Thursday, January 26, 2017

MARTIN 1977 (LIONSGATE)

A landmark George Romero film.

John Amplas stars as Martin a young man who believes he is an 84 year old vampire. This is reinforced by his cousin with whom he comes to live with.

Lincoln Maazel is Tata Cuda, Martin's cousin who, when Martin arrives in the small Pennsylvania town in which he lives, vows to save his soul and then kill him.

As pointed out at the very beginning of the film, Martin is not a conventional vampire at all. He uses drugs to put his female victims to sleep, cuts them open with razors, drinks their blood and has sex with them.

Yep, Martin has some problems allright, but when he come to Braddock, PA his life is slowly changed. Martin actually starts falling for an older married woman who also wants him.

The problem is she is married and very unhappy. There is an ironic ending to this film and when I first saw it I was amazed, and really still am to some extent.

Romero has perfect direction here as he takes the vampire lore to another level and even makes the young man a hero on a late night radio talk show.

There has never been a film like Martin and I doubt there ever will. One of the most original films I have ever seen and one of my personal 20 all time favorites.

If you haven't yet seen this George Romero shocker, I'd say do it soon. Now I am just waiting for the Blu-ray.

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