Martin

Martin (1977)

Okay, let’s start. What instantly springs to mind when I say “George A. Romero”? Zombies, bugs, and toy monkeys, right? Well, those words may encompass a large portion of his career, but when you take a deeper look at the man as a director, you will find that his career is much more varied. “Martin” is one of his first forays into the world non-gutmuncher cinema. It is a brave foray indeed.

The film starts with a couple of folks boarding a train. As the title, “Martin” comes on screen, we see the man himself boarding with them. We quickly realize that Martin is not an ordinary person, as he stalks a fellow passenger and attacks her a short time later. As this happens, you probably think to yourself, “Who would have known? He’s a syringe-carrying vampire that derives sexual pleasure from murdering women. Alright then.” As he gets off of the train, he is met by his uncle who clearly believes that Martin is a vampire and knows what he’s been up to. As you can imagine, they do not get along too well. As the story progresses, Martin tries to control himself and lead a semi-normal life, but is plagued by his desires and soon caves.

I really do have conflicting emotions about this film. On one hand, John Amplas turns in a fantastic performance as Martin, there is very stylish and clever editing throughout, the film’s at-times hyper-realistic tone makes you feel utterly sickened, and the films ends in crescendos with one of the most ballsy endings I have ever seen. On the other, however, the film is not the most well-paced. However, in my opinion, this con does help add to what I think Romero was going for which was a rather nightmarish portrait of a man’s struggle with insanity. Either way, Romero crafts a thought-provoking piece of work here that can simply not be ignored as one of the first unromantic vampire films.

As for the DVD, Arrow Video gives us a cornucopia (to take a word from Jason Payne) of some very cool extras. These include an audio commentary featuring Romero, Savini, Gornick, and Rubinstein, a European Romero Documentary, “Making Martin”: A recounting documentary, Original TV and Radio Spots, Original Theatrical trailer, Martin Photo Album, and easily the coolest supplement of the year, the full, Italian “Wampyr” cut of “Martin” featuring an original Goblin score. As for technical features, we get the theatrical cut in 5.1 and stereo with your choice of 16:9 and 4:3 presentations. Finally, the packaging contains a jacket with four different covers to choose from, a double sided poster featuring newly commissioned artwork and original Turkish poster art, “An Introduction to “Martin” booklet, and a slipcase.

To sum up my thoughts, see “Martin” if you have seen George A. Romero’s more famous films but are still interested in him, you are a die-hard vampire fan, or just want something different to watch, and buy Arrow Video’s DVD if you do not already own “Martin” or if you want the very cool Italian language cut of the film.

Film Rating: 3 out of 4

DVD Rating: 3 out of 4

reviewed by Brendan Keating