Intensity	Stupidity:Nudity Ratio 3:4	Budget Low

Wait, he's not a real vampire, he's just drinks blood.

The movie opens on a train with Martin watching a woman giving the ticket taker entirely too much information. As night falls, he sneaks into her cabin, drugs her, cuts her wrist and drinks her blood. He rearranges the scene to make it look like a suicide and completes his journey. At the station he is greeted by an old man who turns out to be a relative. Upon arriving at the house, Tada Cudo lays down the law calling Martin "Nosferatu" and promising to save his soul before he destroys him. Martin contends that his drinking of blood is not controlled by magic and Tada Cudo continues to try to exorcise his demons. Martin goes to work in Tada's store and meets a woman who is married but her husband is frequently out of town. After resisting initially, Martin eventually has sex with her. Unfortunately, the woman is desperately unhappy and takes her own life in a way that looks much the same as scene that Martin sets to cover his murders. Upon hearing of the women's death, Tada Cudo assumes it was Martin's doing and kills him and buries him in the back yard.

I didn't intend to review this movie but I could not really get it out of my mind. After starting to do a mini review for my Short Takes page, it became apparent that there was a lot I wanted to say about this movie and so here we go.

For starters, there is Martin who is easily one of the most interesting characters you will ever meet in a film. George Romero, who wrote and directed, states in one of the DVD's extras that he did not believe that Martin really was a vampire, he was just delusional. The household consists of Tada Cudo who believes that his family is cursed with Vampirism, Tada's niece who does not believe in the family curse, and Martin who does not believe in magic but believes that he is 84 years old and has flashbacks from before the turn of the last century. When confronted by the old man's belief Martin chews on the garlic and presses the cross to his face with no ill effects. He proclaims "There is no magic" several times during the movie which leads me to believe that he thinks of himself as a different breed from normal men. He believes he needs to drink blood to stay young and alive and that is that there is a scientific, biological explanation for what he does. The relationship between Tada and Martin is strained at best. Tada continually throws his religion and beliefs at Martin who fights back by taunting him with antics including a cape and fake fangs.

George Romero plays the parish's new priest. Tada invites him to the house to discuss certain matters including exorcism. The chain-smoking young priest praises the wine that Tada serves and bemoans the fact that the wine at the church is of a much lower quality. When the talks turns to the belief in the old ways and demonic possession, the priest barely manages to cover his shock and discomfort but directs Tada to a fellow clergyman who has performed those rites. I can't get a real handle on what George was doing with his portrayal of the priest. He seems to be saying that religion is just like Martin's belief in his own uniqueness: An unsubstantiated personal view. Tada's view is different from the local priest's and different from the priest who ultimately attempts the exorcism. I don't think George is making a slam at religion, but he does seem to be showing it as a variable and not an absolute. George's priest does not even know how to perform an exorcism whereas Tada Cudo's beliefs cause him to eventually kill Martin.

And then there's the women. Oh, man, the women. Starting with the initial victim (who seems pretty normal and fights back when Martin attacks) each woman is different, but they all have issues with men. The second woman cheerfully cheats on her husband. Abbey (more on her in a minute) has a husband that is never seen. Christine (Cuda's niece) has a boyfriend who ignores her. These are not your typical slasher victims in that they are a bit more fleshed out emotionally. We learn almost nothing about the first victim but we see that she is not easily panicked even in a dangerous situation, She fights back physically and verbally. Partly this extended scene is to provide us with some background on Martin but it also shows us something about the victim. In Martin's imagination she is seen in a nightgown welcoming him into the room. This gives us a clue that Martin is targeting women he is attracted to. When the next victim is not alone, he kills her boyfriend, drinks his blood, but then goes back to have sex with the girl. By the time he goes after his final victims, he cannot bring himself to target women. I think Romero was creating a secondary story. We have a woman with in a bad relationship, one traveling alone, one without a man and one with a new boyfriend. It is a classic break up/ new start arc.

