Martin (1978)
A young man, who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a small Pennsylvania town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: George A. Romero
Written By: George A. Romero
Starring: George A. Romero, Tom Savini, John Amplas, Roger Caine, Christine Forrest, Sara Venable, Elyane Nadeau, Lincoln Maazel
Country: USA
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Martin belongs to 27 collections
1. boobs (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 51 stars)
2. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
3. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
4. Full Female Frontal Nudity (Yes, Bush!) (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 26 stars)
5. AAA: Empire's five star movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 24 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
7. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 17 stars)
8. B-Movie (collaborative - 15 stars)
9. Vampire (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 13 stars)
10. Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See (public: jimmyjazz - 11 stars)
11. THE WORLDWIDE CELLULOID MASSACRE: Recommended (collaborative: moderated by edkrak - 6 stars)
12. Slant Magazine's 100 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (collaborative: moderated by edsu - 5 stars)
13. 500 essential cult films (not seen) (public: cayh - 5 stars)
14. An exploitation independent checklist (from Nightmare USA) (collaborative: moderated by edkrak - 4 stars)
15. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 4 stars)
16. Cult Movies (Danny Peary) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)
17. A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (public: kylie - 3 stars)
18. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)
19. Tom Savini gore fx (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 1 star)
20. Vampires (collaborative: moderated by ForrestQ - 1 star)
21. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
22. Filmed in Pittsburgh (collaborative: moderated by Ununnilium)
23. Incorrect criticker release dates (collaborative: moderated by JooJoo)
24. To see (public: pcalado)
25. Owned (DVD) (public: bizarre_eye)
26. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 34 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
27. Rewatch & Random (public: ForrestQ)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 6 |  |
KasperL | 80 86th |
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This take on the vampire movie reminds me of Altman's genre deconstructions. Stripping away the tired, superflous conventions - putting the traditional dialectic, an alienated outcast dependent on human contact, into the new salient context of the troubles of an angsty youth - Romero also quite brilliantly keeps it ambiguous whether Martin was born a monster or gradually made into one. Killer ending.
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| 5 |  |
Dean Franz | 70 67th |
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Offbeat, funky little (sort-of-)vampire film. As an added bonus (or detriment, if you want the terrorists to win) it oozes 70ies style from every pore. It's a shame Romero didn't do more of this small-scale weird shit cause it made me happy. In my pants.
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| 4 |  |
BillyShears | 75 65th |
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Lady asks for a dollar of gas and fills up. The horror, the horror, the horror.
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| 3 |  |
TheDenizen | 75 74th |
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In completely eschewing the traditional vampire mythos, Romero raises several interesting questions in Martin, and provides no simple answers for the viewer. Quiet and deliberately paced, yet powerful and creepy in parts. Dexter Morgan owes a lot to the Martin character.
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| 3 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 77 51st |
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84 year old tries to find someone to do the sexy time willingly with him. It's a weird movie and successful in spurts, but the lead is ultimately not compelling enough to carry the film. The idea seems to be to bring vampirism into the mundane, and it's a creative one, but perhaps a bit too successful. Meanwhile, the commentary on rape and human relationships doesn't get too far either. I appreciate the effort, though, and it has enough interesting threads to be worth watching despite the flaws.
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| 2 |  |
eveelun | 77 66th |
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A very personal and intriguing film from Romero. What it lacks in budget and technical achievement (the acting, writing, and cinematography are ok but unspectacular - though I did like the "flashbacks"), it makes up for with its strange and enigmatic nature and the fact that this was clearly a labor of love for Romero and others involved in the project.
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| 2 |  |
MadMan | 90 67th |
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Daringly tackling the vampire mythology in a unique fashion, Romero uses Martin's fragile, crumbling mind to also mirror a small town's urban decay as the 70s came to a close. Mixing in eerie flashbacks that speak to the young man's disturbed imagination, this is a movie that brings its subject full bore into the 20th century. Although the ending is something I saw coming a mile away, it does not harm the film's originality. Both an underseen classic and one of the best of the vampire movies.
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| 2 |  |
JakeAesthete | 22 19th |
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The film that dares to ask the question: Are vampires really just autistic rapists? (or something). Also there's some stuff about the economy and urban blight (by which i mean the film presents these themes, not that it actually engages with them in any particularly meaningful way). But whatever potentially intriguing thematic material there is is pretty much undone by the schlocky ineptness of Romero's direction (which i guess is the thing '70s horror aficionados find endearing?)
