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Martyrs Remake Pitched As 'The Ultimate Horror Movie'

The upcoming US remake of acclaimed French horror movie ‘Martyrs’ has been declared ‘the ultimate horror movie’ by an early piece of promo art.

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The 2008 film from writer-director Pascal Laugier might very well be the single most divisive and widely-discussed horror title of the past decade, declared a masterpiece by a great many fans and critics yet dismissed as pretentious, self-indulgent and sadistic by just as many others.

Noted for its extreme violence and nihilism, it starts out seeming like a fairly standard home invasion thriller, as two young women - one of them severely traumatised - break into an affluent house to take revenge on its tenants. However, things take a rather unexpected turn once the root of the trauma comes to light.

Laugier has since directed US horror ‘The Tall Man’ starring Jessica Biel.

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While it has undeniably proved a highly polarising film, ‘Martyrs’ would seem to be generally accepted as one of the key films in the wave of extreme French horror that emerged in the 2000s, alongside such other notable films as Alexandre Aja’s ‘Haute Tension’ (AKA ‘Switchblade Romance’/’High Tension’), Xavier Gens’ ‘Frontieres,’ and Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s ‘Inside.’

As such, plans for the film to be remade in the US have not been met with much enthusiasm from horror devotees. As early as 2010, ‘The Last Exorcism’ director Daniel Stamm was announced as being on board to direct the American take on Laugier’s film, with Kristen Stewart pitched as a potential lead.

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Obviously this did not come to pass (negative online reaction quite probably having some role to play in this), and the ‘Martyrs’ remake is now being handled by Wild Bunch and horror hitmakers Blumhouse Productions, with directorial duo Michael and Kevin Goetz (‘Scenic Route’) calling the shots.

The early promo art above, glimpsed at the European Film Market in Berlin (and shared by Bloody Disgusting), would certainly imply the filmmakers are very confident in their upcoming film.

On the one hand the slogan seems reminiscent of the posters for 2013’s ‘Evil Dead,’ which declared that remake ‘the most terrifying film you will ever experience’ - although that seemed to be a play on the original ‘Evil Dead’s tagline ‘the ultimate experience in grueling terror,’ with a substantial hint of sardonic humour in both instances.

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However, if there’s one thing the original ‘Martyrs’ most definitely does not contain, it’s a sense of humour - and, as such, we have to assume that Wild Bunch, Blumhouse and the Goetz Brothers are approaching the remake with a similar sensibility.

Either way, they’ve got their work cut out not only pleasing fans of the original, but also luring uninitiated viewers over to what isn’t necessarily the most commercial, crowd-pleasing story to ever grace the screen.

No cast or release date for the ‘Martyrs’ remake have yet been announced.

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Picture Credit: Studiocanal, Wild Bunch