Martin (1978)
With the sad passing of George A. Romero I've taken it upon myself to try and track down his non-zombie films. I've only actually seen his Dead movies and Creepshow, and even that I didn't know was directed by him until I was looking up his filmography. Not that it's been an easy task trying to track down his movies, so this may be a long term project, but I digress.
Martin is Romero's take on vampires, except not really. The film stars John Amplas as the titular Martin, a young man who moves to Pennsylvania to live with his great uncle Cuda, and cousin Christine. On the trip though, Martin reveals himself to be a serial killer, who uses sedatives on female victims and then slit their wrists to drink their blood. Cuda warns Martin that he knows what he is (although he treats Martin like an Old World vampire, complete with crosses, garlic, etc.) and that should he kill anyone in the town they live in, he will kill Martin. Martin tells him that he's family and to not treat him as a "nosferatu" which creates this tense living condition between Cuda who despises Martin, Christine who thinks Cuda is crazy and wants to befriend Martin, and Martin who is a rapist/ serial killer. Throughout the movie Martin befriends a DJ to set the record straight about what vampires are, and even begins an relationship with a local lonely housewife.
I thought this movie was incredibly well done and maybe the best Romero movie I've seen. It's kind of incredible given that
Dawn of the Dead came out the same year, but this feels like it was more artistically directed, where as Dawn always felt like Romero just shot a whole bunch of footage and made it into a cohesive film in editing.
Martin feels much more staged and arranged with a degree of deliberation. There's some really cool bits, like when Martin kills the woman on the train, he imagines it like an old black and white Hollywood movie, all very dramatic and.. I dunno, dignified, but in real life the woman had just finished using the toilet, had a face mask on for her skin, and was using every curse word under the sun as he was attacking her.
Tom Savini is great as always for doing the practical effects, and just like with Dawn, you get that super fake looking hammer horror blood. Savini even acts in this, playing Christine's douchenozzle boyfriend who she eventually settles down with because she's that desperate to get away from her insane great uncle and cousin.
The music also deserves mention because it has a very old school romantic Gothic vibe throughout. It does kind of clash with the modern (at the time) scenes showing the urban blight of the late '70's, but I thought that it worked well given the subject matter and goes well with what Martin probably imagines as his own personal score.
Overall I'm incredibly pleased with this hidden gem of a movie that really made me look at Romero in a different light.