Anatomy of Dread: A Dread Alert Podcast
Anatomy of Dread: A Dread Alert Podcast explores the darkest corners of horror literature, film, and media through in-depth conversations and interviews with the creators behind the fear. Co-hosted by Vince and Sara of Dread Alert Media, the show dissects the craft of storytelling, the psychology of dread, the impact of these stories, and the cultural roots of horror. Featuring exclusive interviews with authors, filmmakers, and genre innovators, Anatotmy of Dread is where fans and scholars of horror come together to uncover what truly makes us afraid.
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Anatomy of Dread: A Dread Alert Podcast
There is No Magic | A Deep Dive Into Romero's Martin (1977)
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This week, we're taking a bite out of George A. Romero's 1977 cult classic, Martin!
Join us as we unravel the mysteries of this unique vampire film, set against the backdrop of 1970s Pittsburgh. We're dissecting everything from Martin's questionable fangs to Cuda's religious zealotry, the unforgettable score, and the film's surprising take on economic decay.
Get ready for a deep dive into the characters, the iconic filming locations, and that truly bleak ending. We'll discuss the powerful themes of isolation, trauma, and the enduring legacy of this indie horror gem. Don't miss it!
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Welcome to the Dread Alert Podcast. I'm Vince. I'm Sarah. And today we're talking about 1977's Martin, a vampire film set in Pittsburgh and more specifically, Braddock, Pennsylvania. With the resurgence of vampire movies and TV shows and books over the past few years, we thought we'd dive into a classic, which may or may not be a vampire film in the first place. Now, I know this is kind of a hot take, but this might be my favorite Romero film. I believe the Chicago reader said this is Romero's most emotional film, and honestly, the amusement park hadn't been discovered at that point, and that is a whole roller coaster of a ride, pardon my pun. But uh that movie is for another podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Today, I think we want to do a deep dive into the plot of Martin, some of the overarching themes, and also some of the impact and behind-the-scenes stuff that we learned in our research here. We have a ton of notes on this one.
SPEAKER_02We do.
SPEAKER_00Why don't we dive right in with the plot?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So Martin is a young man from Indiana, Indianapolis to be specific, and he arrives via train to Pittsburgh to meet his cousin Kuda, who he's gonna live with for a little while. Cuda was gonna exercise this family curse from him, and that family curse happens to be vampirism. Now this movie hits hard at the outset. Martin on a train finds a suitable young woman for his impulses, and Martin's not a good guy.
SPEAKER_02No, uh, this opening scene is really intense. It is a very hard watch, and I really love this movie. But on my rewatch, I was like, oh, this is this is a hard one because Martin, while he is sympathetic, specifically as we get more into the story, what he does at the beginning of this movie is not great.
SPEAKER_00No, he uh he comes prepared, he has a whole kit of syringes with drugs that will knock people out, and he assaults his victims in a in a sexual manner before he cuts them and drinks their blood. Which makes us a different kind of vampire story altogether because we have the substitution of fangs for that syringe, it's still penetration. And Romero goes right on the nose with that metaphor, and then there's some other sort of uh penetration, if you will, before he feeds. And the you know the question I'm left with is at the outset, why does he need to drug them if he's a vampire? Why does he need a straight razor if he's a vampire? Why does he need to feed after he's done the deed? Because the vampires tend to be, at least the Victorian vampires, a metaphor for repressed sexuality. I think that's a huge theme in this movie, the lack of emotional intimacy, the lack of physical intimacy. But Romero goes right for it and puts it right out in the open, which I guess leaves room for other metaphors as well in the film.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I definitely think that it is an interesting take on a vampire, one that we have never seen. But again, is Martin actually a vampire, or is he just a very broken and bruised young man?
SPEAKER_00Well, we find out a little bit more once he gets off that train to Pittsburgh. He meets up with his cousin Kuda, who is in his 70s at this point. I I think Lincoln Mazel, who played him, I think he was around 78 or so years old when he uh filmed this. And Lincoln Mazel didn't start acting until he was in his 40s or 50s, uh, acting a lot at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, which was really cool. Uh I went to Point Park College uh when I enrolled, Point Park University when I graduated, and so the Pittsburgh Playhouse was the centerpiece of that organization. It was the centerpiece, uh main performing space of Point Park College, Point Park University. So this is a personal movie to me. John Amplis actually taught me acting my freshman year of college, and John Amples played Martin. Right. John Amplice was a mainstay at the Playhouse, um, even into when I was around in the early 2000s directing plays for the college and performing in their repertory company. So it was cool for John, according to interviews, that Lincoln had been around the playhouse and that he got to do a film with him. Uh and John was discovered as a 26-year-old actor by Romero when he saw him on stage. Uh the script didn't necessarily fit John. John was not typecast in this.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Uh Martin was originally scripted to be someone who was closer in age to Kuda.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And so John Ampliss was seen on stage and the script was slightly rewritten to accommodate John, but we're left with some weird inaccuracies in the script, like Martin being 84 years old.