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| 2 |  |
MArkjp | 75 61st |
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At a point in time where the Vampire genre was almost flogged to death, Romero takes it in another direction. The link between vampirism and sex is intact, but Romero's vampire is not as much a bloodthirsty count invading the secular world, but rather an unstable teenager insecure about the 'sexy stuff'. Visually it juxtaposes social-realistic contemporary Pennsylvania with expressionistic black and white 'flashbacks' and thus both pays homage to the old vampire films and is refreshingly new.
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| 1 |  |
InfiniteZero | 86 82nd |
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Night of the Living Dead is the classic and Dawn of the Dead may be the fan favourite, but Martin is the BEST film Romero has made.
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| 1 |  |
terrymac | 77 77th |
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A decent, modern and novel take on the vampire myth. Romero achieves quite a lot on little budget, creating a reasonably affecting and realistic drama with touches of black comedy, and the occasional stylish moment. The non-star performances are good, Amplas creating an interesting and relatively sympathetic character in the title role. Perhaps the themes aren't explored fully, and occasionally the pace dawdles, but this is well worth seeing.
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| 1 |  |
gogokain | 75 80th |
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Subtly thoughtful with a great ending. Too bad the pacing seems off (maybe intentional, either way it irked me) and the acting is spotty. One of Romero's better films.
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| 1 |  |
JooJoo | 2 16th |
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I'm astonished at the across-the-board high ratings this gets. The actors are terrible, the writing is worse - enjoyable in style only.
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| 1 |  |
KMcNeil | 8 84th |
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Flipping vampire lore and mythology on its head, "Martin" is one of the hidden gems of the 70s and a sublime example of a genre movie that revels in blurring and subverting its genre conventions. A weirdly wonderful mash-up of socialist realist vampire movie and intense psychological portrayal of a highly unstable mind with insightful commentary on peer pressure, mass hysteria and - to a lesser extent - pop culture. Loved how they kept Martin silent for the first 30 min. Pretty ballsy.
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| 1 |  |
Barthalen | 71 59th |
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It's nice to see a vampire movie that tries some new things and succeeds in infusing a sense of realism and sadness. But while some individual scenes are pretty great, the overall experience was a bit lacking. It's all quite aimless and plodding, never really delving into the themes it touches.
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| 1 |  |
Enthusiast | 75 67th |
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An intensely sad film, which surprised me. I love how well the ordinarily grandiloquent trappings of the vampire film transposed to a depressed blue-collar American town. Definitely feels like it's missing something (the legendary first cut ran about 165 minutes) as its narrative ambitions outstrip its run time, but thankfully the mood survived intact.
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| 1 |  |
hehejaja | 90 91st |
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This film is in a league for itself when it comes to the exceptional fusion of explicit violence, a gloomy atmosphere and a quiet characters-study, everything complementing each other perfectly, so that the end result is a delicious, frightening, dark, colourful and feverishly moody film; Romero's artistry is definitively present in this compelling tale of human insecurity, compassion and sometimes dangerious obsessions.
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| 1 |  |
stanthecaddy | 85 76th |
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I'm usually ambivalent about Romero's flicks, but this one caught my interest and didn't let go. It was an intriguing and original interpretation of vampire mythology.
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| 1 | moviesinhell | 75 54th |
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Romero devises a new twist on traditional vampire lore. Impressive, offbeat approach to modern horror.
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| 1 |  |
KAH | 4 93rd |
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A positive surprise. Martin is a perfectly paced, quiet film, that occasionally bursts out in violence. Has a kind of fragileness to it, that reflects the emotional insecurity of the protagonist.
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| 1 |  |
aney | 60 69th |
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Takes a vampire movie and turns it onto its head. A very refreshing take on a tired genre. Well worth a watch.
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| 1 |  |
Seethruskin | 5 80th |
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A kind of Altman level de-construction of a genre (if vampire movies are a genre on their own). Not in a corny way, but in a way that gets the intricacies of the genre and character archetypes and doesn’t shy away from being a great vampire movie on its own. Just an achingly lonely and melancholic affair. Beautiful.
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| 1 | jspidah | 74 69th |
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This is kind of an aimless, shambling film but it was rather enjoyable and outright intriguing at times. The film is rather simple but the way the plot progresses is a bit bizarre. Rather surprised by how much I liked it. A nice outlier for vampire films.
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| 1 |  |
Yiannos | 58 41st |
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Its admirers claim that Romero was 'deconstructing' the vampire genre. There is definitely some attempt to buck convention, but the use of vampirism to express a viewpoint about society's poor treatment of outsiders, and their inability to become socially adjusted as a result, seems like it was written by an adolescent goth with a major persecution complex. The question of whether Martin is or isn't a vampire is ultimately moot because the psychology is too crude for it to even matter.
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| Average Percentile 61.73% from 548 Ratings |  |