George Romero had stated a couple of times that Martin was what he felt to be the best, most complete and closest to his original vision of all his films. Yet, even now, it remains one of his most under-seen. This is partially because copies have been historically difficult to track down. But Martin has been in the shadow of Romeroâs more famous work for decades now. And itâs a shame, because itâs honestly a masterpiece.
Yes, it feels just as low-budget as Night of the Living Dead, but thereâs an authenticity to Martin that most movies donât have. It feels like a documentary. Like Romero found this young man right in the center of Pittsburgh and simply began following him around with a camera. Thereâs a grittiness to it. It even gets quite disturbing at times, mostly because of how seriously it treats its subject and how realistically everything is portrayed. But, like most of Romeroâs best, itâs the concept itself thatâs truly genius.
Martin is Romeroâs vampire film. Whereas Romero essentially created the modern zombie genre with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, heâs doing the opposite here. Heâs not restructuring it into something totally new. Instead, heâs looking at centuries worth of vampire folklore and traditions and bringing them into the modern world. While both Stephen Kingâs Salemâs Lot and Tom Hollandâs Fright Night would also be firmly based around this concept, Martin feels fundamentally different from both of them. In fact, it feels fundamentally different from virtually every vampire film because Martin is not an actual vampire.
Thatâs such a simple conceit, but Romero works it brilliantly. And it allows for a clean slate when talking about vampire lore and traditions. Martinâs a blank canvas in some respects. Everything you want to project about vampires, you can project onto him. In fact, when he takes on the âCountâ persona to call into a local radio show, thatâs exactly what people do.
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Martin isnât just a commentary on the vampire genre, itâs about the danger of being stuck in outdated traditions, refusing to evolve with the times. In some ways, it truly is a more relevant movie now than it was when first released. Martinâs cousin Cuda wholly believes that the young man is a vampire and makes it clear at every opportunity that because of what he is, there is no hope for his soul, there is nothing he can do. He is damned and he deserves to die. This is beaten into Martinâs head in nearly every scene they share.
When this is the environment he comes from, it allows the audience to understand and identify with Martin a little bit. This thing he believes he is, itâs not a delusional fantasy. This is the only thing his family has ever told him. While itâs extreme, Iâm sure that so many people can relate to being the black sheep of the family, for being told theyâre going to hell because theyâre different. Martin is a perfect example of what Romero nailed when he was at his best: Itâs using an extreme example to highlight the extreme things weâre already doing to each other.
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The extremes in Martin might be a little far off, but theyâre never that far off. This absolutely could happen. Vampirism is always a metaphor for something, from sexuality to addiction and everything in between. Here, itâs unique in that those traditions have been cast asideâalthough there are certainly elements of both of them in Martinâs blood drinking scenesâand instead it stands for religion. Cuda is a traditionalist and certainly draws many parallels to an extreme fundamentalist.
Heâs a man who insists that his faith dictates that certain people do not have the right to live, period. Thatâs something thatâs never gone away and probably never will. Itâs still one of the most dangerous things that people believe in modern society. Itâs the cause of most of the worldâs extremely terrible conflicts. Itâs at the root of some of the most horrific acts of violence. Here, just as he does with the Dead series, Romero is looking at this under a microscope. Heâs using the relationship between these two characters to look at the ugly side of religionânot saying that having faith is terrible, but that being stuck in archaic beliefs does nothing but breed conflict and prejudice.
Martin believes heâs a vampire, yes, but he believes that because itâs the only thing heâs ever been told. By the time his cousin Christina enters his life, trying to get him some help, itâs already too late. Thatâs the tragedy at the core of the movie, which Romero explores in a brilliant and poignant way. The one person who could probably help Martin and get through to him enters his life just at the point when he is truly beyond help.
Martin treats vampirism as a disease, thatâs what I think ultimately sells the feature. When we think of someone who might believe themselves to really be a vampire, we always think of someone whoâs living out a fantasy, whoâs glorifying it, but thatâs not Martin at all. In fact, heâs jealous of those people, those that get to pretend to have all the cool powers that he knows he doesnât have. All heâs stuck with is an unquenchable thirst for blood, the one and only thing that defines a vampire when you strip the concept to its core. Itâs perfectly embodied by the filmâs most remembered line, âThereâs no real magic ever.â
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Itâs a crushing statement, even an almost childlike statement, because in many ways Martin is like a child. His emotional growth has been completely stunted by one thing thatâs been beaten into his head all his life. Yes, heâs dangerous and scary and we donât want to root for him, but to some degree we still do. Itâs easy to sympathize with Martin because Romero does an astonishingly good job of showing us exactly how Martin came to be the way he is without ever directly explaining it. We donât even get complete confirmation that he isnât a real vampire, because we donât need to.
One scene with Cuda and we understand exactly where Martin comes from, why he is the way he is, the environment he was raised in that clearly proved toxic and helped to turn him into something he thinks he needs to be because heâs never been told he could be anything else.
As strong as the script and direction are, John Amplasâ performance as the titular character is what seals the deal and drives it home. Heâs so quietly nervous in every single scene, even when heâs killing someone. In fact, those scenes are the moment when Martin is at his most anxious. Heâs terrified every time heâs about to hurt someone and thatâs something that you never see in a movie like this. At best, films give those great, fleeting moments where you can tell the antagonists are shocked by what theyâve done. But Martin is terrified of himself from the first scene to the last.
If anything, Martin should be remembered for its place in the scope of vampire cinema, let alone Romeroâs filmography. Itâs so clearly a product of the same era that essentially produced the sympathetic vampire. The â70s was a decade of Dark Shadows and Interview With the Vampire (in book form). Martin certainly takes the concept of adding humanity to vampirism to the most literal degree. The result is truly one of the best horror films of its decade.
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