Review of Martyrs (2015) by Karen S — 13 Feb 2016

My idea of a good horror movie is one that leaves you feeling uneasy. If you forget the movie 30 minutes after you've seen it, it failed. The original Martyrs was dark and disturbing. It stuck with you, thus it was a great horror movie.

A good horror flick must have an element of realism, this could happen, it could happen to me. Taking all that into account, and considering how awful 95% of horror movies are today, this was good. I even jumped a couple of times in the first half, yes, a pleasant surprise.

This version of Martyrs was almost as good as the first in my opinion, although it had much less of an emotional impact. I own the French DVD. The gore was not over the top in this, neither was the violence, but it was adequate.

The Exorcist had no gore and it was scary as hell. The acting in Martyrs was excellent, it was well made, and the soundtrack was good. I've watched thousands of horror flicks since the mid 60's and this film has received very unfair criticism.

I'm not sure what people consider horror anymore. Re-makes never jolt you as much as the original, but this one had a different story line, so it wasn't entirely predictable. I enjoyed it.