edeighton Eric Deighton's review of "Martin"*spoilers alert*"There isn't any magic. It's just sickness." says Martin (John Amplas) in response to Cuda (Lincoln Maazel), his old-country Catholic uncle. George Romero delivered a movie that strips away all magic from the vampire mythos and replaces it with the gritty realism of sickness...so of course it was filmed on location in Pittsburgh in the Braddock neighborhood. The extras were local residents from the Braddock neighborhood of Pittsburgh and this movie really reminded me of the year I spent in school in Pittsburgh. George Romero cast his own wife, Christine Forrest, as the female lead "Christina". She has a very pretty but vaguely Eastern-European look as does Lincoln Maazel who plays Uncle Cuda. For some reason these characters seemed very familiar to me and oddly comforting. Many of the extras and actors and actresses looked like other people I had encountered during my own time in Pittsburgh, twenty years after this film was made. The music in this movie is a haunting religious sounding score. The shots of daily life in 1977 Pittsburgh were useful in grounding this vampire movie and presenting vampirism as just another shitty disease. Rather than exhibit mystic powers to lure and attack his victims, Martin is an awkward young man who stalks very average non-glamorous women and injects them with drugs and even then only barely beats these women in battle. Then Martin sucks the blood from their unconscious bodies after slicing them open with a razor blade. Martin then hides his crime by making the woman's death by making it look like a suicide. Braddock is one of the most run-down sections of Pittsburgh — the decay evident in the movie contrasts nicely with Martin's fantasies, shot in black and white like a romantic vampire movie, where women willingly give up their throats to him. Pittsburgh (similiar to Cleveland) has always been a talk radio town so the scenes involving Martin calling into a local DJ ring true. Martin becomes a regular caller known as "The Count" on a late night radio show. I enjoyed the movie and will probably check out other Romero movies.

Irishchatter I don't get why anyone would really enjoy this, the quality is so poor even after all these years and the storyline seems to be skipping a lot. As well, it seems like a Pre-Twlight movie so I'm assuming the author of Twlight managed to copy a dopey vampire teenage guy who is suppose to be the vampire where he is actually not. He only has those stupid teeth things in his mouth that look as if it was forced in his mouth. Seriously this is just so stupid, I have nothing more to say about this movie but its pure rubbish to hell!

Mr_Ectoplasma "Martin" follows the titular character, an awkward young man who has delusional fantasies about being a vampire. After relocating from Indiana to a small Pennsylvania town, he moves in with his cousin and aged grand uncle, where his vampiric tendencies begin to spiral out of control.One of George Romero's more understated offerings (I'd liken it in tone to his offbeat 1973 effort, "Season of the Witch"), "Martin" is as much a psychological character study as it is a horror film; in fact, it's something of a collision of the two. The film begins with a disturbing date rape scene-turned-bloodletting that is discomforting to say the least. This sets the tone for the remainder of the film, which is downbeat and atmospherically dreary, largely evoked through the idyllic small-town sets and emotive camera-work. Black-and-white photography is utilized to full effect for the vampiric fantasies, which are surreal and eerie.The success of the film largely depends on John Amplas's performance as the title character, and he does the character justice. Martin is both sympathetic and abhorrent, disturbed and misunderstood—the balance struck between both extremes is nuanced, and the tension within the character's identity is where the majority of the film's power lies. The conclusion of the film is in line with its downbeat tone, and renders the film something of an unexpected modern horror tragedy.Romero has said that "Martin" is his favorite of all his films, and it's understandable why. It feels like one of his most personal works (perhaps his most personal), and Martin as a character is able to evoke a multitude of feelings from the audience. The film is both disturbing and amusing, horrific and depressing—it also maintains a high-brow aesthetic throughout in spite of its budgetary limitations. An understated, atmospheric, and compelling character study that functions just as well as a horror film. 9/10.

frankenbenz http://eattheblinds.blogspot.comIs he or isn't he? This may be the primary question asked throughout George A. Romero's 1978 cult classic Martin, but it isn't the most important one. The question worth asking is: nature or nuture? Romero's script is one of his best, a (literally) biting commentary on a post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, blue-collar America: disillusioned, depressed and depraved.Taking vampires out of the Gothic realm, Romero sets his story in a decaying Pittsburgh suburb populated by aging, superstitious immigrants. Romero's pseudo-vampire is Martin (John Amplas), an awkward teenager with few social skills and a sadistic habit of feeding off the blood of innocent victims he methodically drugs and rapes. But despite his thirst for blood, Martin doesn't have vampire's teeth, he's immune to crucifixes, garlic and priests. So what exactly is he? To his credit, Romero never answers this question and opting instead to define Martin as a product of his environment, a town populated with ugly, superstitious, immoral, criminal and suicidally depressed individuals. As evidenced in a number of scenes, if Martin doesn't kill you...life will.Even though the quality of Martin is hampered by it's budgetary restraints, these flaws help Martin transcend the typical constraints of the vampire genre. As a result, Martin is afforded the ability to be disturbing in ways that emulate the horrors of raw, real-world footage. Martin concludes with an abrupt, brutal and final act, an act that puts to death the significance of whether Martin was or wasn't a vampire. In the end, all that matters is how cold and unforgiving the world is and how it leaves us with few choices. The ultimate choice and perhaps the worst one of all? Kill or be killed.