SPEAKER_02Right. But I think that that it can also be explained by the vampirism if that is actually the case. The debate is still on. But I do think that it is interesting that Romero just likes to cast the right person for the role. I think that he did that with Ben in Knight of the Living Dead as well. And I think that the social message that he didn't necessarily mean to say in that movie either really works and is one of the reasons that that movie works so well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's interesting that Romero throws theme to the wind sometimes, and we as the audience can apply some ideas or concepts to his casting, but he he's not necessarily checking all the boxes. He's just finding the right person for the right role, and he just goes with his gut, and it works more often than it doesn't. Um, the civil rights implications with Ben, but also in this, we're left with an interesting power dynamic. Like Martin as an 80-some-year-old man would have absolutely no reason to put up with some of the abuses that CUDA in puts onto him. And Martin as a 26-year-old might be more tolerant of that. But it also leaves a lot of ambiguity in this film. That alone is why I'm so curious about whether Martin is a vampire. Now I'm I'm gonna say that right now, Romero says he's not a vampire.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00John Amplis says he's not a vampire. They both say he's a very ill young man.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's probably the case.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the the sincerity and conviction with which he gives his backstory and his age is so convincing to me. And there's also one line of dialogue, the last line of dialogue we hear in this movie, which we'll talk about when we get there, that also makes me wonder whether Martin is a vampire. So Martin arrives in Pittsburgh, meets up with his cousin Kuda, they walk through the streets of 1970s Pittsburgh. This was filmed in 76, 77, and it is interesting, that's you know, a few years before I was born. Right. It's interesting for me to see sort of the Pittsburgh that I remember as a kid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, uh a rust belt city on the decline. Population was shrinking, downtown was almost abandoned, although downtown Pittsburgh now probably looks a little similar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and they hop a train to Braddock. So Martin's on his second train ride of the day. One victim, two train rides. We're we're just keeping count here.
SPEAKER_02No victims on the second train ride.
SPEAKER_00No, Cuda would not put up with that. No. This would be a very short movie. Uh so Kuda gets him to the house, takes him upstairs, and the first thing he says is Nosferatu. Yeah. And he's a Lithuanian Catholic, so he has this accent. I feel like uh, you know, if you if you enjoy Bill Skarsgard in the movie Nosferatu, you'll love this accent as well.
SPEAKER_02Nosferatu. He definitely has my impression of Kuda.
SPEAKER_00It's spot on. It's spot on, it's pitch perfect. We should do a remake with you as Kuda.
SPEAKER_02I do think that it's interesting that Kuda says almost absolutely nothing to him. Yet on those train rides, we get this otherworldly score that is in an ordinary world. Yeah. Which I just find so interesting about this movie is that it does feel otherworldly and yet so ordinary all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00And that score is from Donald Rubenstein, according to my notes. And I don't think he had he scored a movie at this point?
SPEAKER_02I don't know, but it's a wonderful score in a movie.
SPEAKER_00It for him as a composer. And I think this film is absolutely spot on with the music. I think it elevates this movie. I agree. He said he was just scoring to scenes and scoring to ideas that he had in his head. And when you think about the fact that this movie, the initial bulk of footage was around four and a half hours. And the initial black and white cut of this movie was around two and a half hours, and there's a rumored three and a half hour version out there. Uh that's a lot of sound that was lost. A lot of beautiful music that we would I would love to see. I would love to hear. I I guess I I guess you hear music. Yeah, you do hear music. Yeah, I guess that's the thing, not see. But I would love to hear this music. I would love to see that film.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. You would like to see the film and hear the music.
SPEAKER_00The only thing I'll say about this movie, my only real criticism of the movie, is towards the back half, we get really choppy with our events. It becomes a sort of fever dream that I have a hard time remembering all of the scenes because it they're not there's no transitional moments because this movie is jam-packed. It's a 96-minute runtime, but it is jam-packed.
SPEAKER_02I think I know exactly the sort of turning point that you're talking about. It is a very pivotal scene in the movie. And I think that you are correct. When we get there, we can talk about it a little bit more, but I think I know exactly where you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00After that home invasion.
SPEAKER_02That's exactly it.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. After the home invasion, I feel like scenes get sort of smushed together, each one brilliant in their own right, but we move through it so quickly with no transitions because uh George Romero sat down with his editor and they were just slicing and dicing to get this to a theatrically releasable runtime because a two and a half hour Martin they didn't think would sell.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I would buy it immediately.
SPEAKER_02I know you would.
