HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2020: Martin (1977)

Our sponsor for today should be familiar to those of you who are following my mad scientist-ing on The Honeywell Experiment, Chris Honeywell!  In addition to cowering before me, Chris will be doing the sound design for the upcoming audio adaptation of Terry Moore’s Strangers In Paradise!

Chris has chosen for me Martin, one of the films George Romero made between zombie movies and, in my opinion (and apparently George’s), his best.

Martin (John Amplas in a simply stunning portrayal of social awkwardness) has been sent to live in Pennsylvania with his much older cousin Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) from Indianapolis.  Right from the start, we see Martin is a monster; while on the train to meet Cuda, we see Martin assault, drug, rape and then kill a woman so he can drink her blood with the aid of a razor blade.  He’s convinced he is a vampire, and frequently has romantic, black and white fantasies while he’s killing.

It isn’t until we meet Cuda that we understand why Martin is convinced of this fact.  It seems he and other members of his family believe that they are subject to a curse where select children are born ‘Nosferatu.’  Of course, Cuda being an elderly man in a crumbling town where younger people are fleeing to Pittsburgh to find jobs, he believes Martin is a full on fangs-and-cape-afraid-of-garlic vampire, a belief Martin is trying hard to disprove.  Cuda lays down the law: Martin is to live with him and his granddaughter (Christine Forrest, who later becomes Christine Romero), and is not to prey upon the people in his hometown until Cuda redeems his soul...at which point he will be killed.  We follow Martin as he goes about his day, stalking his next victims and becoming involved with Mrs. Santini, a depressed housewife (Elayne Nadeau)...an involvement that leads to his doom.

I’m going to say this right up front: Martin is not a film about vampirism.  There is no vampire in the film, just a mentally ill young man who has been subjected to the belief of mentally ill members of his family (who is right in one thing--mental illness can be genetically passed on, which means the ‘curse’ Cuda is so worried about is true; it’s just not supernatural).  This is a film about how mental illness can be both parasitic and symbiotic; Martin was always going to be a predator, but the illness of his family imposed this added framework that compels him to act like a fictitious monster.  There are moments where help is offered him, primarily by Cuda’s granddaughter, but also by the radio talk show host who interviews him over the phone.  But his relationship with Mrs. Santini helps him while also causing him irreparable harm, as he starts behaving more ‘human’ and starts losing his touch, causing more death than he intended

This film is practically dripping with decay, emotional, commercial, societal and otherwise.  There is a sense of everything falling apart, not only for Martin but for the people and places around him.  And as help is offered and then withdrawn (Cuda’s granddaughter eventually leaves town with her ‘way out’ Arthur, played by a clean shaven Tom Savini), Martin becomes more and more sloppy in his actions.  Not that he was a criminal mastermind to begin with; watching this film again was refreshing after countless horror ‘thrillers’ where the serial killer is a genius, near-supernaturally talented wunderkind.

As a mentally ill individual, I really respond to this film.  Amplas is not doing ‘Movie Crazy.’  His affliction is socially awkward, but still acceptable in the context of real life.  And his facial acting is just stunning--as my friend Derrick Ferguson so aptly put it, it seems like Amplas’ eyes are screaming throughout the ninety four minute run time.  The fact that as a serial killer, Martin isn’t very good at his profession, is truer to life to me than so many others I’ve seen.  And the tragedy is that he’s been conditioned to believe there isn’t any hope for him to deal with his affliction; he’s had it drummed into his head his whole life that psychiatric attention won’t help because he’s not human when he obviously is all too much so.

I cannot emphasize how much I love this film.  It is somber and insightful about mental illness and it actually feels shorter than it actually is.  It is a shame to me that Romero rarely got the chance to do a film this intimate because he was deluged by people demanding more zombie films.  It’s not Land of The Dead (which I really enjoyed, so I’m not exactly throwing shade here) or Survival of The Dead that represent the best work he could do.  It’s films like this, and Knightriders (which is one weird-ass flick, but it’s hella compelling), and maybe even Monkey Shines that shows where his head was at...not an overwhelming apocalypse, but one person, or a small group of people, locked in combat with their darker self.  Needless to say, I highly recommend it.

Next week sees the return of my good friend, the Brooklyn-based author of loads of horror fiction, Nick Kaufmann!  Last year Nick caused me to suffer the most by making me watch The Intruder Within.  This year he hopes to make it two years in a row by choosing Bert I. Gordon’s ‘adaptation’ of an H.G. Wells classic, 1976‘s Food of The Gods! Nick will be representing the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

There are Nine Sponsorship Slots Left in the Halloween Horrorfest this year.  To claim one, do one of four things:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Black Lives Matter.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

As with last year, if I end up with more sponsors than there are days in October, I will go into Horrorfest Overtime, which means Halloween goes into November for me--and you!