We first meet Abbey when Martin delivers some groceries to her home. The camera goes back and forth with close ups of Abbey and Martin for their initial conversation and then pulls back to show Abbey has opened the door without putting her skirt on. She eventually seduces Martin but never is shown happy. Shortly after the first time they have sex, she confesses that she cannot have children and claims that her husband is out of town a lot. In fact we never see him and she does not wear a ring. In a particuarly telling shot, Abbey has Martin get something out of the glovebox. When Martin complies, we get a quick shot of what is in there; lotion, a box of tampons and L'eggs (bizarrely packaged pantyhose from the 80's). After the other little clues that hubby is not gone on a business trip but is just plain gone, this image really drives it home. Clearly she is understating the situation. (Actually she is outright lying, but I really like her so I am being polite). She makes a great contrast to Martin. The events of their lives have compressed their emotions. Martin is withdrawn and lacks social skills. He seems slow to the point of stupid except when he is hunting and killing to stay alive (or so he believes). Abbey tries to keep up appearances, but she does everything with a flat affect and eventually takes her own life. Martin becomes much more animated when he is with Abbey and there may even be a hint that he was going to stop killing, but does not get the chance.

	Abbey. Sigh. There is always an aura of sadness about her. She seduces Martin but not in an overt way. She maintains that her husband is gone out of town on business, but the glovebox is crammed with stuff that would not be in a man's car. She's sort of like the townspeople who pretend they still live in a good town even though the mills have closed and there aren't any jobs. When she takes her own life, Abbey inadvertently creates a scene that looks familiar.

As the movie starts Martin drugs a woman and has sex with her while she is unconscious. He then cuts her wrists and drinks her dry. The next time he goes hunting, the woman is not alone and eventually he kills and drinks the blood of the boyfriend, but then has sex (technically rapes) the woman. After he starts having sex with Abbey, he has a hard time picking out his next victim and cannot bring himself to chose a woman, instead he kills a couple of drunks. He explains to Abbey that he has never had sex before with a woman who was awake. She seems to take this in stride. But having had sex with a willing partner for the first time, Martin's hunting habits change which makes you wonder about why he was doing this. Was he really just doing it so he could have sex? And now that he is getting some on a regular basis, is this why he hesitant to kill women?

Visually this is a great movie. Romero's camera constantly frames his actors with a lot of depth. There always is a lot of room around the actors which is a major achievement in the cramped quarters of the house. Buildings and railway stations all add to the tone of the film. And, of course, there is the editing. Romero manages to keep the stories interesting and the plots moving along. The hunting sequences are tightly controlled with Martin coolly doing the stalking and his victims not quite panicking, but not staying in control of the situation either. I've said before that money is not the difference between a good movie and a bad movie. Time, effort and talent make the difference. Starting with an interesting story, proper planning and rehearsals,followed by great camera work and then careful editing gets the most out of a meager budget. Romero does a remarkable job at this. I was not as impressed with the acting as he states he was in the Making Of video, but it was adequate which I would attribute to the rehearsals and the director's clear vision of the characters.

The vampire theme is used in parallel with the Christian theme. We know about Vampires, what their weaknesses and strengths are. Yet Martin does not seem to have either the weaknesses or strengths. Tada believes that Martin is a vampire and keeps trying the classic defenses on him without success. Martin kills because he believes he needs blood to survive. Tada kills Martin because he believes him to be cursed and unredeemable. Is there a difference in their actions? Is Tada morally superior here? I will grant Tada a certain moral high ground because Martin was a killer, but he does not kill Martin for what he did but rather for what he was. I believe that Romero is calling religion a personal belief system. I do think he is taking a shot at organized religion. The church service that Tada drags Martin to is being held in a makeshift room because the church was damaged in a fire. The congregation is asked to donate their spare time (idle hands) to help work on repairing the church and to sell their unwanted or unused items (childish things) to raise money for the repair. I may be off base here, but to me George is saying that there is still value in religion but that organized religion is in need of some fixing up.

All in all I got to say that this is a great movie. As I was preparing the video captures I was struck by how imaginative the composition of the images are. For most directors working in the cramped quarters of Martin's sets would have made them settle for what they could get; however, Romero rises to the challenge and provides us with wonderful visuals. Martin was shot on 16 mm which would make some of the shots much easier than they would be on 35 mm due to focal length and depth of field issues, but that does not take away from the skill that the director shows. The subtle way that Romero uses the backgrounds to fill the frame is refreshing after watching "The Kiss" with its horrific "lines" themes. Brilliant movie. Look up a copy and watch it.

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