SPEAKER_00So we get back to the house, and Kuda is leading Martin around this duplex in Braddock. And let's let's finish this plot moment and we'll talk about the duplex, because we've actually been there ourselves. Um and Kuda walks him around, takes him up to his room, shows him the garlic on the door that he's hung there. All the crosses, all the religious accoutrement, the uh the relics and artifacts, not so much relics in the sense of like actual saint body parts.
SPEAKER_02Iconography.
SPEAKER_00Iconography. Good word. Uh and this is this is actually uh a lot of real set dressing. They did have they did very little production design on this because the house they were using came complete with all the religious furnishings.
SPEAKER_02As you do whenever you visit a Pittsburgh Catholic home.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. They said they added a few statues of Mary and a couple of crosses, and of course the garlic.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh they didn't have garlic on their doors.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they might have, you never know.
SPEAKER_00I I doubt they did. It's a large commitment to re rehanging garlic. But they had they had the the homeowners made a large commitment to the movie and allowing them to shoot there for nine weeks. Um so Martin is told, I heard you're s I heard you're slow because you don't talk.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00If you talk, don't talk to my niece Christina.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Played by Christine Forrest, who would go on to be George Romero's wife of 29 years.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And if you kill anybody in town, that's it, we're done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then he says, I'm gonna exercise the vampire from you before I kill you, essentially, in no uncertain terms. Um, which is a pretty heavy scene for the first time we hear Kuda talk.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, it is. It's uh it's especially heavy, and then we see uh Christine. Christina, sorry, it's I get confused.
SPEAKER_00I know, it's so similar.
SPEAKER_02Um, Christina, and the one of the first things that she does is talk to Martin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just immediately. Uh before that, Martin takes a bite out of the garlic to prove the cooperative.
SPEAKER_02That is not unhinged. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Magic is not real, and he bites the garlic. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02Magic is not real. That is such a good line.
SPEAKER_00There is no magic. Uh yeah, and so actually, there's a signed, if you uh we'll do a set tour at some point, but there's a signed photo from John Amplis behind me and it says, There is no magic.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there is no magic.
SPEAKER_00There is no magic. Um and so, yeah, Kuda is just completely unhinged, and Martin is unhinged in a different way. And what's interesting to me about this relationship, outside of the power dynamic from the age change, is that Martin is unhinged in the most despicable of ways. I mean, there are like three major crimes that I can think of that are just like off the table for me. And he commits two of them.
SPEAKER_01Right, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00And like Kuda, who on paper is a devout religious person, visits church on Sunday, even when the church is being remodeled and it's in an attic somewhere. He's a business owner, a pillar of the community, trying to keep the community together, thriving, and growing, and he's just completely unhinged and a religious fanatic who is probably capable of some pretty dark things, as we'll see later in the movie as well.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So the the on-paper person who's terrible is the most sympathetic character in the movie, and the on-paper person who should be just admirable in a role model is the most unhinged person in the movie.
SPEAKER_02Honestly, I think that Christina is one of the stabilizing forces in this film.
SPEAKER_00I totally agree.
SPEAKER_02She, even though she also doesn't make the right decisions some of the time, she is sort of the voice of reason.
SPEAKER_00And she's sassy and headstrong and compassionate and caring. Uh, I there's a lot to love about Christina in this movie.
SPEAKER_02There's uh such an interesting uh ch change between her and Kuda. She's basically raised by Kuda, but is so different. And she's his niece, if I'm recalling correctly.
SPEAKER_00That's correct. Yeah. And and just she's a modernizing force on him. And he's so uh regressive and so controlling of her, but she's this like uh liberated woman in the 70s, and she is headstrong. And she's complex as well because her boyfriend Arthur played by Tom Savini in this, and we'll talk about how that came about. Um he's played by Tom Savini, he's kind of a controlling borderline abusive asshole to her. And later in the film, she decides to follow him out of Braddock because lack of opportunity and the living situation has become untenable with Kuda, and specifically how he treats Martin, which we've just seen the beginning of. So, this house, let's talk about the house really quickly. The house was owned by one of the line producers, Tony Booba. And his brother, Pasquale Booba, is also involved in this movie as well. Uh, Tony Buba is is helping to get this movie made, and he's one of the George Romero mainstays, he's part of that stable. This movie only had a crew and cast all together of 10 to 15 people. Right. In fact, they the producer said that the movie was made for $200,000 because he didn't want people to think that they could commission George to make a movie for under that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But the actual budget, according to the producer, was closer to $100,000. And if you hear George tell it, it was closer to $75,000. Oh my god. And it that's amazing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the reason is is because of this house. This house is a duplex on Fifth Avenue in Braddock. Avenue or street, I believe it's Avenue. And it's right off the main road. It's right off of the main road in Braddock. If you're coming in from the city, you just hang a right on fifth and look to your right and it's right there. And and don't go like mauling that house because there are people living there. There's still a family in there. But the thing I'd like to note is that's one of the last livable structures on the street.