A few years back, when I started delving into the more extreme world of horror, me and my flat mate at he time decided to watch french horror film Martyrs. It was a humbling experience, a film you can't sit there and say "I loved that film I will watch it again and again", It is the type of film which makes you think, makes you say to your self "o.....kay......what did I just experience"
So imagine my surprise when it was announce that there was going to be an american remake of the film, it was indeed a moment of WTF why?!. It is a thing we see alot in cinema and it will never change, and I am even sure the US will remake A Serbian Film which will be an awful idea.
You can't not compare this version to the 2008 original, the feel of the two films are totally different and the overall feeling when the film is over is so so much different. While the original left me silent for a while this remake just left me thinking, 'on its own merits it was a decent horror thriller.
Martyrs (2016) is a thriller, done well and well shot but this is if you review this as a film which was never seen before. It screams modern horror viewer and is probably the only way alot of film watchers will experience the film. On saying this let me cover some of my thoughts of this film as if it was indeed a solo standing on its on merits film.
It was raw in the right places, the tortured soul of Lucie came across well in her later years. The build was suspenseful and points and the torture scenes were brutal yet watered down. The Anna character didn't gel with me unfortunately, coming across as your run of the mill horror character till the very end. The film felt rushed near the climax but works fine overall.
As a whole Martyrs is a very watchable film, you won't get the same feeling from the original film and the violence is very toned down , however many people wouldn't have watched it or possibly even heard of it until now. The start of the film is pretty close to the original however the closing half is much different than the 2008 version, which is in a way good and bad depending on how you like your remakes. I would suggest watching the original more but this is my opinion and if you are not a fan of French cinema then this is a good way of catching the story but why wouldn't you want to watch a french horror masterpiece is beyond me.
So imagine my surprise when it was announce that there was going to be an american remake of the film, it was indeed a moment of WTF why?!. It is a thing we see alot in cinema and it will never change, and I am even sure the US will remake A Serbian Film which will be an awful idea.
You can't not compare this version to the 2008 original, the feel of the two films are totally different and the overall feeling when the film is over is so so much different. While the original left me silent for a while this remake just left me thinking, 'on its own merits it was a decent horror thriller.
Martyrs (2016) is a thriller, done well and well shot but this is if you review this as a film which was never seen before. It screams modern horror viewer and is probably the only way alot of film watchers will experience the film. On saying this let me cover some of my thoughts of this film as if it was indeed a solo standing on its on merits film.
It was raw in the right places, the tortured soul of Lucie came across well in her later years. The build was suspenseful and points and the torture scenes were brutal yet watered down. The Anna character didn't gel with me unfortunately, coming across as your run of the mill horror character till the very end. The film felt rushed near the climax but works fine overall.
As a whole Martyrs is a very watchable film, you won't get the same feeling from the original film and the violence is very toned down , however many people wouldn't have watched it or possibly even heard of it until now. The start of the film is pretty close to the original however the closing half is much different than the 2008 version, which is in a way good and bad depending on how you like your remakes. I would suggest watching the original more but this is my opinion and if you are not a fan of French cinema then this is a good way of catching the story but why wouldn't you want to watch a french horror masterpiece is beyond me.
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