Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 10/25/2005 Rating: R

Customer Rating:
Summary: If it looks like a vampire, and drinks blood like a vampire...
Comment: Martin (1978) Writer/director George Romero brings his unique vision and social commentary to the vampire mythos with this horror movie. We meet Martin (John Amplas) as he is being sent from the Midwest to live with his aged cousin in Pittsburgh. On the train he attacks a woman in her sleeping compartment with a drugged needle and razor blade, drinking the woman's blood, though it is not clear if he kills her. When Martin steps off the train in Pittsburgh, his cousin, the formidable Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) immediately pronounces Martin "nosferatu" or undead creature. He tells Martin he is well aware of Martin's curse and that he means to stop it. Cuda's granddaughter Christine also lives with them, and she thinks Cuda is crazy because of his suspicions about Martin. However, Martin tells Christine he is 84 years old but that he has no supernatural powers, which he calls magic. The age thing seems impossible but would explain why he and the elderly Cuda are cousins. Christine doesn't believe Martin, but fears he is unstable from listening to Tata Cuda's rants. From there we watch as Martin continues to live the life of a fangless vampire, stalking people and using razor blades to drink their blood. He also takes to calling a radio talk show where he becomes a minor celebrity of the local airwaves, called the Count by the cynical host who doesn't believe anything Martin says but loves the sensationalism for his ratings. It is never clear if Martin really is or isn't a true vampire, but the distinction is kind of moot since he is definitely attacking people and drinking their blood. This is an absorbing movie, mixing real drama of lower middle class life in the 70's with the usual Romero social commentary and the horror aspects. It is low budget and rather deliberately paced, but keeps your attention throughout. Romero directs well, interspersing old fashioned black and white vampire movie scenes that seem to be Martin's fantasies (or are they memories?) at key points along the way, and letting the rest of the movie play out in quiet, almost documentary like fashion. The cast is unknown but decent, including Romero himself as a local priest not hip to the old ways of Tata Cuda, and makeup man Tom Savini as Christine's not very pleasant boyfriend. This was also the first time Romero and Savini worked together behind the scenes as well, and Savini provides some fine if somewhat low key gore effects. If you've enjoyed any of Romero's other movies like Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, or you don't mind slower paced horror fare, definitely give this one a look!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: obscure but amazing Romero film
Comment: This is probably one of George Romero's lesser known films, but I think it's one of his best(he has also said it's one of his favorites). It's about a young man who may or may not be a vampire, and his struggle to find a place for himself....
To say more would spoil the movie,which I won't do. I recommend tracking down Anchor Bay's 1999 release, which contains the original full-screen format of the film AND a John Amplas commentary. The 2004 Lion's Gate release is an artificially created widescreen(which actually removes more of the image), and no longer contains the Amplas commentary. Romero completists like me will probably just end up buying both versions. ;)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Romero at his most brilliant
Comment: This is the kind of perfect, subtle, horrific tale I wish they made more of.
It's a component of the 70's.
Romero exerting a unique creativity.
Just superb storytelling.
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Martin is a misunderstood reject of society. A nocturnal misfit with a thirst for human blood. So does that make him a vampire?
He has no fangs. Garlic and crucifixes have no effect. And the sun just causes mild irritation.
He injects people with needles to knock them out, and then makes his cut.
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With this tale of horror, less is definitely more. Romero masterfully intertwines comedy, satire, irony, sexuality, suspense, and gore into this cult vampire classic. Excellent, don't miss it....

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A vampire without fangs................
Comment: What can I say a 70's classic horror. This is George Romero's best film. Martin is a teenage vampire who believe he's 84. Unfortunately he seems to need blood for some reason. This film has a strong gothic background. A movie for true horror fans!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Such a deception !
Comment: That was the time before profiling and before scientific police, and even before the plague known as AIDS. Romero in his young age had to play the priest in this film of his, be the screenplay writer and the director. He had to do what so many others had done and have his own true, real Nosferatu or vampire or Count Dracula film. And here it is. Though it is shown as an old superstition from the old continent that has moved to the new continent, there is no rejuvenation, no renaissance, no second life to the myth and the end is to be expected and not to be in any way suspected or doubted. Then the film loses all its power because there is no escape for the poor Martin and no way out for the whole story that is self contained and locked up in a dying if not dead myth. Now does the technique used by Romero give a second life to that myth? Certainly not. A syringe does not frighten anyone. Some thick red blood does not disgust anyone. So it is flat and there is no way to find any depth in this cheap film.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

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