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so this movie is about the urban decay and the decline of a rust belt town as much as it's about vampires. And the house is one of the only things left standing, which is poetic. It the house itself is sort of immortal. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's also a fulfillment of the vision that Romero had about Braddock. It's just very sad to see. But we did drive past no more than a month ago.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, and and just check it out. There was someone outside, so we didn't stop or get photos. We were hoping to include photos in the podcast, but we don't we're not trying to trouble somebody who lives on a you know. Um, but the house was owned by Tony Booba and his family. Tony lived in one side of the duplex where they stored their equipment, and his grandmother and mother sort of split levels on the other side of the duplex where they filmed the movie. And so Tony's Tony Booba's grandmother did craft services for them for nine weeks. Uh if you know anything about Braddock, Edgar Thompson Works, which is a steel mill, is right at the end of the main drag. And if you go down there, we I've been asked to leave by security just for looking at the mill before myself. Um, don't go to Edgar Thompson Works either. But everyone in Braddock, uh, from 18 something to 1980 worked at the mill, which is why, with the decreasing uh steel production, which is why Braddock is so depressed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I think I said in my short video that we did about Martin, on one side of the street you have art spaces and new apartment buildings, and on the other side of the street, most of the dwellings are uninhabitable.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00It's really sad to see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but then his dad worked, Tony Booba's dad worked at the mill.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00For nine weeks, would come home after our long day at the mill, and these guys are just running around, squirting blood everywhere, and screaming at each other in his house. Like that man must have been a saint. I couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01Crazy.
SPEAKER_00So it's Tony Booba's grandmother's decor, and she's an old Pittsburgh Catholic. And if you know old Pittsburgh Catholics, that is right on the nose. Spot on. Italian Catholics specifically. Um, and and I went to Catholic school, so I do know quite a bit of those Pittsburgh homes. Yeah. Um and and moreover, the the cost was free.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00The craft services were free, the location rental was free, and it was non-permitted.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, they didn't have a permit for anything.
SPEAKER_00For anything.
SPEAKER_02They were just shooting this movie in Braddock. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Gorilla style, walking around Braddock with a camera, and nobody cared.
SPEAKER_02In fact, I believe that the name was Cuda because of the sign that they got outside of the shop that that CUDA works in. They had to just work with what they had.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Forgive me, I don't have his original scripted name. I don't either.
SPEAKER_02I don't know what it is. I can't remember.
SPEAKER_00But his name wasn't Kuda in the script. They just went to this market and they're like, well, this is going to be the market we use, and it says KUDAs on the side, so yeah, that's a fine name. We'll just make him Kuda. That's exotic. He could be Lithuanian and be Kuda. That's fine. Yeah. And so they were just wandering around Braddock. There's a cool story that they all kind of recall in the special features on the Blu-ray that George was sick one day, and they're like, Yeah, just walk around on the train tracks and go up the stairs and go through the tunnel and just get shots of Martin wandering around. It'll be fine. In fact, you know my love of Braddock.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Sarah is entirely sick of hearing me talk about Braddock. Um, but Braddock is one of, if not the only, place in the continental United States where all five major railroads convened. So there were plenty of train tracks to kind of give that industrial vibe. And you can, I mean you can go to Braddock right now and still see the tracks where Martin walked, they're all still there. Right. CUDA's market is there, although the mural is different, it no longer says CUDA's. I believe the giant eagle is now a family dollar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but you can go and find all these locations. Most of them are still standing.
SPEAKER_02And most of them are on the main drag. Like there aren't a ton of things that are off of the main drag there.
SPEAKER_00100%. In fact, as you're coming down the ramp uh off of the highway, you can see the Orthodox Catholic Church in the skyline. You can see the other churches they use in that transition shot before the um before the church scene. But uh, so Martin is um out with Cuda, he he or at the house with Cuda, he encounters Christine, and as he's getting his bearings, the first thing he hears is Christine, Christina on the phone with her boyfriend Arthur, and they are just having an all-out fight. And Martin kind of takes note of the fact that uh maybe they're not in a happy relationship.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I don't think any relationships in this movie are happy.
SPEAKER_02No, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00It seems as if um Martin may have one of the healthiest uh, let's say, sexual relationships in the movie, and it is still a hundred percent dysfunctional.
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, we can talk about that a little bit later.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Uh so CUDA tells Martin, if you're gonna live here, you're gonna work at my market. The market that gave him his name.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So Martin is a delivery boy for CUDA's market. He is delivering meats and I would assume cheeses. Yeah. And working the register, and and the of course the the locals are mad about prices, they're mad about uh speed of service. We get a nice like extra shot or uh under five, all these actors with under five lines kind of yelling at CUDA and get a good sense of location. Martin's wandering around uh with those beautiful tracking shots through Braddock delivering um goods. Right. And he comes across uh a few of the locals, and they're you know, oh you're such a nice boy, you're such a nice boy. Meanwhile, Martin claims to be 84. Um and he runs into Abby.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Abby.
