‘Possum’ and ‘Martyrs’: Cinema Visualizing Trauma
Spoilers Ahead!
Pascal Laugier’s 2008 Martyrs and Matthew Holness’ 2018 Possum are popular titles among the niche community of cinephiles with a penchant for so-called “disturbing movies”. As the name explains, this subgenre focuses on flicks that are known to be particularly disturbing, either for their graphic content or for their more subtle and yet equally disturbing psychological content. A number of such titles are horror movies, but that is not a prerequisite for a title to be dubbed “disturbing” (Todd Solondz’s Happiness being a prime — and infamous — example).
Among the fans of the genre, you can find all sorts of tastes: there are people who simply wallow in the gore and excess they are gratuitously offered, such as die-hard fans of the franchise Human Centipede. There are also the “artsy” ones: true cinephiles who will delight in the heightened drama and vibrant cinematography of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Some are in between: lovers of gore who don’t mind more substance in the storyline. Some are simply after new, more original forms of cinematic storytelling. The combinations are almost endless.
