Martin (1977) UK Quad Poster

One of Romero’s ‘in-between’ films, post Night of the Living Dead (1968), pre Dawn of the Dead (1978) where he was still finding his feet. Martin was his most successful from that era, with a demythologised vampire (played by John Amplas) meeting his match in his uncle, a self-styled Van Helsing nemesis. The opening train murder is one of Romero’s most stylish and claustrophobic sequences, and the film benefits from the lack of traditional fang attacks, instead utilising modern day substitutes, razors and hypodermic syringes.

This revisionist gothic horror, set in the peeling, faded neighbourhood of Braddock, Pennsylvania is the perfect backdrop for Amplas’s low key, dispassionate performance. A more restrained chamber work rather than the zombie symphonies; this was Romero at his height of creativity.

Condition: POOR / FAIR - heavy creasing in blacks at top, paper loss top and bottom right corners

Cast: Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest (Mrs. Romero), Elyane Nadeau, Tom Savini, George Romero (as the priest) and Fran(cine) Middleton as the train victim.