Martin!

This is a vampire tale with a distinct difference.

I've heard about this movie off and on over the years. Like most folks I'm a fan of Night of the Living Dead and so the name George Romero carries some weight with me, especially when it comes to the horror genre. Like the more famous zombie movie, this story about a boy vampire was shot on a shoestring budget and yet makes the most of its tiny dollars.

Simply, the story concerns a boy named Martin who has been told his whole life he's a "Nosferatu", a vampire. He says he's 84 years old, though he looks to be in his late teens, and many members of his family seem to agree with him about his nature. As we learn from his uncle, who has taken him in, the family produces someone like Martin every once in a while and they live forever, so three are till around including Martin.


There's no direct evidence that Martin is a vampire, save for what he and some of his relatives believe. He does kill people and he does drink blood, but he doesn't have fangs, and he doesn't dread the sunlight, and he cannot transform into a bat or wolf. Garlic and crosses seem not to affect him at all. So as far as "magic" is concerned, Martin rejects all of the claptrap and though he's convinced he's a vampire he seems to think it's merely his nature.

The movie is held together by the lead actor, a young man named John Amplas, who gives a mesmerizing portrayal of the weird boy. We get the sense from what he says, that he kills people to drink blood when he feels the "shakes" to do so, and he is successful because he uses drugs to put his prey to sleep and he covers up the deaths, making them to appear to be suicides. He watches people closely and chooses his victims in such a way as it will hide his activity. It all comes across as oddly plausible.


The basic nature of the movie making by Romero and his crew really gives this movie a texture that adds to the reality. Martin's mental state is sometimes represented by black and white sequences which imitate vintage vampire movies with gothic settings and angry villages with torches and whatnot. This is countered by the austere real color world in which Martin actually lives. The setting is a stark mill town in Pennsylvania that is in hard times and the decaying buildings and grim streets add to tone of the movie.

There's some pretty good acting in this, and sadly some pretty bad acting as well, so it's not all even. But overall, the movie does get hold of you and the ending is a shocker for sure, and as you reflect on the development of the story oddly inevitable.

Good stuff.

Rip Off