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A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Spoilers in this review so be prepared.
The small description of the movie doesn't even touch upon the actual idea behind the movie itself. The best way to describe this movie is to represent a small fraction of how far humanity will go to find out what's beyond death....the other side..."transcendence".
This French film is about an occult that kidnaps young women so that they can torture them to the point that they'll "transcend" into a state of mind that will give them evidence of the other side, but to what I was glad to see, the torture isn't some ridiculous bloody gore fest. Its more of a physical abuse, malnutrition, psychological torture that goes into a specific length in time, separated into three phases.
The film begins with a girl (Lucie) that manages to escape this hidden occult in the beginning stages of the abuse. She ends up at an orphanage where she is befriended by another girl (Anna) until they eventually age old enough to get out of the orphanage. Lucy eventually ends up finding the people that abused her and kills them all in their own home with a shotgun. She tells Anna of what she did as Anna arrives at the scene, sees the carnage and fears that Lucy might have killed the wrong people.
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Anna later discovers that the mother is still alive and tries to help her escape. Unfortunately, the two are discovered by Lucie, who bludgeons the mother to death. Lucie is again attacked by the scarred creature, but all Anna sees is Lucie banging her head against the wall and cutting herself with a knife; the 'creature' is nothing more than a psychological manifestation of Lucie's guilt for leaving behind another girl who was also imprisoned and tortured with her as a child. Lucie tells the apparition that she killed its tormentors and that it can rest, but it has no effect. Lucie finally realizes that her insanity will never leave her and slits her throat. She dies in Anna's arms.
The creature Lucie sees is pretty damn freaky and gets under your skin. The special affects, music, and mood is very well done and starts from the very beginning. It draw you into the film very quickly.
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The next day, after mourning her friend's death, Anna attempts to clean up the house and discovers a secret underground chamber. Imprisoned within is a horribly tortured woman, covered in scars, with a strange metal contraption nailed to her head. While Anna attempts to care for her and clean her wounds, a group of strangers arrive and shoot the woman dead. Captured by the menacing newcomers, Anna meets their leader, an elderly lady only referred to as Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle explains that she belongs to a secret society seeking to discover the secrets of the afterlife through the creation of "martyrs". She also explains that their society was responsible for Lucie's childhood kidnapping, as she was one of their earlier test subjects. Their experiments inflict systematic acts of torture upon young women in the belief that their suffering will result in a transcendental insight into the world beyond this one. So far, all of their attempts have failed, and they have only created "victims".
Anna becomes their latest subject and is imprisoned in a chamber. After an unspecified period, during which she is repeatedly beaten and degraded, Anna hallucinates a conversation with Lucie, who tells her to "let go" so she won't be afraid any more. Soon after, Anna is told she has progressed further than any other test subject, and has reached the "final stage" and will suffer no more. Anna is taken to a surgeon and is flayed alive. She survives the procedure, entering a state that is described as being "euphoric" and likened to achieving transcendence. Mademoiselle arrives, eager to speak to Anna about her experience. Anna turns to her and whispers into her ear.
Members of the society begin gathering at the house to learn of the insights Anna shared with Mademoiselle. As Mademoiselle prepares herself, a doubting member asks her if what Anna said was clear and precise. Mademoiselle replies that there is no room for interpretation, and asks him if he could imagine what comes after death. When he says no, she tells him to "keep doubting" and places a pistol in her mouth and shoots herself. An intertitle informs the audience that "martyr" is Greek for "witness".
Anna becomes their latest subject and is imprisoned in a chamber. After an unspecified period, during which she is repeatedly beaten and degraded, Anna hallucinates a conversation with Lucie, who tells her to "let go" so she won't be afraid any more. Soon after, Anna is told she has progressed further than any other test subject, and has reached the "final stage" and will suffer no more. Anna is taken to a surgeon and is flayed alive. She survives the procedure, entering a state that is described as being "euphoric" and likened to achieving transcendence. Mademoiselle arrives, eager to speak to Anna about her experience. Anna turns to her and whispers into her ear.
Members of the society begin gathering at the house to learn of the insights Anna shared with Mademoiselle. As Mademoiselle prepares herself, a doubting member asks her if what Anna said was clear and precise. Mademoiselle replies that there is no room for interpretation, and asks him if he could imagine what comes after death. When he says no, she tells him to "keep doubting" and places a pistol in her mouth and shoots herself. An intertitle informs the audience that "martyr" is Greek for "witness".
Although this is basically the entirety of the movie, watching it is an entirely different level of psychological questioning that the characters them self experience; if Lucy killing the right people....is it right to finish off the mother.....is Anna gonna make it out....will one of the workers let her escape....what is it that she sees.....etc etc
But most of it it leaves a realistic type of feeling at the idea of "what will humanity do to find out whats on the other side? how far will they go?" and even though its just a movie, there are numerous instances of occults doing this and it leaves you with a scary feeling of whats out there and how easily people can fall into the traps behind the thinking of what drives these occults.
Upon writing this review and thinking back on what it was trying to protray and how it portrayed it....then I guess it does deserve an A >_>.....Shhh quiet Chase. I know you're secretly laughing!
I think it gets a B, but that's just my person feeling on the matter. The ending makes total sense, but it just leaves an unsatisfying taste in my mouth for reasons I can't really explain? Or not really sure how to explain.
On a letter rating from A-F I give this movie a letter grade between B- and A+. It's good to at least see once, but it's not something I would care to own or watch again.
