Martha is Dead's new trailer tells us a spooky fairytale

Martha is Dead
(Image credit: LKA)

LKA has dropped a new teaser for its upcoming psychological horror, Martha Is Dead.

Revealed as part of E3 2021, the two-minute video depicts a grandmother entertaining her granddaughter, Julia, with the story of "The White Lady". Despite gently chiding that she always finds the story scary – uh oh, foreshadowing – the girl presses on nonetheless, so Nanny relents and tells her tale. 

Turns out the grandmother wasn't joking – the story starts cheery enough by telling us about a couple that's madly in love, but takes an immediate dark turn when we discover the guy murdered his lover "in a fit of jealousy" because "too much love brought death". Oh, dear.

Later we find out about a tarot ritual and how the White Lady "wanders restlessly in search of relief from her eternal suffering. Only the life of another young woman can give the lady a moment of peace". That bit freaks Julia out a bit and, to be honest, me, too. You can watch the full teaser yourself below: 

"In Martha is Dead, conflict intensifies between German and Allied forces when the body of a woman is found drowned," explains the teaser description. "Her twin sister must deal with the trauma of loss, while the truth of the brutal murder is shrouded by mysterious folklore and the extreme horror of war."

As we learned during an interview with LKA's Luca Dalcò, Martha is Dead's story will "still explore the human mind, but with a more artistic approach, frequently suspending reality and creating symbolically powerful abstract scenes".

"Both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 allowed us to realize our vision, by focusing on the power available to create a vibrant, realistic world to explore," explained creative director Dalco. "We’re creating a photorealistic game using photogrammetry techniques, allowing us to deliver crisp 4K resolution and beyond. Fast loading times and ray tracing increases the immersion of the player, and without these new consoles, we’d be limited to what we could achieve." 

Martha is Dead is slated to release in late 2021 on PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC via Steam. 

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Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.