MARTIN
Sucks far less than most vampire movies
Just saw this movie...wasn't sure what to expect. All I knew going in was that Martin isn't a vampire...but he thinks he is. So it's basically a vampire movie for the 90's (how many people do you see every day who think they're vampires but obviously aren't?), except it was made in the 70's.
I wouldn't say this is one of Romero's strongest efforts (then again, I really liked Monkey Shines, so what do I know?) but it's quite effective and unsettling overall. Maybe I was expecting a little more horror and less of a character study, but it was a fine character study.
What I most liked was Martin's relationship with the lonely, depressed Mrs. Santini. I could have gone for something like that at his age (ch-ching!)...aw, I'm just kidding. I was rootin' for the guy all the way.
Some of it, I think, was kind of unneccessary (like the confrontation with the cops near the end, and virtually all of Tom Savini's role). And I could have used a little more clarification on just what has inspired this family to keep thinking that members of their line are bloodsuckers.
But I liked the Nosferatu-inspired fantasy sequences (the IMDb says that the euro version has these all at the beginning of the film. Man, now that would be disconcerting to watch!), and sympathized with poor, blood-drinking serial-killing Martin, and was a little pained by the inevitable conclusion.
A good film. Not a great one, but it's definitely a different kind of vampire movie, I'll give ya that; and in these vampire-saturated 90?s, we need as much different as we can get in our vampire movies.
Tom Savini is barely recognizable without that beard.