Possible minor spoilers.
Between the megahits Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, George Romero's films were generally ignored. This is unfortunate, especially in the case of Martin, since it is certainly his best. Romero changes gears, this time supplying a tragic, finely-nuanced study of cruelty, pain, and alienation so heartbreakingly true that it's often hard to watch. Martin is a withdrawn, sexually confused young man existing against a livid industrial landscape. His superstitious, fanatically religious family believes him to be an 84-year-old vampire, constantly badgering him about his supposed "evil." In response, Martin is warped into believing it, going out at night to slice people's wrists with razor blades and drink their blood. Receiving nothing but criticism and abuse (any positive force in his life is transient and ineffectual), Martin is so dysfunctional that he can barely speak to people, until he finds an outlet in the anonymity of talk radio.
As you might guess, this is not a typical vampire picture. It isn't polished, thank God. Hand-held camerawork and ordinary-looking actors add the sort of gritty realism that Hollywood would never touch. John Amplas is fantastic in the difficult role of Martin; he can express so many emotions with just a slight change of expression that it's a wonder his career didn't go a lot further. The whole film has the perfect atmosphere of living death, as if the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock is a corpse giving a few last reflexive breaths. Romero creates a challenging, deeply affecting story, making you care about the strange protagonist shunned by the world. The ending is very unfortunate, but I don't think there is any other way it could have ended. An absolutely, positively brilliant movie.
Note: The disappearing face cream is not a continuity glitch. It obviously came off in the struggle.
Between the megahits Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, George Romero's films were generally ignored. This is unfortunate, especially in the case of Martin, since it is certainly his best. Romero changes gears, this time supplying a tragic, finely-nuanced study of cruelty, pain, and alienation so heartbreakingly true that it's often hard to watch. Martin is a withdrawn, sexually confused young man existing against a livid industrial landscape. His superstitious, fanatically religious family believes him to be an 84-year-old vampire, constantly badgering him about his supposed "evil." In response, Martin is warped into believing it, going out at night to slice people's wrists with razor blades and drink their blood. Receiving nothing but criticism and abuse (any positive force in his life is transient and ineffectual), Martin is so dysfunctional that he can barely speak to people, until he finds an outlet in the anonymity of talk radio.
As you might guess, this is not a typical vampire picture. It isn't polished, thank God. Hand-held camerawork and ordinary-looking actors add the sort of gritty realism that Hollywood would never touch. John Amplas is fantastic in the difficult role of Martin; he can express so many emotions with just a slight change of expression that it's a wonder his career didn't go a lot further. The whole film has the perfect atmosphere of living death, as if the Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock is a corpse giving a few last reflexive breaths. Romero creates a challenging, deeply affecting story, making you care about the strange protagonist shunned by the world. The ending is very unfortunate, but I don't think there is any other way it could have ended. An absolutely, positively brilliant movie.
Note: The disappearing face cream is not a continuity glitch. It obviously came off in the struggle.