SPEAKER_00Abby is a uh lonely, um, really, I would say severely disaffected or depressed housewife.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh she asked Martin, hey, do you do you want to ride back into town? And they have a really awkward car ride, but she likes him because he listens to her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's why we start to feel a lot of sympathy for Martin because John is doing a ton of work when he's not talking. With very little dialogue, very, very especially at this point in the movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and John is is just showing a full range of emotion with no not with nothing to say. Uh at the end, she asks him if he wants. To do some odd jobs for her, and he's like, sure. And I wonder if that's because he's looking to get alone with her to do his uh business.
SPEAKER_02I don't think so because I think that the reason that Abby and Martin are sort of drawn to each other is that they are both craving acceptance in different ways.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'll say Martin as a character has a complete lack of emotional intimacy with people and a complete lack of physical intimacy with people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so that's really a huge part of what makes Martin up. And he talks about not doing it with an awake person, which is just it makes my skin crawl.
SPEAKER_02I know.
SPEAKER_00And yet, like I you still feel so sympathetic for him because we've all felt disconnected from other people before. We've all felt unable to connect. And I think that's what Abby gives him. I think that Abby telling him being intimate with him, because he's quiet and will listen, gives him permission to be intimate with her. Uh and they do end up starting a relationship on one of their next meetings. Uh she's cheating on her husband with Martin.
SPEAKER_02Right. And that's the first time Martin is able to do anything without using the syringe.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I think that it sort of stops those urges for a moment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it does kind of take it does trail off some of the killing that we see just immediately in this movie.
SPEAKER_02But then I think that he I I I honestly think that the more that he is the count and is talking to um the radio personality.
SPEAKER_00We should say that Martin starts calling into a radio show and discussing and disclosing not only his backstory and history, where we get these beautiful black and white flashbacks about why he had to leave Indianapolis. Yeah. But we also get to hear a little bit more about what he's going through and how the tension is building in him and he's worried he's going to have to kill someone.
SPEAKER_02And I think that the more he actually talks about that, if he hadn't sort of talked about that, I don't know that he would have acted on those urges. And that's sort of when we get to that very intense scene.
SPEAKER_00I don't know that that might not have been another way for him to find intimacy and connection, though. That might have been a proffer valve releasing some of that pressure. But in any case, the pressure is starting to mount.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And Martin finds uh walks up to uh somebody's door and knocks and asks, he starts, he begs, he asks for money. He pretends to be deaf. And they're like, oh, we only give to organized charities. That guy actually was the producer of the movie. When he's staking this place out, he notices there's a beautiful young woman who lives there, and that maybe he'd like to come back later, which he definitely does, in what I would call the most um upsetting scene in the movie. If you thought the train scene was upsetting, this scene is much more upsetting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so he notices that the husband leaves for business.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so he shows up later to find the housewife there alone.
SPEAKER_01Alone.
SPEAKER_00Alone, yeah, with her boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_00Um, because no relationship in this movie is at all healthy. Not even a little bit. And he ends up this is one of the few times he kills a man, which is really why I think his vampirism is repressed sexuality. Yeah. Because he doesn't prefer to kill men. He certainly doesn't prefer to drink from men.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I don't think that was his preference, but I think at that point he was too far gone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And what's interesting is this is where Tom Savini pioneered the gag that he used on Kevin Bacon in Friday the 13th, because Martin stabs this man in the neck uh after he drugs him and then has to prep a new syringer on the fly. And so Tom Savini is doing makeup on this as well as acting in it, because Tom Savini was found by George Romero as a high school student for a movie that Romero was casting that never made it to the screen. And Tom just used to show up at the offices with his portfolio after he got back from the war. George Romero's like, uh, we got these special effects, and if you want to play Arthur, so he gets involved in this movie and he's doing double duty. He even does some stunt work for another character later in the movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So this is the first time we do the arrow through the neck gag, although this time it's going in the front and not out the back.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh but they had like a new um, you know, dummy body. Yeah, a dummy body, and the head was there. What's interesting though is this leads to one of the biggest continuity errors in the movie.
SPEAKER_02Oh yes.
SPEAKER_00Because the man is shirtless inside, and then when Martin's dragging him out and then he has the shirt on him, and and some of I I think one of the production team was like, Why did we put a shirt on him? And it's definitely it's 100% to hide the gag.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. It's to hide that.
SPEAKER_00So Martin goes back inside and struggles with the housewife character, who I don't even think is given a name other than housewife.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00Which just completely depersonalizes her even more.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And he just keeps saying, I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to hurt you. And he injects her with this uh drug and she's like, What did you do to me? Yeah, I mean, it's very emotionally heavy. It is, it's just really hard to watch. And then he does his business and he drinks from her, and that's really uh a turning point in the film, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it it certainly becomes more frenetic at that point, yeah, and we don't let uh our foot off the gas through the rest of this movie.
