| "A Vampire for Our Age of Disbelief” |
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Martin
DVD/APPROX. 95 MINS/1977/USA R18+
DVD/APPROX. 95 MINS/1977/USA R18+
8.5
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Martin is a seminal horror movie, equating the traditional vampire figure with the modern serial killer for a curious hybrid of subgenres. Martin (a
debuting John Amplas) is a sexually insecure young man, prone to Romantic vampiric fantasies, who drugs and murders women before drinking
their blood. He moves to Pittsburgh to live with his religious uncle and the uncle’s daughter in cheap accommodation. The uncle slowly believes
Martin is a genuine vampire afflicted by a family curse. Martin, meanwhile, calls in and confesses his crimes on a radio talk show where he is
nicknamed “the Count”.
Martin is a shy youth corrupted and perverted by his Romantic fantasies (shown in moody, impressionistic black and white) of a vampiric existence
wherein he is a desired, seductive lover; and later a misunderstood object of persecution. The stark, ugly reality of murder in Martin is far from the
romanticized glamour of fantasy in vampire flicks – sex crime here is brutal and disturbing: no fangs or cape-wearing vampire lovers here. The
clash between this everyday ugliness, the boring lives of those involved in the elaborate construction of fantasies they define themselves by and
Romantic vampire lore is bridged by the killer, who brings a traditional genre fantasy into the real world, wherein he exists as a banal presence
who only finds validity and fulfilment as a sex killer.
The real world is the ugly urban deprivation of director George Romero’s home town of Pittsburgh, where he has made most of his horror movies.
Romero suggests that these poor socio-economic surroundings are a form of deterministic entrapment which contributes to the growth of violent
escapist sexual fantasies that enable a nobody to idealize himself as a great lover/killer misunderstood by a hostile society: sex murder may be a
vampiric fantasy but that fantasy is also a form of self-aggrandizement. Yet, Martin’s fantasy of himself a vampire feeds into his uncle’s own
religiously-based supernatural belief of himself as a vampire-slayer: indeed, all male fantasy leads to homicide as a means of self-actualization – it
is, in Romero’s view, inherent in the true functioning of Patriarchy. Thus, Romero debunks the traditional heroism of the vampire hunter figure,
here concluding that to punish the “vampire” through ritual execution or prosecution is hypocritical, making Martin a distinctly misanthropic film
vision.
Genre historians have consistently praised Martin as one of director Romero’s finest works, Variety newspaper noting a thematic complexity here
more profound than in Romero’s popular zombie films following Night of the Living Dead and which form the bulk of Romero’s reputation. It was
on the basis of this film that Romero began to attract mainstream critical interest as a horror director of rewarding intellectual ambition. Physically,
star John Amplas (who would become one of Romero’s personal stock company of actors) resembles real-life serial killer Richard Chase, dubbed the
“Sacamento Vampire”, whose exploits later inspired Exorcist director William Friedkin to make Rampage.
Included on the sterling new Umbrella DVD release of Martin is a hugely entertaining commentary track from Romero, producers R & D Rubinstein,
cinematographer Michael Gornick and special make-up effects artist Tom Savini. These men have been collaborating for decades and are
comfortable in each other’s presence (as indeed regularly gather to record such commentary tracks), making the commentary track here a
genuinely warm and engagingly informative experience revealing the intimacies of a collaborative circle whose influence on the horror genre has
been tremendous. That, and a making-of documentary complete a decent special features package for a thought-provoking, if graphic, horror film
which seeks to contemporize the genre’s more traditional legends.
debuting John Amplas) is a sexually insecure young man, prone to Romantic vampiric fantasies, who drugs and murders women before drinking
their blood. He moves to Pittsburgh to live with his religious uncle and the uncle’s daughter in cheap accommodation. The uncle slowly believes
Martin is a genuine vampire afflicted by a family curse. Martin, meanwhile, calls in and confesses his crimes on a radio talk show where he is
nicknamed “the Count”.
Martin is a shy youth corrupted and perverted by his Romantic fantasies (shown in moody, impressionistic black and white) of a vampiric existence
wherein he is a desired, seductive lover; and later a misunderstood object of persecution. The stark, ugly reality of murder in Martin is far from the
romanticized glamour of fantasy in vampire flicks – sex crime here is brutal and disturbing: no fangs or cape-wearing vampire lovers here. The
clash between this everyday ugliness, the boring lives of those involved in the elaborate construction of fantasies they define themselves by and
Romantic vampire lore is bridged by the killer, who brings a traditional genre fantasy into the real world, wherein he exists as a banal presence
who only finds validity and fulfilment as a sex killer.
The real world is the ugly urban deprivation of director George Romero’s home town of Pittsburgh, where he has made most of his horror movies.
Romero suggests that these poor socio-economic surroundings are a form of deterministic entrapment which contributes to the growth of violent
escapist sexual fantasies that enable a nobody to idealize himself as a great lover/killer misunderstood by a hostile society: sex murder may be a
vampiric fantasy but that fantasy is also a form of self-aggrandizement. Yet, Martin’s fantasy of himself a vampire feeds into his uncle’s own
religiously-based supernatural belief of himself as a vampire-slayer: indeed, all male fantasy leads to homicide as a means of self-actualization – it
is, in Romero’s view, inherent in the true functioning of Patriarchy. Thus, Romero debunks the traditional heroism of the vampire hunter figure,
here concluding that to punish the “vampire” through ritual execution or prosecution is hypocritical, making Martin a distinctly misanthropic film
vision.
Genre historians have consistently praised Martin as one of director Romero’s finest works, Variety newspaper noting a thematic complexity here
more profound than in Romero’s popular zombie films following Night of the Living Dead and which form the bulk of Romero’s reputation. It was
on the basis of this film that Romero began to attract mainstream critical interest as a horror director of rewarding intellectual ambition. Physically,
star John Amplas (who would become one of Romero’s personal stock company of actors) resembles real-life serial killer Richard Chase, dubbed the
“Sacamento Vampire”, whose exploits later inspired Exorcist director William Friedkin to make Rampage.
Included on the sterling new Umbrella DVD release of Martin is a hugely entertaining commentary track from Romero, producers R & D Rubinstein,
cinematographer Michael Gornick and special make-up effects artist Tom Savini. These men have been collaborating for decades and are
comfortable in each other’s presence (as indeed regularly gather to record such commentary tracks), making the commentary track here a
genuinely warm and engagingly informative experience revealing the intimacies of a collaborative circle whose influence on the horror genre has
been tremendous. That, and a making-of documentary complete a decent special features package for a thought-provoking, if graphic, horror film
which seeks to contemporize the genre’s more traditional legends.
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