‘Things only seem to be magic. There is no real magic…’
George A. Romero is obviously best known as the creator of the Night of the Living Dead franchise and the grandfather of zombie cinema generally. While he returned to that particular putrid well many times, there is more to Romero than the undead. Martin is ostensibly a vampire film, but beneath the surface there is something much more sophisticated going on…
Martin (John Amplas) believes himself to be a vampire (despite the fact that none of the existing vampire lore seems to apply to him), and his much older cousin, Tata (Lincoln Maazel) is also convinced of Martin’s vampirism. The latter promises to keep Martin’s dark secret in the shadows as long as he doesn’t claim his victims from the city of Pittsburgh, his new home. Tata’s granddaughter, Christina (Christine Forrest) believes both of them to be mentally unwell.
Martin was shot on location on the streets of Pittsburgh using actors that were friends or associates of Romero and this gives the film an authentic, gritty feel that is more akin to the work of Abel Ferrera and his ilk than many of the stuffy costume vampire films or their slick, modern counterparts. In fact, in many ways, Martin doesn’t feel like a vampire film at all. The key to the success of Romero’s film is that the audience is never sure if Martin is a vampire or not. The director forces us to reckon with the fact that perhaps the only thing that makes a monster are a person’s actions. Maybe all the movie monsters use their lore and their misfortune and their excuses as a cover to hide the fact that deep down… they want to be a monster.
While not as influential as Night of the Living Dead or as prescient as Dawn of the Dead, Martin is still a vital entry in the vampire canon, and it is a film that offers something completely different in a subgenre that is often safe and predictable.