SPEAKER_00There are a few other plot points that we're gonna address, but that's a a giant chunk of how this movie plays out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Next thing that Martin really does is he gets dressed up in a fake vampire costume and stalks Cuda through the streets.
SPEAKER_02One of the best. I love the whole movie.
SPEAKER_00He puts like those like plastic fangs in and he has a cloak and he's like, ah. It's all bad. And then Kuda like has a heart attack because he's like, I knew it.
SPEAKER_02I know.
SPEAKER_00And Martin's like, there's no such thing as vampires.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And this this family curse is, I mean, family trauma and family repression is a huge theme in this movie, too. Because Kuda's talking about how there have been nine Nosferatu in their family, only three are still alive, and how they've all met Grizzly Ends, and how Kuda's gonna exercise this from Martin, and Martin is 84, and it's this whole backstory of family trauma that's been handed down and family fanaticism. And as fanatic, as fanatical as Kuda is religiously, yeah, Martin is that fanatic about what he is, he has that strong of a compulsion to do what it is he's doing.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so, you know, after he attacks Kuda, yeah, uh, and and some other stuff happens in there, but after he attacks Kuda, he has to go out and find someone to feed on. Right. Because he's popped the cork again. It doesn't matter that he's with Abby.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And now now we're we're just amplifying.
SPEAKER_02And like I I think that then Abby sort of meets her own demise because of Martin becoming emotionally distant.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I I'm not sure. I think that yeah, that's probably it. My read on it was guilt. And just even though she's getting her needs met through Martin, she's still entirely hopelessly locked into this relationship with her husband.
SPEAKER_02Well, there is also that, but the person that she was relying on to be that emotional support for her is no longer there.
SPEAKER_00That's a really interesting take. I think you probably are onto something there. Um, so Abby does end up taking her own life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we'll come back to that. I want to put a pin in that and talk a little bit about Arthur and Christina for a second, because Arthur tells Kuda earlier in the movie that he's planning on leaving Braddock. And Kuda trying to keep every last person in his dying community there, demands that Arthur go off and you know, get out of here then if you're gonna leave, after trying to convince him to stay. And that leads to a moment where uh Christina decides to go with Arthur.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Which is that time you you mentioned earlier that she makes some bad decisions, and and that might be the worst decision she makes in the movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And but it leads to a beautiful scene between Christina and Martin where Martin says, You'll forget about me. They all they always do. When you leave, you forget. And she says, No, no, I'll write you, I'll call you. They split a phone line, they split the cost of a phone line. It's so cute.
SPEAKER_02Their relationship is really, really nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and and that splitting of the phone line is almost a stand-in for splitting the burden of cuda.
SPEAKER_02Family trauma.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, of her saying, I'll help you shoulder this, or maybe you can help me shoulder this because she's the one who wants her own phone line. Right. And that's how Robert Martin's even able to call into the radio show. Yeah, she's literally his lifeline at some points, and she's leaving, and so Martin is just hopeless.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's when Martin goes off to Abby to get some more of that good old hope juice. Yeah, and uh and there's none there. There's no hope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's so it's so bleak and it's so just uh emotionally draining to watch. Yeah, and then we sort of are going into the exorcism, if I recall correctly.
SPEAKER_00I I don't uh do we do we pass up the exorcism? We skipped the exorcism, we skipped all of the priest stuff. George Romero plays a priest in this movie. Yeah. Before Martin dresses up like a vampire, they try and they try and exorcise the vampire out of Martin, bringing George Romero in as the new priest in town who thinks exorcisms are kind of BS anyway. And they're remodeling this church, and so it's a very small group of parishioners in a burnt-out attic. And the the church is uh bringing a deacon up to ask for money to restore the church, and it just it really anchors in that theme of what do you hope for when all your hope is being lost?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00That whole city is dying, and these people are still in an attic going to church, and the church is trying to vampire off money from the congregation. This whole movie, before we kind of wrap up the plot and talk about, you know, some of the impact of the movie, this whole movie, the van the real vampire the whole time, is what's happening to the city.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00It's the economic collapse of the city, just sucking these people dry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's the vampire that we're dealing with. It's it's less about Martin using a straight blade on women. Right. It's less about magic, it's less about family curses, and it's more about the slow draining of a population that's continued for 50 years uh till today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's sad to watch. When we're looking at vampire movies, specifically when we're approaching a r uh maybe a recession, they tend to be about about leaching off of the public in in a financial way. I mean, we can look at 90s vampires movies and say, oh, we'll look at it's like a virus or or 80s vampires movies and and what what does that mean? But vampires are a really flexible monster.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Because we can project our fears onto them very easily.