MARTYRS (2016) **

The best things about Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs was its originality and bleak ending.  Well, the Goetz Brothers’ Martyrs is a remake and the ending has been changed.  So, what does that leave us with?  Not much I’m afraid.

As a young girl, Lucie (Troian Bellisario) suffered horrendous abuse and managed to somehow escape her tormentors.  Placed in an orphanage, Lucie grows up to be a disturbed young woman who runs away with her best friend Anna (Bailey Noble) to get revenge on her abusers.  Things take a turn for the worse when the real ringleaders of the abuse show up and… well… I’ll stop there.  

I firmly believe a movie should be able to stand on its own terms without being judged by what came before.  As much as I tried to divorce myself from the original, it was ultimately a futile gesture.  This Martyrs pales in comparison in just about every way.

In fact, if you’ve seen the original, there’s really no reason to see this one.  If you’re thinking about seeing this one, I’d advise you to stick with the original instead.  If you do wind up seeing this, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen as it’s competently put together and moderately watchable.  It’s just completely fucking redundant.

Again, I stress this isn’t exactly a bad film.  It’s just more of a hollow echo of the original.    The big issue is that the powerful ending has been changed (or ruined depending how you look at things).  If you go in with no prior knowledge of the original, it might work for you, but the watered-down happy(ish) ending ultimately does a disservice to the characters, not to mention the audience.  Say what you will about Laugier’s film, but that ending had balls.  This one is needlessly neutered.  (The first half follows the original fairly closely though.)  Fans of the original (or horror fans in general) are sure to be disappointed.  The teenaged sleepover crowd might eat it up.