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'Along with whatever satanic power of the enemy.'
George A. Romero is a director who shows that low budget is no obstacle to quality.
Almost a decade after he broke onto the scene with Night of the Living Dead,
he directed the less popular, but no less groundbreaking Martin
about a young man who thinks he is a vampire.
Or perhaps is.
Fortunately, this down-to-earth take, placing the vampire in unfamiliar surroundings suits Romero’s low budget,
and the cast is fleshed out by Romero himself
‘Fascinating subject actually, you should talk to Father Selemus about it.’
and make up master Tom Savini,
'It's a good town, I hear there is work there.'
still early in his illustrious career.
The film was originally to have more extensive voiceover
and the decision to cut this proves a smart one partly because it is unnecessary,
the images telling the story very effectively,
but also because it allows Martin – the film and the character - to remain a mystery.
Are these black and white sequences memories or fantasies?
Does Martin believe all this himself,
‘Things only seem to be magic.’
or has he been convinced by his elderly cousin.
‘Nosferatu.’
Cuda is a great example of what Martin does well,
taking a character who seems straight out of a more typical 1970s vampire film,
‘I am Cuda, come, we must take another train.’
and making him a grocer.
'I'm sorry I'm late today ladies.'
'Do you need help Cuda?'
Above all, the absence of voiceover allows us to interpret events through actor John Amplas’s face,
'I don't care where you were last time, where you last week and the week before that?'
Is he thinking like a vampire?
Or like a teenage boy?
It’s a pretty fine line.
‘I’ve always been much too shy to do the sexy stuff.’
Martin can be seen as a coming of age film.
'I can give you a ride back downtown if you like.'
A lonely teen finding a way to deal with a world into which he does not seem to fit.
‘In real life you can’t get people to do what you want them to.’
It is a quintessential psychological horror because the narrative arc is all inside Martin’s head,
and our opinion of him changes back and forth throughout
because, vampire or not, Martin is certainly not innocent.
One of the most important things about Martin is that for all its sideways take on the genre,
it is a horror film.
It is a vampire film.
That straddling of two worlds is what makes it special but is also potentially what made it such a hard sell.
It is slow-paced and thoughtful,
but also requires the audience to engage with a character who is established as a killer from the outset
'I just want you to go to sleep please.'
In a scene that immediately sets out the film’s stall;
this isn’t how vampire fights go, a prolonged and awkward scuffle that could go either way.
In Martin’s world there’s nothing cool about being a vampire.
'You see. You see!'
Perhaps he wishes there was.
‘You’ll just go to sleep.’
As well as breaking down vampire mythology
‘That’s not like in the movies either.’
Martin is a film about horror, modern and ancient,
about why we create these myths and invest in them,
about how they give us an outlet but also give us something to hide behind.
Or at least, that’s how it strikes me, but, as ever, Martin is open to interpretation.
Thanks for watching. Reinventing horror themes is something everyone seems to do and most fail at,
what are the films that get it right? Let us know in the comments below.