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00From sexual repression in the Victorian era to the the the economic vampirism that's happening then and likely now in some of these movies that we're seeing coming out. Um and it's it's just it's sad to see how these people in Braddock are struggling and how uh the city is being sucked dry from the economic conditions. We do have a small exorcism scene which which plays nicely into some of the flashbacks, which are beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh the whole movie was supposed to be shot in black and white.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah. I think that it works though. I think that seeing those flashbacks in black and white helps not only to sort of give a red herring to maybe uh Martin is is as old as he thinks he is, um, but also roots us in a time and place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um well John is a haircut, so you know it's in the past. His hair is shorter. No, but uh the whole movie they filmed it in color, but they filmed it in a way that it could be printed in black and white. So they wanted to hide from the studio the fact that it could actually be shown in color.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh it didn't play for them because the studio was like, absolutely not. Let's not do this. But it was supposed to be like an homage to the old universal films in that way. And I think keeping the b the flashbacks in black and white really helped clarify the plot outside of John's haircut. I think it would have been a little confusing seeing a gang of torch wielding townsfolk chasing Martin around in uh and juxtaposed with Braddock all in color, it would have been very confusing. Some of my favorite shots of the movie, though, are the the townspeople chasing Martin. Martin and the the that iconic image of him holding the woman's arm up. Um Romero's favorite shot in the movie is Martin with the syringe in his teeth, like on this shirt, which is actually really cool. Um I like that we know what his favorite shot was. This is one of his favorite movies. Although uh the cinematographer Michael Gornick says that he did not feel like they had enough time to and enough money to properly adjust the color timing of the film, and he's not happy with how that turned out.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think it turned out just fine.
SPEAKER_00I think the 4K restoration from Second Sight looks absolutely beautiful. Although I can see his point about the color timing, it doesn't bother me. It's a film from the 70s. What what film from the 70s had good color timing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Um I'm sure some of them, I'm sure some of them did. Um, so yeah, that leads us to the end of the movie, which which really drives the uh nail into the coffin or the stake into the heart.
SPEAKER_02Quite literally.
SPEAKER_00Quite literally. Martin returns home and Kuda has heard about Abby's death.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00And Kuda says, I told you if you kill anybody here, I'll kill you before your soul is saved.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And just as Martin's asleep, stakes him in the heart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which leads to the second continuity error, second biggest continuity error of the movie, which Lincoln Mazel drives that thing straight into the bed frame. But that's one of the most brilliant moments of characterization in the film. I agree. Where you see the satisfaction on Kuda's face and also the horror at what he's done. Yeah. All at the same time, Lincoln Mazel goes through an entire emotional process in that staking of Martin. And then we cut to a wide shot and the stake is like sticking out, which never bothered me until Tom Savini mentioned it in the special features.
SPEAKER_02I just think that that is so interesting because Kuda is pushed to committing an inhuman act just because he thought Martin was inhuman.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was so convinced. What strikes me in this moment, yeah, because you're exactly right, that that that the real monster here ended up being Kuda.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Although Martin is totally a monster. Yeah. But Kuda has driven himself to monsterdom through his convictions. Martin through mental illness and is almost almost a victim as well of the family because they didn't get him the help he needed. He's almost a victim of this religious fanaticism in multiple ways.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I think what's really interesting here for me is the only time Martin has had any sort of intimacy, has allowed himself to be seen by another person, has connected with another person and didn't kill them. The only time he's done it with an awake person is what he gets killed for.
SPEAKER_02I know.
SPEAKER_00The only time he's allowing himself to have that emotional connection is actually what gets him killed.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's it's heartbreaking. It's tragic.
SPEAKER_02There is so much that is just hopeless in this movie.
SPEAKER_00Well, not so much, because I still have one more theory to throw at you. Sure. So coup to Barry's Martin in the backyard.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00According to the cast, he's still there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But we get one more radio call in at the end of the movie. And it's someone who sounds suspiciously like John Ampliss to my ears.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Saying I know where the count is.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00No, and it could it could just be another young man calling in, another crackpot, another another guy out there with the same compulsion who just is a young man hurting women.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We don't know.
SPEAKER_00But it could be Martin.
SPEAKER_02So in that case, is he actually a vampire?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, he would have to be, I would assume. You're not you're not coming back from that stake in the heart if you're not.
SPEAKER_02I think that for a long time I thought that he was actually a vampire, but uh on this rewatch in particular, I am left.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02That he is not.
SPEAKER_00So I I'm I'm I'm 100% he's not a vampire.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But this ending is so bleak.
SPEAKER_01It is.
SPEAKER_00And John Ampliss is so charming as Martin.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And Martin is such a horrible and likable character. I want him to be a vampire.
SPEAKER_02I know. I want him to be okay.
