Martin Movie Review

Martin is a 1978 horror movie directed by George A. Romero and starring John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel and Tom Savini.

The movie begins on a train. A young man called Martin(Amplas) has his eye on a woman who is also on the train. He breaks into her cabin and he attacks her. He has a needle and syringe filled with some liquid to knock her out. He tells her not to scream and that he wants her to sleep. He takes off her clothes and he cuts her wrist and drinks her blood. Afterwards, he cleans everything up and gets off the train. He is met by a man called Tateh Cuda(Maazel) who takes him to his house. The man says that he will save his soul. There are religious icons everywhere in the house. Martin is told to stay in the house and not to take people from the city.  He also is told not to talk to cousin Christina who also lives in the house.

Martin has flashbacks where he was called a vampire. Martin meets Christina and he can't speak to her. She tries to be nice to him. He shows her a magic trick and this breaks the ice. Her boyfriend, Arthur(Savini) comes to the house but they do not get along well. Tateh sets up a trap so he can hear Martin coming and going. Martin starts work at Tateh's store and he becomes friends with one of the customers who is a lonely woman. She wants to hire him to do some work for her. Christina fights with Tateh over his treatment of Martin. Martin sees a woman and he follows her. He calls to her house, pretending that he is deaf and asks for money. That night, he crawls up the wall and looks at her and her lover.

He sneaks into the house and attacks both of them. He has flashbacks to some other time and place.
He calls in to a radio show and calls himself The Count. He talks to the guy and tells him about being a vampire. He has sex with the lonely woman. Martin scares Tateh by dressing up as a vampire.  Christina leaves the house and Martin is sad.He becomes desperate for blood so he kills a hobo.
He is chased by the cops when he enters a gang's place. There is a shootout between the gang and the cops and Martin escapes. He calls into the radio show again. He discovers that his lonely lover has killed herself. The movie ends with Tateh staking him through the heart because he thinks that Martin killed her. He is buried in the garden and Tateh places a crucifix on his grave. Everyone on the radio wonders where The Count has gone.

This was a very good movie. I liked the lead actor and he played the part well.It is an odd movie in that you are left wondering what the real story is. Is he really a vampire or does he just think that he is?Are his visions real or are they just hallucinations? I wasn't too sure, to be honest. That was very interesting. This movie was recommended to me and I am glad that I watched it as it was very entertaining and I enjoyed the story a lot. I would certainly recommend it to any horror movie lover. I will give it a 7/10.