Martha Is Dead | Psychological horror videogame to become a movie

Martha Is Dead
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Italian psychological horror game Martha Is Dead, set in World War II Tuscany, is to be adapted into a movie.


Itā€™s generally the biggest videogame franchises that get adapted into movies ā€“ see Sonic The Hedgehog or last yearā€™s unexpectedly huge The Super Mario Bros. Movie ā€“ so itā€™s refreshing to see something from the independent end of the industry get the large-screen treatment.

Italian developer LKA and publisher Wired Productions have announced that theyā€™ve signed a deal with Swedish production company Studios Extraordinaires to make a feature-length adaptation of the formerā€™s 2022 psychological horror, Martha Is Dead.

Set in Tuscany towards the end of World War II, the game is a first-person experience about atmosphere and discovery rather than bashing monsters over the head with a stick. Its protagonist is Guilia, a young photographer whose twin sister is found dead near her grandmotherā€™s rural home. With camera in hand, Guilia attempts to find out who killed her sibling ā€“ an investigation that causes her to delve deeper into her own past and its traumatic after-effects.

Martha Is Dead will be directed by André Hedetoft and Andreas Troedsson, and it sounds like itā€™ll be quite an intimate production given that Hedetoft will also write the adapted screenplay while Troedsson will double as its cinematographer.

Itā€™ll be intriguing to see how closely the film adapts the videogameā€™s events, particularly given the latter sparked a bit of controversy in 2022 for its graphic violence. It certainly sounds as though the directors will remain faithful to their source material, though, if a recent statement is anything to go by.

“Martha Is Dead is a narrative masterpiece, expertly weaving a spellbinding murder mystery from a young woman’s perspective in a way that’s never been done before,” the pair wrote. ā€œWe’re eager to bring this haunting tale to life, offering both fans and newcomers a cinematic tour-de-force, while staying true to the game’s soul-stirring essence.”

Thereā€™s no word on whoā€™ll appear in the adaptation or when filming will get underway. Weā€™ll bring you more as we hear it.

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