One of the most visually striking Canadian films in recent years, Robin Aubert’s baroque and eerie supernatural thriller Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés follows tabloid reporter Flavien Juste (François Chénier) as he investigates strange disappearances in a remote, rundown village. Sent there by his surrogate father, the paper’s editor, Flavien thinks it’s just another routine assignment. The tabloid regularly concocts stories about transsexual pig-men marrying hermaphrodites and the like, but the situation he’s about to enter is a lot weirder than the usual assortment of oddities and alien abductions

For one thing, there’s the lodge where he and his photographer pal Armand (Patrice Robitaille) are registered, and its bizarre proprietors: two women named Malvina (Monique Mercure, Monique Miller). There’s also the pair of oddball greasers who keep trying to provoke Flavien into a fight; or the aloof and winsome Tite-Fille (Isabelle Blais), who entertains her cattle by playing raunchy blues riffs; and the woman in the tattered wedding dress. Meanwhile, a man in a crude mask stalks Flavien as he searches for Armand, who has suddenly vanished on their very first night in town. And everyone in town seems disturbed by the sight of Flavien.

Propelled by a startling visual scheme that weds the creepiest of David Lynch and Todd Browning, the film oscillates between dark, dungeon-like imagery and nausea-inducing, blazing white light that mirrors Flavien’s perplexed state. Dreams, reality and hallucinations begin to intermingle, and before long he can’t even trust his own eyes.

More than just a conventional thriller, Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés smartly explores themes of identity and mortality, responsibility and paternity. Flavien is eventually forced to confront his own mysterious origins as well as accept some newfound responsibilities. These aren’t easy tasks for the jaded, ultra-rational reporter, who’s seen so many frauds he’s preternaturally determined to debunk anything that looks even remotely supernatural. Aubert, however, is wise enough to know that the issues he has Flavien dealing with are anything but straightforward. After all, what could be more mysterious than relationships with one’s past?

Steve Gravestock, Toronto International Film Festival

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