Martin (movie)

Martin is a 1976 horror film from director George A. Romero in which John Amplas stars as the title character, who sedates women with a syringe full of narcotics and then slices their wrists with a razor blade so he can drink their blood. Is the young man a vampire? Martin, who comes to lives with his uncle and niece in the dying town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, has romantic monochrome visions of vampiric seductions and torch-lit mobs, but it is impossible to tell how seriously he takes them.

Related Topics:
1976 - Horror film - George A. Romero - Vampire - Braddock, Pennsylvania

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His uncle, superstitious old Tati Cuda, treats Martin like an Old World vampire, and tries unsuccessfully to repel Martin with strings of garlic bulbs around the home and with a crucifix. Martin mocks these attempts and says bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever." Martin strikes up a friendship with a lonely housewife, and this turns into a full-fledged affair, with tragic results. The tone of the film is sad and filled with longing and unfulfilled desire--rather different for the traditional vampire movie, whose cliches are parodied in Martin's dreams and in the mock-silent-film scene where Martin terrorises Cuda in a children's playground. The ironic ending both gives a new twist to the traditional fate of vampires and suggests that Martin's disease is more widespread than we might care to imagine.

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Although Romero's other horror classic (Night Of The Living Dead) has always overshadowed his other work, Martin is still a smart, low-budget film that brings its own sense of surrealism, gritty realism, and isolation to the fore. It is one of the most original horror films of the 1970s, as well as one of the most original vampire movies ever.

Related Topics:
Night Of The Living Dead - 1970s

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The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1977 and was released in US cinemas on 7 July 1978.

Related Topics:
Cannes Film Festival - 1977 - US - 7 July - 1978

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The film is notable for being the first collaboration between George Romero and special effects artist Tom Savini. Romero is also on record as saying Martin is his favorite among all his films.

Related Topics:
Special effects - Tom Savini

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