MovieChat Forums > Martyrs (2008) Discussion > Near Death Experiences

Near Death Experiences

posted 9 years ago by schall1991
4 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I though Martyrs was a great film. It had a few surprising twists and some very powerful visuals. With that being said, the whole near death experience thing kind of ruined the movie. The secret society of so-called "philosophical intellectuals" apparently weren't so intelligent. I thought this was common logic, but if one wants to figure out what happens in the afterlife (if by some miracle that's a thing) you would actually have to die. A "near death" experience is not even close to dying. True death involves never coming back to report on it. How could this secret philosophical society lack such common logic? Near death is not the same as death. A mole is not the same thing as stage 4 cancer. "Almost" getting in a car wreck is not actually an accident. See my point? Martyrs was a pretty solid horror flick and I would definitely watch it again, but the whole twist and ending was REALLY dumb and could have been made a lot stronger. Perhaps it's a cultural thing, I have no clue... But anyway, French horror films always kick ass but have terrible twists. Does anyone remember High Tension? Lol

[–] carl_johnson-1 9 years ago

I think they know that. Otherwise, they'd have just had all sorts of run-of-the-mill NDEs going on with all sorts of people. Madame has not only done her research, but tested out her theories. She's quite scientific about it and now knows exactly what she's looking for. She found a way to The Truth.

[–] schall1991 9 years ago

There was honestly nothing scientific about the study. Perhaps pseudoscientific, I'll agree to that.

[–] panman87 9 years ago

The cult member at the end specifically says this is not a near-death experience, but rather "authentic martyrdom" (a fictional concept for the movie).

[–] aaron42o 9 years ago

I think your argument is missing the "Martyrdom" element. Yes, you could technically argue that a near-death experience is not "actual death" since the experiencer came back, but in this movie, they're coupling that near-death experience with extreme suffering and transcendence, as depicted in the movie.

If, for example, someone got randomly and quickly shot in the head, had an NDE, then came back with minimal recovery time and hardly any bodily damage or suffering, then the argument could be made that they weren't martyrs because they didn't "suffer."