Martyrs



In a rundown factory district, a young bloody and beaten girl named Lucy is found running for her life. The police try to find the people who tortured her, but are unsuccessful and seem to have doubts about the girl’s story. The only person who seems to believe Lucy is Anna, the only friend the poor traumatized girl has seemed to be able to make at the orphanage. The two are thick as thieves and spend all their time together, with Anna even comforting Lucy when she’s terrorized by the ghosts of her past and the sadness she feels when no one else believes her.

Ten years later, Lucy finally tracks down the couple who horrifically tortured her as a child, hoping that by doing so it will end her years of torment. But instead of ending her pain it just ends up bringing all of her ghosts out of the woodwork, subjecting Anna to danger by dragging into her own personal hell as well.


Thanks, Lucy. This was just how I wanted to spend my weekend.

Martyrs is an American horror film from 2015, and is a remake of the 2008 French/Canadian co-production of the same name. The original French film is a brutal, emotionally draining experience, and while it’s certainly not a film for everyone’s taste, it’s easy for me to see why it so quickly made it onto so many “best of” horror lists. It’s the kind of film you may very well walk away hating, but would still have to begrudgingly admit that it was an effective, if soul crushing horror experience. The “Americanized” version of Martyrs, on the other hand, is unlikely to make it onto any such list. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not necessarily a bad film. Certainly not bad enough to warrant the “worst horror remake ever” label that I’ve seen so many people throw around (I think that derivative Cabin Fever remake or the Jacob’s Ladder re-imagining would top my list). In fact, it made a couple small changes that I actually kinda liked. It’s just that the original film ended up being so fiercely powerful that trying to recapture that experience in any way was just never going to work. Like, EVER. Hell, even Blumhouse producer Jason Blum, whose company financed the film, admitted that a remake was rather pointless and that it “never should have existed.”

Ouch.


This was probably what Blum threatened to do to whoever thought the remake was a good idea.

The biggest change between the two movies involves the second half of the story, and it is extremely difficult to talk about the plot of Martyrs (either version) without completely borking the viewer’s experience, so please forgive me for being vague. Up until about the halfway point both films are remarkably similar. Maybe not to the point where I’d call it a ‘shot-for-shot’ retread, because the remake does mix it up a little, but it’s pretty damn close. Some of the scenes are altered, cut entirely or shortened down, because the remake ends up being around 13 minutes shorter than the earlier film, but beyond that it’s a pretty faithful adaptation up to the halfway mark, often to the point where you can tell that they were still using the original script in places. And both films even follow the same pattern of a “twist” at approximately the film’s midpoint where Lucy’s kidnapper’s true motives are finally revealed.


I think someone’s been watching too much Men In Black.

But it’s at this point where the film’s stories drastically diverge. The half-way point of the original is meant to feel like a sharp divide from the first, with the beginning being focused on revenge and mental trauma, and the second half being meant to feel like an emotional gut-punch filled with bleak horror and helplessness. But American films tend to not like to go as dark as the original Martyrs went, so while the second half of the remake keeps the same general idea alive, it also adds in a sense of self satisfaction and hopefulness to the ending. And while I think the changes are unoriginal and predictable and feel like a typical “Americanized” ending, it still ends up ultimately being “okay.” Not great, or even good, mind you, just okay. But (!), it also doesn’t even come anywhere close to respecting the spirit of the French film, so I can see why a lot of people wouldn’t like it.


I shall use this sewer pipe to symbolize what some people think of this film.

The other, likely very predictable, change has to do with the violence. Although this particular remake does something interesting, in that though we don’t end up seeing nearly as much blood or gore as the French film, the American film actually somehow ends up being more violent. Which I was actually kind of surprised by, especially considering how many reviews claimed the reduction of violence as a sticking point. But that’s not exactly true. The real difference between the two films is not so much a lack of violence, but rather that the violence has merely mutated. In the original the violence has a more raw, primal “wow, this is royally f&#%d up” feel, while the remake veers more towards the American standard of “stab, stab, bang, bang.” Which I guess some Americans have become desensitized to, but that still doesn’t mean the movie is any less “violent”. Yeah, the blood and gore are reduced significantly and most of the violence occurs off-screen (damn cheap Blumhouse budgets), but the remake actually walks away with a higher body count, easily doubling that of the original, which is actually kind of impressive.



Other than that, the remake is rather competently made. It sounds great, beyond a couple of instances of questionable camera work it looks lovely, and the acting is decent for what it is. I’ve seen a couple of claims to the contrary regarding that last point, but I don’t think it’s true. Most of those claims seem to be comparing the acting to the original, but that’s kinda disingenuous. The acting isn’t bad compared to the original, it’s just not as intense. But the remake also wasn’t trying to be as intense either, so it fits in just fine.



So the verdict on Martyrs is that it’s…fine? I mean, it’s not necessarily what I’d call a great film, it copies too much, the ending isn’t all that impressive, and it can’t hold a candle to the emotional impact that the original will likely induce, but I don’t think it quite deserves the abysmal 9% score it has on Rotten Tomatoes, either. Don’t get me wrong, if given the option you should definitely see the original film over this, as it is by far the superior product. But the original is also the kind of film that’s extremely polarizing in a “you’ll either love it or (really) hate it” sort of way. And it’s also the kind that risks putting you and a crippling depressive state once it’s over. So if you’re not the kind of person who thinks they can handle the dark nihilism or visceral gore of the original, but you still kinda wanna get the general idea, then the remake of Martyrs might be a more appetizing alternative.

Martyrs is available on a variety of streaming services.

Martyrs is also available on DVD and Bluray.

Helpful Links: