Martyrs (2016) #424

"Marytrs" is the 2016 American remake of the 2008 extreme French film of the same name. As the trend with most remakes, the new version is rarely as good as the original. This film is both too much like the original and yet strays horribly astray when it tries to be different. The first half of the film feels like a shot for shot redo that scales back the intensity while the second half fails to deliver any scares and the story feels weak; the choice to write a new third act is commendable only if the new material actually adds to the established narrative because what takes place feels uncreative.

Besides having questionable story choices, the elements that makes the original do scary are either reduced or removed altogether. Why remake a tame version of a movie that is considered to be one of the more extreme films of the past ten years? It's a confounding move that doesn't do well for the film.

Lucie is a young girl who is being held captive and being systematically tortured in a rundown industrial building. She manages to escape but her captor is unable to be found. She is placed in an orphanage where she becomes close friends with Anna, a girl who's her age. Even though she physically heals, she is still tormented by a monster that only she can see. Ten years later, the two friends find Lucie's abusers but end up discovering something far more terrifying.