Martin (1978)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I don't get why anyone would really enjoy this, the quality is so poor even after all these years and the storyline seems to be skipping a lot. As well, it seems like a Pre-Twlight movie so I'm assuming the author of Twlight managed to copy a dopey vampire teenage guy who is suppose to be the vampire where he is actually not. He only has those stupid teeth things in his mouth that look as if it was forced in his mouth. Seriously this is just so stupid, I have nothing more to say about this movie but its pure rubbish to hell!

The unbalanced teenager Martin Mathias (John Amplas) travels to Braddock, Pennsylvania, by train. During the night, he breaks in a cabin and kills a passenger in a peculiar way, injecting drug with a syringe and draining her blood to drink in a careful way. Then he meets his old cousin Tateh Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) in the station and they go to Cuda's home where Martin will live. Martin was raised by his dysfunctional mother and believes that he is an 84 year-old vampire. The religious Cuda also believes that the teenager is Nosferatu and uses crosses and garlic in the house to protect himself and his granddaughter Christina (Christine Forrest) that lives with him from Martin. Along the days, Martin befriends Christina, who has a problematic relationship with her boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini), while continues to attack persons every now and then. Further, he uses the telephone to tell the truth about vampires to a radio show. Martin has a love affair with Christina, but when she commits suicide, Cuda does not believe that his granddaughter killed herself. "Martin" is a strange and bizarre low-budget vampire movie with a totally different story. There is a documentary on the DVD where George Romero gives details about the production that uses real locations. He also tells that "Martin" is his masterpiece. Martin's daydreams with black-and-white are ambiguous and the viewer never knows whether whey we recollections or his imagination. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Martin"

I saw this film a few years ago, so my memory isn't great... Martin is a film I first saw as a matinée for 50p, and I wish I could get that back. First of all, the picture is HORRIBLE. It all seems just... sh*t. I know it was the 70s but they should have had some production values. It might symbolise something, but I don't get it at all. Secondly, the ending seems rushed. I mean really, really rushed. All I remember was "NOSFERATU!" *stab* Finally, I was shocked that it was George A. Romero who made this. I can't say it's all bad, It is possible to look at it as a vampire satire. (Although, again,if it was I definitely missed that), plus it isn't as bad as the vampire abomination that is Twilight.

That was the time before profiling and before scientific police, and even before the plague known as AIDS. Romero in his young age had to play the priest in this film of his, be the screenplay writer and the director. He had to do what so many others had done and have his own true, real Nosferatu or vampire or Count Dracula film. And here it is. Though it is shown as an old superstition from the old continent that has moved to the new continent, there is no rejuvenation, no renaissance, no second life to the myth and the end is to be expected and not to be in any way suspected or doubted. Then the film loses all its power because there is no escape for the poor Martin and no way out for the whole story that is self contained and locked up in a dying if not dead myth. Now does the technique used by Romero give a second life to that myth? Certainly not. A syringe does not frighten anyone. Some thick red blood does not disgust anyone. So it is flat and there is no way to find any depth in this cheap film.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines