''Martyrs Lane'' is a 2021 British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written and directed by

Ruth Platt Ruth Platt is a British actress, writer and director, who has appeared in '' The Pianist'' (2002). Early life Platt studied English literature at University College, Oxford, before training at RADA. Career In 2015, Platt directed a British horror ...

, produced by

Christine Alderson Christine Alderson (born August 1967) is a British film producer, and the director of the production company Ipso Facto Productions. Early life Alderson was born in Stone, Staffordshire, in August 1967. She was educated there at St Dominics Conv ...

and Katie Hodgkin and starring

Denise Gough Denise Gough (born 28 February 1980) is an Irish actress. She is the elder sister of the actress Kelly Gough. She has worked in film, television, video games and theatre. Gough is a double Olivier Award winner. Early life Born in Ennis, Cou ...

Steven Cree Steven Cree (born 29 February 1980) is a Scottish film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as Ian Murray in the Starz television series '' Outlander''. His other work includes the films '' Brave'' (2012), '' 300: Rise of ...

Anastasia Hille Anastasia Hille (born 1965) is an English film, television and theatre actress, and ceramicist. Born in London, she was a student at London's Drama Centre and won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards in 1994 (the first prize was awarded to ...

Hannah Rae Hannah Rae (born 18 July 1997) is an English actress. She came to prominence in her 2016 feature film debut ''City of Tiny Lights'', for which she was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the British Independent Film Awards. Film ...

and Kiera Thompson.

Plot

A 10 year-old girl named Leah (Kiera Thompson) lives in a large

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically own ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and every night she's visited by a mysterious guest who offers her knowledge.

Cast

as Sarah *

as Thomas *

as Lillian *

as Bex * Kiera Thompson as Leah

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 91%, based on 32 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Well-acted by its young leads, ''Martyrs Lane'' tells a slow-burning ghost story that gathers real emotional weight".

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Nick Allen writing for the website

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times' ...

gave the film 31/2 out of 4 starts, stating: "'Martyrs Lane' is ruled by grief, often dulled and overdrawn by it, but its young surrogates give us the unique opportunity to see its themes presented without compromise". Phil Hoad from the newspaper

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

gave "Martyrs Lane" three out of five starts, saying: "Ruth Platt’s third film is at first almost too subtle for its own good. As Leah’s new friend directs her to small objects around the house and grounds, including minuscule letter-bearing dice, Platt’s storytelling is high-risk, almost obscure, leaving viewers much to infer". Wendy Ide from the British

film magazine Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines whi ...

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

called it "a picture which would make a credible addition to midnight-movie strands, but which has an appeal which should extend beyond horror audiences. Tonally, with its emphasis on nurture and parent-child relations, there’s a kinship with films like

Under the Shadow ''Under the Shadow'' ( fa, زیر سایه‎, Zeer-e sāye) is a 2016 Persian-language psychological horror film written and directed by Iranian-born Babak Anvari as his directorial debut. A mother and daughter are haunted by a mysterious evil in ...

References

External links

* * * {{Metacritic film 2021 horror films 2021 films Ghost films British horror films 2020s English-language films 2020s British films