Martin

I remember seeing the ad for Martin in the newspaper when I was a kid, the razor made a big impression on me.

Then back in 1985, when we were preparing for Hurricane Gloria to hit, my dad and I went on a battery/water/candles run to a nearby drugstore and for some unknown reason, they had a copy of the novelization. I snagged it and fell asleep reading it- so soundly that I missed the winds and everything hitting when Gloria came to town.

I finally got around to seeing it in 1997 when Anchor Bay released it remastered on VHS, watching it on netflix DVD for this project.


For a movie released in 1977, it holds up pretty well in terms of story- Martin is sent to live with relatives outside of Pittsburgh. From the very beginning, it's clear he's got... issues. Like drugging women to drink their blood- while viewing the world in a black and white late-movie haze, a romantic contrast to his real world, a small rustbelt town in the middle of a crappy economy.

In fact, that's the part of Martin I enjoyed the most, the little time capsule to the Carter administration. The fact that it's written and directed by George (Night of the Living Dead) Romero is just icing on the cake.