My Love/Hate Relationship with Martyrs +alternate ending idea.
Hello horror/art/movie lovers. Not my first post but created a new account due to my 10 year old account and it's password floating in the abyss of my brain. Anyway, just wanted to share a few things.
First: my undying love for the initial half of this movie. From the get go it's this unrelenting violence upon a family from a woman that you can easily see is damaged beyond repair (Lucille). The gorgeous shots and the nonchalant breakfast prior to the invasion shows that the 0-100 factor got cranked up 5 octaves and I'm glued to the screen with a pit in my stomach, riddling with anxiety and the morbid afterthought of 'good lord what next?' Before long we have Anna, a protector/lover/devoted individual who we quickly learn is effortlessly heartfelt and kind by design.
Fast forward and we have the brutally viscious battle between Lucille and her plagued guilt manifested into a mangled knive yielding terrorizer that doesn't let up. When Lucille realizes she can't rid her mind of this torment, a quick sleight of her own hand and she ends her suffering, leaving Anna in a pit of grief, wrapping her body in bedsheets and soaking her wounds in washer from a wet cloth. Very sad, very poignant, but beautifully done.
Fast forward to the discovery of the scabbed/starved prisoner, mortified and shaken. Anna gives her a warm bath and treats her aged wounds and removes her bolted mask.. only to wake up and find her frantically running thru the house scraping her wounded face on every nearest wall and *BAM* shotgun to the head from some wench in a Matrix outfit and her entourage of criminal kingpins (too complimentary to favor that term)
THIS IS WHEN THE HATE FOR THIS MOVIE
STARTS
A 'philosophy or idea' and pitched at Anna from this 2-dimensional Cruella Deville about 'victims' this and 'afterlife' that. Meanwhile Anna gets no time to talk or breathe and is dehumanized by these extras from Die Hard. Locked in a cell (ok), chained, slowly progressing to the torture elements. Beaten so gruesomely, it was beyond torture, it was tragic helplessness shot at you like a bad fireworks show. And in between beatings, weaping, peeing in a pale. All the while, we get no depth to these soldiers of religious-science-extremism and this beautiful character gets downsized to a literal human punching bag.... You know the rest; it was sad, felt empty and meaningless and left your stomach in a rotted knot.
MY IDEA OF AN ALTERNATE ENDING (Bare with me)
near the time when the blonde woman came to sponge Anna, when Anna grips her hands for comfort and she says 'it's almost over', maybe at that point, let's say that a large angelic-influence takes a stronghold on the blond woman.
*close up to Anna's beaten lids and closer you see this glimmer from her left eye and in response the woman gasps and stumbles onto the floor on her buttocks. The tiniest moments
of Anna's life flash before the eyes of the blonde woman. She hears from Anna's barely movable lips in a deity like rumble 'she's so beautiful. her heart, so giving. she was a protector. wanting the best for everybody before herself. without that she is nothing. you've already taken everything from her now, you realize that right, she has let go from this, because of this ..thing.. you think will achieve. but she's with me, she's warm and glowing here, and her heart is music that you'll never know, which is... so sad.
'Anna feels so much peace. I envy you can't hear the echoes of her heart right now.'
*women stunned with heavy-faced guilt and tears*
''Your peace, along with... them, there is none. The insatiable taking and yearning and picking and emptiness you feel. That's there. That's all there was and there to the music for you, but it's gone. Anna forgives you. They all forgive you and they're sorry for beauty you will never see"
*Anna holds out her hand onto the woman's cheek wiping her tears from weeping.
Anna an in instant keels over and the woman discovers that she had stabbed herself using piece of the toilet seat she had sharpened with her chain/handcuffs. The woman climbs out the basement with a look of pale-faced guilt and disbelief with her gun holstered underneath her pants towards mademoiselle. Just before she reaches while mademoiselle turns around
ROLL CREDITS
Granted, this cuts the time, so add a little more backstory between young mademoiselle and Anna in their foster care and maybe a little more time between the 2 while they're at the house.
Hope you like it! And if you don't, well that's okay, because I like it. :)