I realize there are many fans of the French original, however as someone who has not seen it, I found the Martyrs remake to be darkly entertaining if not thin on plot. The performances from Troian Bellisario and Bailey Noble are both well done.
Martyrs
(2016)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Anchor Bay | NR – 86 min. – $26.99 | February 2, 2016
Date Published: 01/29/2015 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIE – 3.25/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Ten-year-old Lucie flees from the isolated warehouse where she has been held prisoner. Deeply traumatized, she is plagued by awful night terrors at the orphanage that takes her in. Her only comfort comes from Anna, a girl her own age. Nearly a decade later and still haunted by demons, Lucie (TROIAN BELLISARIO) finally tracks down the family that tortured her. As she and Anna (BAILEY NOBLE) move closer to the agonizing truth, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare – if they cannot escape, a martyr’s tale awaits them.
Quick Hit Review: I must confess, I didn’t know very much about Martyrs going in and didn’t even realize it was a remake of a popular 2008 French film, so on the onset I have say, I can’t compare the two but as it is, I actually didn’t think it was a bad little film. The acting is decent enough especially on the parts of the two female leads Troian Bellisario (“Pretty Little Liars”) and Bailey Noble (“True Blood”) aren’t bad. The suspense is also fairly well done, under the lens by The Goetz Brothers (Scenic Route), especially early on though the film does lose quite a bit of steam as it sprinted towards the finish line. Still, it would’ve easy to make this another torture horror film and instead it relies more on what isn’t seen than what is which sometimes can be more torturous.
In the end, is Martys a “good” movie? Of course not but I suspect the bulk of negative reviews comes from those comparing with the original however based on my limited research following my viewing, this is a loose remake and more described as a re-imagining. As such, I found it mostly, for the lack of a better word all things considered, entertaining. It’s probably worth a rental, not much more than that. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.0/5 |
| Not much here except a First Look (8:22; HD) behind-the-scenes featurette. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Anchor Bay Entertainment releases Martyrs onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Generally speaking it looks good with well balanced colors throughout despite being a darker film both in the story and tone. Black levels look stark showing no major signs of artifacts and detail was decent enough though not overly sharp. |
AUDIO – 4.5/5 |
| The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track provides for a relatively rich experience with crisp and clear dialogue levels end to end but when the action picks up, the LFE channel does pick up shaking the floor with fervor. It’s a rather dynamic sounding lossless track that is somewhat impressive for the type of movie this is. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, I realize there are many fans of the French original, however as someone who has not seen it, I found the Martyrs remake to be darkly entertaining if not thin on plot. The performances from Troian Bellisario and Bailey Noble are both well done and although I don’t really know how much of this I’ll remember a month from now, but if you can look past the original, and from my reading it diverges once past the opening, I think it’s not as terrible as others make it out to be. The Blu-ray released by Anchor Bay is thin on features yet the video and audio transfers are both good. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.
Oh, if you enjoyed this one you should really check out the original French Martys. A real good and dark horrorflick. Reccomanded if you like those kind of horror movies ofc. 🙂
Well, they’re not completely my kind of horror (more of the slasher type than Saw) but it is something I might check out in the future. Have to investigate, not sure if the French version is available here although I do have a Region B player.