'There's no real magic ever.' (Martin (DVD))

Name: hogsflesh

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Product:	Martin (DVD)
Date:	23.03.08 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well acted, atmospheric and clever

Disadvantages: Perhaps a little slow

A review of the Arrow Films 2-disk DVD.

This is a vampire story from 1977. It was directed by George A Romero, who did more than anyone else to drag the horror film into the modern world. He's best known for his zombie films, and Martin is a much quieter affair; it's one of the most interesting horror films of the 70s.

A young man named Martin believes that he's a vampire. He stalks and murders women, molesting them and drinking their blood. He goes to live with an aged relative, Papa Kuda, who *also* believes Martin is a vampire. Martin finds himself in a relationship with a depressed housewife, but the urge to kill is overwhelming...

It's no surprise that the director who gave us zombies free from voodoo, and horror in a modern setting, doesn't give us a regular vampire movie. Martin has no supernatural powers - he uses lockpicks, syringes and razor blades and usually finds himself having to physically fight his victims in ways that Christopher Lee never did. Martin's basically a serial rapist and murderer (as is Dracula, really). He has romantic, black and white visions of how he imagines himself - a traditional vampire welcomed with open arms by his victims. His expectations never match the reality (Dracula never found any of his victims in bed with another man) and his self-image is a sham.

Martin's not a completely unsympathetic character, though, even if he is a monster. He looks to be in his late teens, and the film is at least partly about adolescence. Martin's quiet, almost autistic, and incredibly unsure of himself around strangers. His sudden obsessive fixations with individual women perfectly embody the way teenage male minds work, and his desire to have sex without having to interact with the people whose bodies he's using shows his essential immaturity. His elderly cousin, Kuda, seems as much motivated by unease at a younger man's sexuality as by fear of vampirism, and there are hints that Martin is what he is because of his relatives. Kuda wants to repress what he sees as Martin's essential nature, to force him to be something he isn't, just like any repressive authority figure trying to prevent a teenager from doing those things that teenagers can't really help doing. This is similar to The Exorcist, a film that (seemingly unwittingly) uses demonic possession as a (clumsy and unpleasant) metaphor for adult male disgust at the change from sweet little girl into sexual adult woman.

But it's not just a clear-cut metaphor for adolescence. Martin's a very clever little film, far more so than most horrors feel the need to be, working on several levels at once. It offers a vision of a run-down industrial town (a suburb of Pittsburgh) slowly dying (Martin's cousin and her boyfriend are desperate to escape). The old magic doesn't work, as Martin keeps telling Kuda. The new priest (payed by Romero himself) is a progressive type who enjoys fine wine, smirks at Kuda's belief in demons, and has seen and enjoyed The Exorcist. Martin also uses a local radio phone-in to let off steam, confessing all to a cynical DJ and who christens him The Count. The film is brimming with great ideas that lesser films would use as their main plot. Romero really spoils us here, attributing a degree of intelligence to his audience that you don't get very often (certainly not in Land of the Dead, sadly).

The acting is of that low-key type you get in films like this, probably a symptom of not being able to hire more expressive actors. But low-key is appropriate, and everyone looks incredibly normal. John Amplas is exceptional as Martin, giving a performance that is ordinary and creepy at the same time. The rest of the cast are good too, although you won't recognise any of them (except maybe Tom Savini who also created the few gore effects; he's in a few other Romero films).

The film is shot pretty well - again, it's all nicely low-key. There are some reasonably explicit sexual scenes and some quite unpleasant murders, but for once they really need to be there and aren't just thrown in for shock effect or titillation. The soundtrack is really nice, subdued and intimate. The script is great; even Martin's embarrassingly earnest dialogue in his scenes with the housewife who fancies him seem exactly right.

This is a very good film indeed; I suspect it's slow pace will put a few people off, and anyone looking for something along the lines of Dawn of the Dead may well be disappointed. This is more arthouse than any other American 70s horror film apart from Eraserhead (but that's a very different kettle of fish).

The DVD has a commentary from Romero, Savini, the cameraman, the producer and the composer. All at once. It's often difficult to follow who is speaking, and it could probably have done with fewer people, although they're all old friends and are obviously enjoying themselves. The picture quality is very good for the film's age and budget.

Disk 2, on the other hand, is a bit of a waste of space. There's a ten-minute documentary, which is basically just a few talking head interviews with various participants. There are a few radio, TV and cinema trailers (which are a little deceptive, but that's the nature of trailers). And there's a rather perfunctory image gallery. There can't be more than about 20 minutes worth of extra material on here, and it could easily have been included on disk 1 (the film is only 90 minutes long).

But it will only set you back about £8 on amazon. This is very much worth seeing. The BBC has showed it a few times (it was one of the first of the great 70s horrors that I saw), but it's good enough to be worth buying.

Summary: Great, intelligent modern vampire movie