Martyrs Lane Review (Film, 2021)
content warning: blood, animal death, child loss, grieving, death by suicide
Leah is the daughter of the town priest. She is a curious young girl, obsessed with the tiny details in day to day life. After having her Confirmation, she is visited by another little girl in a flowy dress and angel wings. The little girl plays games with her, sending Leah on scavenger hunts to help her find something she took and lost from her mother.
Martyrs Lane is an emotional religious horror/dark fantasy film. It sits in the same kind of mystical, spiritual adventure territory as Pan’s Labyrinth, Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural, and Mirrormask. The difference here is the heavy use of Christian, specifically Anglican, imagery.
Everyone in the story works with the local church. Her father is the priest and her mother does a lot of the administrative work. Leah and her older sister Bex have to help out. The neighbors all volunteer or work for the church as well. These are good, kind people that have their own way of worshipping within the rules of the church.
Outside of the church, they all have their own obsessions. Leah’s mom is fixated on her gold locket; so is Leah. Bex is counting down the days until she leaves for university. Their father wants to care for everyone. Edith, a neighbor, wants a blessing for everything and Lillian, another neighbor, wants everyone to feel special. Bex is the most forward in her desires, but everyone’s motivation runs far deeper than just being a good Christian.
Leah’s new friend is not without her motivations, as well. She’s cold from being outside in the night, so she asks to come in and warm herself in Leah’s room. She’s sad, so she wants to play games. The friend also wants Leah to do whatever she wants to do or else there will be unexpected consequences.
Leah is just happy to get some extra attention for once. Everyone is pulled in so many different directions by the church that they don’t always have time to focus on her. She’s only 10 years old, she has no friends her own age, and she has to stay on the church property at all times. She seeks adventure in everything she sees and her new little friend has plenty of it planned.
Writer/director Ruth Platt crafts an emotional horror film in Martyrs Lane. The focus on the beauty in the mundane means the mundane can transform into something extraordinary or terrifying in the blink of an eye. Even what we learn to trust about the rules of the games and life in the church can be flipped to a scene of unimagined horror. Leah’s just trying to get her mom’s locket put back together and starts experiencing genuine danger and even pain to fulfill her quest. It’s like a ritual in the church she’s never been taught that everyone starts whispering about but no one wants to actually discuss.
Martyrs Lane does go to some extremely dark and somber territory by the end. Platt’s approach feels safe and respectful to the story being told. Leah is a child, and this is a child’s first experience with some of the darker realities of growing up. Her Confirmation is a rite of passage into a more mature world where the lessons she’s learned from the Bible start to take on more personal, unsettling relevance to her own life.
Martyrs Lane is streaming on Shudder.