SPEAKER_00I want him to not be in Tony Booba's grandma's garden. Right. You know what I mean?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and and you know, we're left with this sense of at least it's over.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00What now? And with the with a distinct sense that Braddock is still gonna fall.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and it uh him him not sucking the townspeople off one by one isn't gonna change the fact that capitalism is gonna suck these townspeople dry one by one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's it's it's a bleak movie, it's a beautiful movie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um it's a hard movie.
SPEAKER_00It's challenging to watch, it's emotionally upsetting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there's a lot about this movie that it it evokes a lot of emotion. Um, and I think that's one of the reasons that I really love this movie is that it it sits in a place that is uncomfortable for me, but not in uh I'll never watch this movie again, sort of like I'll probably watch it again this year. Right. But that's what I'm saying. Like I think that there is something that is comfortable in the discomfort, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Comforting. I mean, there's at least uh a ray of hope that Martin can connect and find a place at least for a little while. And that's maybe all any of us ever get is just a place of comfort for a little while. I mean, no one's getting out of this alive, just like Martin.
SPEAKER_02No, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Well, before we wrap up, let's talk about the impact of this movie and where we're left today in light of Martin, because I don't think Martin is a well-known Romero film. No. Lots of folks, uh, the Die Hard fans are glad that we're talking about it when we talk about it. And a lot of people are like, oh, we need to, I need to check this movie out. It is available on Tubi.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00If you're a collector, you can order the second site uh 4K Blu-ray disc. Um it is a one-disc Blu-ray, I believe. And it has, well, the one that's available now, they did have a collector's edition and a nice slip cover that came out, but I think that's long since sold out. Um, there are some really wonderful special features, including a walking tour of Braddock with Michael Gornick and John Ampliss. Uh, and uh it's it's well worth your money if you're a fan. Um, this is the first time Romero didn't DP his own work. So he was used to doing everything himself, and Michael Gornick, who was a wartime photographer, was their jack of all trades, said, Yeah, I can do that, yeah, I can do that. And he ended up doing Creep Show and other Romero films after that. Um pretty sure Dawn of the Dead as well, if I'm not mistaken. So he he became a Romero mainstay because that gave Romero the ability to just be a director, which was huge, and that's a huge impact to the um to the the career of of the dead series.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh and I believe Michael Gornick was on the amusement park as well. If you get a chance, if you have Shotter, check out the Amusement Park. It's a lost film that was restored by the Romero Foundation and distributed in 2019, circa 2019, somewhere around there. Um it's bleak, it it feels a lot like Martin, and it also stars Lincoln Mazel, which is uh it's a it's a good, it's a no pun intended, it's a wild ride.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um other things that we can talk about in terms of the legacy. Uh the first cut was four hours 27 minutes long. That's crazy. They sliced it down to two hours 30 minutes long in black and white, and that cut has been lost. We think there's even even longer cut out there, but that was bought at auction by a private collector and is illegal to exhibit. Uh the Romero Foundation is trying to get it to be donated to the library at the University of Pittsburgh with the rest of his collection, although I don't know that that's making any progress. I'd love to see a restoration of it. It would be wonderful if we can get that. Uh, and then we want to talk a little bit about the legacy and impact. It was ranked number 87 out of 100 by Timeout magazines uh on their top horror film list. And I think that is uh an appropriate place for Martin.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I might list it higher in my own personal rankings, but in terms of like a generalized vote across all sub-genres where we're treating all things being equal. Yeah. 87 out of 100. I think that's pretty good. I think that's a place of honor for this little film that could.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. This is one of Romero's, this isn't a knight of the living dead, this isn't a dawn of the dead. This is a gritty little vampire question mark film. So I think that this is just a very different film from Romero. And the fact that it is on that list is incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I will say that it was made for $75,000 by a team of 10 to 15 people with grandma doon craft services and zero permits.
SPEAKER_02Gotta love it.
SPEAKER_00The fact that it's on that list at all is amazing. And we watch a lot of independent film.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um, you know, for any one of those to craft that list is uh is amazing. And this is this is one that's worth your time. And lastly, I will re- I'll I'll end where we started, that Chicago Readers quote saying it's perhaps the most emotional of Romero's films. And I'll say that it's all the emotions.
SPEAKER_02It is.
SPEAKER_00It's fear, it's discomfort, it's revulsion, it's hope, it's love, it's connection, and it's tragedy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Perfect way to end this.
SPEAKER_00We hope you enjoyed our first ever podcast episode here at the Dread Alert Podcast. We're gonna be doing these deep dives into films where I'll pick a film that I love and make Sarah subject Sarah to it, and Sarah will pick a film that she loves and make me watch it, and we'll get each other's take. And we're also gonna do deep dives on films that we see in theaters. We're gonna do deep dives on genre and subgenre classics, we're gonna do deep dives on subgenres themselves. I have an episode planned about slashers that I cannot wait to talk about. But we hope you join us for the next one, and as always, stay spooky, my friends.
