in front of a jury.

Wasn't she planning on dumping all the bodies down the big hole in the yard anyway? It was shady to say the least.

She was clearly in love with her friend too, and wouldn't want to do anything to put her in a bad position, which is why she helped her clean up and dump the bodies. Thus, she ultimately became an accessory to the crime.

[–] Sykozrus666 8 years ago

My biggest question was why they stayed in the house dragging bodies around to begin with

[–] AceRoccola 8 years ago

Yeah, the whole routine with the girl was ridiculous. She knew enough about treating and suturing wounds to care for Lucie. Why would she think that ripping metal hooks out of this girl's head would be healthy? The house had a working phone, she could have easily called an ambulance and gotten the girl real help.

But she didn't, because the plot called for them to stay at the house and be found by the villains. Because Pascal Laugier is a poor storyteller.

[–] FooserX 8 years ago

I felt like Anna thought the whole situation was beyond "cops" and the legal system.

It's been a while since I've seen it though. I think she thought she was relatively safe and that the house was semi-abandoned for the time being.

She was connected to the girl with the mask on her face in some sick way...she wanted to help her.

[–] VivienCastro 8 years ago

My issue isn't that Anna would not feel safe, it's that her intention to help the girl would naturally be best fulfilled by calling the cops. We know Anna was a good person who wanted to help, so I just don't understand why she'd think that for those injuries and trauma it was at all wise to try to even touch the girl. I mean, putting her in the bath, taking off that helmet, all those things could have additionally hurt her. Just call the cops, ambulance, let them fix her.

[–] Tayte 8 years ago

There is a girl captive with terrible wounds in some sort of a basement of a house. The house has 4 people including 2 kids. How less obvious is it that there are more people involved in it ?

[–] DTChau (79) 7 years ago

It was a bit odd but she was in deep shock and probably wasn't thinking straight.

[–] alex321 (66) 2 years ago

It's probably a combination of guilt and curiosity on top of being in a remote location that lead her to take the actions she took. Also, the shock at what she witnessed afterwards when discovering the woman being held captive. She obviously wanted to help her and didn't think the cops would have acted appropriately faced with this situation. There's also no point in making the movie if she called the cops and it ended there. We needed to have her become the ultimate martyr (according to the cult) to have the movie come to its conclusion about the cult's irrationality and effectively destroying it so no further "martyrs" could exist in the future.

[–] jcnyclv (1557) 2 years ago

Your point about not calling the police in this movie holds true for most horror films, especially nowadays. People complain (myself included) about the stupid things the characters do, which contribute to what happens to them, but if they didn't make stupid decisions, half the time the movie couldn't continue. There are very few horror films nowadays that don't depend on character stupidity.

In this particular case, I also think shock had a lot to do with how she proceeded.