Film Review: MARTYRS LANE: A Ghostly Tale of Grief [Fantasia 2021]

Martyrs Lane Review

Martyrs Lane (2021) Film Review from the 25th Annual Fantasia International Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Ruth Platt, starring Kiera Thompson, Denise Gough, Steven Cree, Hannah Rae, Julie Barclay, Catherine Terris, Lianne Harvey, Anastasia Hille, and Sienna Sayer.

Layered in the decorous austerity of British horror classics but with a subtle heathen-like streak, Ruth Platt’s Martyrs Lane manages a confident tale of reconciliation and loss despite some thematic shortcomings.

In the English suburbs, the introverted and religious Leah (Kiera Thompson) finds ways to keep busy that won’t expose her to taunts from her rebellious older sister Bex (Hannah Rae) nor disapproval from her disconnected mother, Sarah (Denise Gough). The only person she can really connect to, both emotionally and spiritually, is her father Thomas (Steven Cree) – who coincidentally is also a Father at the local church, and runs the mission where they live. Too bad he’s wrapped up at the church for long hours or is frequently out of town on business, so Leah has to placate her curiosity all on her own.

This leads her to finally learning what’s in her mother’s closely-guarded locket: a single lock of curly, golden hair – which, in a family of mostly brunettes and/or straight-haired individuals, seems very much out of the ordinary. After Leah “loses” it for fear of her mom admonishing her theft, Sarah’s mental stability disintegrates and she further shuts Leah out.

At this same moment a young girl (Sienna Sayer) in a lacey white dress, adorned with costumed angel wings and, oddly enough, curly blonde hair, starts showing up at Leah’s side – though that usually means at her bedroom window in the middle of the night, wanting to come inside to warm up and play games. Leah, desperate for a friend, welcomes this girl into her life, seemingly unperturbed by her unprovoked appearance. Although the girl’s playful demeanor has a habit of suddenly draining away, wherein she provides Leah with coded messages that will lead her around the house and through her family’s past, uncovering long-hidden secrets as a result.

Martyrs Lane is strongest in its insinuation of a lore, even though it can’t quite commit to one direct through-line of metaphorical analysis. The spiritual angle is approached respectfully, particularly in the quiet conflict between the dutifully pious Leah and the increasingly skeptical Sarah (echoed in the supporting roles of Thomas and Bex, to a lesser degree), but it does feel glossed over for a focus on ghostly or demonic suppositions. Thankfully Platt has a good handle on jump scares, which come off as easy but also surprisingly affective in aiding the film’s supernatural bent.

Tied into that is the increasingly disheveled appearance of Leah’s friend: after Leah digs in the garden to find more clues, the winged girl appears covered in dirt on her windowsill; after Leah falls out of a tree with only a scrape on her head, the girl appears with her arm all bent out of shape. If the girl is really Leah’s guardian angel, then the film posits a lore of angels taking the brute force of existence on behalf of their human subject … which is fascinating, but it doesn’t really fit with the climactic reveal and what the girl’s purpose truly is. One read is that of clever complexity, but another equally potent interpretation is that of confusing convolution. (It doesn’t really help that the scenes between Leah and her friend, though wonderfully acted by both Thompson and Sayer, are the most plodding in terms of the plot.)

And yet that convolution is steadfastly controlled, as Platt keeps her film intimate by never straying outside the confines of Leah’s family’s life. When she does, it’s only to prolong the mystery and the internal pain of the characters. It sometimes feels like there will be dangling loose ends, but Platt succinctly ties them up in a neat little bow.

However, just because the mystery is solved upon conclusion and the conflicts are put to bed doesn’t mean that Leah, Sarah, or any of the others have actually achieved inner peace. They’ve taken the skeletons out of their closet but they haven’t quite reconciled them yet, as the lingering final shot sorrowfully suggests. This serves as a reminder of how our ghosts will continue to haunt us as long as we empower them to do so. Grief and trauma can be codependent on one another, and Martyrs Lane is another spirited portrayal of such a vicious cycle.

Rating: 7/10

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