SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
pointyfilippa
The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.
Keeley Coleman
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
christinapichler
Being a huge fan of the French 2008 movie "Martyrs", I had strong doubts about the quality and necessity of a remake. Still I tried to push all those negative feelings aside and give the movie a fair shot. Like the original, it starts out when the young girl Lucy escapes from a terrible situation unknown to the viewer. She lands in an orphanage where she meets her best friend Anna while being haunted from the past. Ten years later, Lucy kills a family claiming they are her former capturers. One aspect I love about the French version is, it basically consists of two stories with the turnaround in the middle of the movie. The remake adapts the first half of the film more or less faithfully though clearly worse than the original and the second half deviates completely from it. With those drastic changes it feels more like one consisting story rather than two. They tried to create a new story instead of copying the French movie shot for shot and the attempt of doing so I appreciate about it. Still the second part fells illogical and is a mess. For me it does not work and felt even cheesy sometimes. The acting is not exceptional but also not terrible. It has some beautifully shot scenes but there is some shaky cam in it which is bothering. Furthermore the movie is a lot less violent and gory which basically is okay but leads to some illogical moments in the second half. Also there are some genuinely boring moments considering the short running time and overall it is a lot less emotional than Pascal Laugier's Martyrs. Especially an aspect from Lucy's struggle with the past is left unresolved and you care a lot less about her. Over all, I think someone who has not seen the French version or does not like extremely brutal movies can watch this toned down version and might actually enjoy it for its story. Fans of the New French Extremity masterpiece should stay away from the remake and everybody else I clearly advise to check out the former one!
Argemaluco
Even though I watched the original Martyrs various years ago, it's a film which is impossible to forget. That's why I knew beforehand that its North American remake would never reach the same levels of violence, intensity and anguish reached by the French version... something I would have tolerated if co-directors Kevin and Michael Goetz had respected the spirit of that brilliant film and its overwhelming atmosphere of cruelty and hopelessness. Unfortunately, that was the first thing which got lost in this "light" version, which could basically be considered "PG-13" if it wasn't for some moderately bloody scenes, which could have been eliminated without any problem, because they don't fix all the things which were decomposed in this diluted interpretation. And that's where my comparison between both versions ends because, to be fair, Martyrs (2008) didn't receive too much diffusion, and I estimate that Martyrs (2015) will be a novelty for many spectators, so I will do my best to evaluate it on its own merits. I found it a bad film, but I will at least grant it that courtesy. To start with, I found the screenplay of Martyrs (2015) poorly written, specially during the second half, when something happens which brusquely alters the premise and introduces absurd concepts, until getting to an insipid conclusion. Among the very few positive things I can say about this remake, I can mention the decent performances from Troian Bellisario and Bailey Noble. Despite them, I found Martyrs (2015) an absolute waste of time. Even taking it as an individual horror film, it's an absolute failure. Anyway... I hope the next step isn't some remake of À l'intérieur suitable for the family schedule of Lifetime.
FlashCallahan
And that's the only reason I can think of as to why anybody would even begin to think of remaking, re-imagining, cashing in on an out of the blue, fresh, sadistic horror that really had a lasting effect.And it's made for those people who balk at the idea of watching a movie with subtitles (we all know someone who won't watch a subtitled film, and to be honest, I feel so sorry for them, as they are missing some of the best pieces of cinema ever made).And lets not forget, it's also a good way to cash in on an already successful film, because there are sadists out there who want to see how much they have ruined a film they genuinely love (and believe me, I paid to see the recent Point Break remake.....Point fake if you would).So if you haven't seen the wonderful original, stop reading this and do yourself a favour. Or if you are one of those ignorant people, shame on you and the plot goes along these lines....Ten-year-old Lucie flees from an isolated warehouse where she has been held prisoner. Deeply traumatised, she is plagued by 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 traumatised, she finally tracks down the people that tortured her.As she and Anna move closer to the truth, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare that resembles her past trauma, and if they cannot escape, the titular fate awaits them....It's a very pointless remake, and it's directed lazily, with poor performances from most of the cast. Bellisario and Noble are quite good as the titular characters, but the material that they are given just resorts them to screaming and looking in shock for the majority of the second and third act.The originals final act was shocking, the narrative really came into it's own, and it was explained to great lengths, which enhanced the quite sinister subject matter.Here, it's explained quite briefly by a fourth rate Meryl Streep wannabe, and when the 'money shot' is finally upon us, your already getting your copy of the original Blu Ray out of it's case and ready to put in your machine.It's not a very good film, it's lazily made, and despite the two leads putting in okay performances, the rest of the cast bring them down.See the original.
glyptoteque
"Horror" for feeble-minded, vegetarian children. That is what this hollower-than-thou exercise in redundancy is. The funny thing is that the absolutely worthless directors behind this abomination calls this a re-imagining and not a remake. Let's face it, even though it's not a shot-by-shot remake, it still reeks to high heaven with the stink of remake all over it. But hey, by all means, call it a re-imagining instead and see if replacing a word with another actually makes any difference at all. Yeah, if you "reimagine", it almost sounds like you have genuine artistic vision and integrity. What a joke. The really sad thing is that this feeble filth would never have been made in the first place if Pascal Laugier hadn't had a momentary lapse of reason. Instead he decided in an absolute fit of ( greedy? ) insanity that his pearly vision of wounds and nothingness should be fondled and mangled by swinish hands, his diamond turned into simple glass.From deep existential philosophy in the spirit of Bataille, themes of the wordless suffering behind our words, non- knowledge in the immanent to this; a Hallmark soap-opera pretending to actually have a truly horrifying impact?!! Ha, ha,just sad. What the hell was he thinking?!!Every single aspect of this stillborn deformity is without any worth whatsoever, the perfected darkness you felt throughout the original is completely absent here, the profound suffering that screamed at you from every frame in the original is here replaced with cardboard characters, middle-of-the road actors that you know just puts on a momentary show of pain. Pain made palatable for the brain-dead children, pain made presentable enough to sell tickets. No real substance and no real darkness to be found here. Move on.In short, the one and only Martyrs was made in 2008. End of.
