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Martin
Film poster
Directed by	George A. Romero
Produced by	Richard P. Rubinstein
Written by	George A. Romero
Starring	John Amplas Lincoln Maazel Christine Forrest Elyane Nadeau Tom Savini
Music by	Donald Rubinstein Goblin (Italian version)
Cinematography	Michael Gornick
Editing by	George A. Romero
Distributed by	Libra Films International
Release date(s)	[July 7, 1978
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$800,000

Martin is a 1977 horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. The film was shot with a low budget, filmed entirely on real locations, and many of the supporting cast members were friends and family of the filmmakers. It was filmed on location in the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1976. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1977 and was released in US cinemas on July 7, 1978. The film is regarded by horror fans as one of the finest B horror films of the 70's and is often cited among Romero's best works. Romero is also on record as saying Martin is his favorite of all his films. The film is also notable as the first collaboration between George Romero and special effects artist Tom Savini.

Plot

Martin (John Amplas) sedates women with a syringe full of narcotics and then slices their wrists with a razor blade so he can drink their blood. Martin, who comes to live with his uncle and niece in the dying town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, has romantic monochrome visions of vampiric seductions and torch-lit mobs, but it is impossible to tell how seriously he takes them.

His uncle, the superstitious old Tada Cuda, treats Martin like an Old World vampire and tries unsuccessfully to repel Martin with strings of garlic bulbs around the home and a crucifix. Martin mocks these attempts and says bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever." Martin strikes up a friendship with a lonely housewife, turning into a full-fledged affair with tragic results. The tone of the film is sad and filled with longing and unfulfilled desire—rather different for the traditional vampire movie, cliches of which are parodied in Martin's dreams and in the mock-silent-film scene where Martin terrorises Cuda in a children's playground. The ironic ending both gives a new twist to the traditional fate of vampires and suggests that Martin's disease is more widespread than we might care to imagine.

Alternate versions

Originally, the film ran longer than the final version, at 2 hours and 45 minutes. The original release was entirely in black and white. No copies of this cut exist to Romero's knowledge.

Much like Romero's Dawn of the Dead, Martin was edited for the European market, under the title of Wampyr. This version is only available in Italian dialogue, and is rumored to be edited by Dario Argento. This version's score was performed by the band Goblin.

Cast

Soundtrack

The film score by Donald Rubinstein was released on Perseverance Records November 7, 2007.

Reception

The film received highly positive reviews with the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 22 out of the 23 reviews they tallied were positive.^[1]

External links

• The Internet Home of Martin Mathias
• Martin at the Internet Movie Database
• Martin at Allmovie

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