'Martyrs' ending explained: 'Keep doubting' is the key. UPDATED

I've often wondered if it is merely as simple as Anna told the truth on what she saw, and she saw the truth. I wonder if the point is that the truth is beyond our understanding and we are as of yet too young in spirit to know what lies beyond death for us... Madame & the cult's actions would be proof of that.

Maybe it was the point that by Martyr-ing herself Anna was able to ascend to a point of devine understanding, something Madame and the others would be unable to do becaue of the sins they allow themselves to become guilty of in their quest to answer their questions. What a twist, to think that all the efforts Madame and the cult put in to their quest were in fact the very reasons they would never see or understand the answers for themselves. I think it is a lot more likely (when you think of the power of metaphor and symbolism in the film - not to mention how it challenges the line between right and wrong) that the point was actually that Anna was an innocent, Martyred by something more powerful and unimaginable than madame and her cult, to bring a message to the cult that would be the beginning of their demise.

I don't think the film makes such a point of the torture and physical extremeties Anna suffers for the sake of her HUMANITY winning out, I think it goes as far as it does to impress on the audience that it takes something devine to combat the evil in humanity.

Maybe it's just me, but it is worth thinking on.

[deleted]

I tend to agree with the OP; I thought Anna was seeking vengeance by purposely lying to Ms. (Afterall, does Anna not see a somewhat heavenly looking otherworld with blue backdrop and a white light? Very similar to my own NDE, FWIW). If Anna told her the truth, then I highly doubt Ms. Afterlife Obsessed would go kill herself; I mean she MUST believe in a heaven and hell- especially after being told that an afterlife exists... if anything, she would spend the rest of her days on Earth trying to redeem the stuff she did/paid ppl to do to all of those girls- result to anything BUT selfish acts. The way she looked and talked right before shooting herself seemed a tad morose.. possibly even "defeated?" It seems the most logical conclusion- and telling her friend to "keep doubting," I don't think she'd say that in order to trick him, but to concede with his beliefs.

I think the directors aimed to give the audience a somewhat hopeful ending after putting them through nearly 2 hours of misery: Retribution, plain and simple.


Look at how happy you are, so carefree. It's almost as if you don't know you're Billy Bush!-Triumph

There is some substance to this theory and I, for one, appreciate the thought put into it. I still find the ending to be open for interpretation to viewers. The "problem" I have with your theory is the look of Mademoiselle as Anna was giving her testimony. Mademoiselle had a look of someone gaining intense knowledge.
"Keep doubting" is indeed the clue...but we do not know what she is referring to in this statement. Is the person she speaking to one that has reservations within the cult on the absolute truth behind the visions?
Why would she say "keep doubting" to a believer?

The trouble with this interpretation is that it buys into the idea that Anna should "get revenge" on the cult or "win" at the end of the film. It's understandable that people feel this way, having seen some of the atrocities they've committed in pursuit of their goal, but I think it kind of misses the point.

Lucie went after her old tormentors because getting revenge was all she could think about, and it ultimately destroyed her - that's why her "demon" kept attacking her even after she'd killed them, because that's what anger and vengeance does to you. It was different for Anna - the turning point of the film is when she remembers (or imagines) a conversation with Lucie where she tells her to "let yourself go" and stop being afraid. Anna achieves this herself, and thus stops struggling when she's subjected to further abuse and torture. Why? Because from that point on, it doesn't matter - she's liberated herself, mentally and emotionally, and she's basically in a place where they can't hurt her any more. By the end of the film she's not thinking about revenge, because she's risen above it.

I like to think that perhaps this was the realization that Mademoiselle comes to at the end - that in the "transfigured" state they'd pushed Anna to, the cult and their petty quest for answers were ultimately meaningless.

Here's the real ending of Marytrs explained:

- the filmmakers were hacks who had no ending, but they knew if they put up something vague and pretentious, people - like all of us on this board - would fall all over ourselves trying to impose "meaning" on it.

This movie is no different than some phony "artist" taking half an hour to glue a few bolts together and waiting for people to say "Oh, this is an existential statement on man's relation to machine" or "No, it's sybolic of the interconnectedness of all things imposed against a stark reality" blah-de-blah, wank-wank-wank.

That's what makes this movie so bad -- it's so reliant on absolute horsh*t. And - largely because it's French - people are afraid to call it out on its pretentiousness.

The whole basis of the cult is idiotic in the first place: they can't learn about the afterlife from people who haven't died. They torture people to near the point of death... but, they're still not dead, so they're still not in a position to give them the info they're seeking. It's like I drive you to the city limits of Albequerque but let you go no farther, then ask you to write me a report on what their capital building is like.

The whole basis for the torture is stupidity on its face, and it's implausible that such an organized cult would ever form around an idea with such an obvious flaw.

The filmmakers themselves have no idea what Anna said. They counted on the viewers to assume that it was something deep and profound. The filmmakers themselves have no idea why the Madamoiselle killed herself afterward -- they knew that'd be widely open to interpretation and, again, counted on you to IMPOSE a depth on their pointless shlock that the movie itself didn't have.

And, you've obliged.

There is no strength displayed, there is no "transcendence"... there's just a bunch of vagueness laid out so people can pretend it "means" something.

I mean, you have a nice interpretation there, but that's all it is, because the film itself has nothing to say. You've come up with something better than anything the movie provided. The filmakers owe you.

I truly hate this movie, and it's not because it's gory (I'm fine with that) and it's not because it's torture porn (not my favorite thing but I can hang with it if there's some point)... it's that it's so stupid and so reliant on us to impose a greatness upon it that the filmmakers lacked the talent and vision to put on it themselves. Instead of having a point, they just flung their arms wide and said "Impose profundity on me!" A door left open is as good as real "vision" to a pretentious hack.


This movie is no more than a bunch of cheap tactics nicely filmed. And it's probably the most completely overrated movie in horror history. I'm still bewildered that people don't see through the scam that this movie is. I've seldom been more disappointed in a film. It looks nice, it's well made as far as filmmaking and acting and special effect go, but beyond that it's one massive nothing.

Been thinking about this all night and all day. All I can come up with is the follow due to personal reasoning and no degrees in psychology.
Before the third act and after all of us have tired of seeing this girl brutalized she hears her dead friends voice and we know that she has done amazingly well to make it so far, strong of mind body and spirit. Getting skinned alive is just about as far as the director can now go, it's the final insult to the viewer. Then it's time for all the crap to stop and for us to see what's going on and have things turned around or what's the point.
I think that Anna was strong enough of mind body soul and will to communicate whatever she said to the evil bitch, and that information caused her to make that final decision to kill herself. Her own evil was her undoing and I'm choosing to think that nobody else had to get tortured and who cares what happens to the cult after this because we've all endured enough. You need some form of uplift, and I think that final shot of her was the serenity of victory after all the abuse, she had succeeded.

You can't have a film like this and go from depression to depression to ambiguous depression, you can't watch someone brutalized and not have a payoff. The end credits music, the music is uplifting, this indicates that it's all over now and the abuse that was endured was not for nothing.

I don't think she comitted suicide out of dissapointment that there is no afterlife. If Anna had told Mademoiselle there was nothing then she would probably fear death.
The way I see it was that Anna tells Mademoiselle about the beauty of the afterlife. Knowing that Mademoiselle, in her quest for the afterlife, would most likely invite death upon herself to be part of that beauty. She says "Keep doubting" because she doesn't doubt anymore. She's convinced that there's something to look forward to now.
Notice Mademoiselle's face when she listens to Anna's whispering. That's not dissapointment but curiousness and interest.

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