MARTIN {1977}

 "YOU HAVE TO REALLY STAY CALM WHEN THAT HAPPENS.  YOU JUST HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT THE ONES THAT ARE AFTER YOU ARE NEVER CALM."

  OK, where the hell is the new blu ray edition of this?!?!?!  This is one of those horror classics which has been out of print without a snazzy new release for vampire bat's years, am I right?  George A. Romero's vampiric (or not) lead-up to DAWN OF THE DEAD is no stepping stone; no footnote in the director's string of films.  MARTIN is a bona fide classic. 

The performance by 'introducing' John Amplas is one of the super duper acting jobs of the seventies.  How does he manage to be so adorable -- like a puppy -- well, a blood-drinking puppy --- who's just so cute.  Is it wrong that I rooted for Martin throughout the whole movie?  Anything 70's has a bat-leg up with me and Romero captures the decade's look and feel expertly.  Martin picking up a lot of scattered jawbreaker candies off of a brown shag carpet.  I mean, how awesome is that?!?!?!  That shot alone just really does it for me.  I know I'm weird (and so is Martin) but 70's RULE! 

There is also an almost tactile grittiness to the film stock (and the actual goings on) which makes me feel like I'm sitting in some grindhouse theatre in 1977.  Superb!  That opening scene is, I think, just brilliant and sets up the film exactly how it will go on.  Martin setting up his syringe (and iconically putting it in his mouth) as he goes into the woman's compartment.  The black-and-white sequence where Martin is fantasizing a romantic, gothic scene as he confronts the woman in a flowing white negligee (or else maybe this is a flashback . . . we're never certain).  Then the reality as he pick the lock and enters the woman's compartment where he hears her in the bathroom, the toilet flush, the glimpse as she emerges with the greasy face cream, the nose blow. 

Flashback or fantasy, this is definitely what poor Martin is searching for but instead he gets the ugly, gritty reality.  It's stated by Dr. Kuda as well as others that Martin is what you'd call slow.  He appears to be in his interactions with people.  But is he really?  I really don't think so.  Painfully shy and socially awkward as hell but just watch how Martin goes about his entry into the woman's house and, when he discovers she's got an unexpected lover there, just watch the lightning-quick problem-solving Martin accomplishes.  Martin seems to me to be as sharp as his needles!  Towards this point, I refer you to the scene towards the end when Martin startles his (let's face it, buffoonish) cousin Dr. Cuda by jumping out at him wearing a Dracula costume with cape and plastic fangs.  Cuda cowers shaking his rosary beads at Martin.  Martin just laughs, takes out his fake teeth and tells him:  "It's only a costume.  It's only a costume."  Is Martin's 'dimwit' act 'just a costume' he puts on as well?  Could he actually be a century old vampire as Cuda accuses Martin of being???  The look on John Amplas' face -- a look I can't even find the words to describe accurately -- says volumes for me yet without vamp-splaning where the truth lies.  Martin is an enigma and that's how he will remain.