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CHAPTER FIVE George Romero’s Martin: An AmericanVampire If such a character, a vampire, existed from the beginning of time, he’d really have a tough time today because he’d have to get a new ID every twenty years or so. I mean, a vampire today would really have some sweats. george romero on MARTIN 1 While most of the vampire films and television programs of the 1970s play with generic conventions, George Romero’s Martin takes a more overt revisionist approach to the genre. One of the film’s chief methods of doing this is to present the vampire as American. While The Night Stalker demonstrates how, in the evolution of the modern world, the past is fundamentally embedded in the present, the vampire is still an external force infiltrating, by accident or design, the modern Western world. Furthermore , films such as Count Yorga, Vampire and Blacula also feature American vampires, but they were vampirized by European and African vampires who invaded American cities. Romero’s vampire in Martin is distinct because, like Andy in Deathdream, it is an American teenager. As a result, America is not vampirized, but rather the vampire is Americanized. The film’s revisionist approach to the vampire is conveyed in its trailer, which advertises the film as “Another Kind of Terror,” and features the title character talking to the camera, explaining that he is a vampire but not like the ones from old movies. Martin describes how careful he must be, how he struggles against superstitions, and how he suffers from an illness that requires him to drink blood. His statements are juxtaposed over a montage of clips of Martin meticulously planning, instigating, and concealing each murder in grainy, faded images that undermine generic expectations of studio-produced Gothic horror films.According to Romero, he and his cinematographer Mike Gornick consciously manipulated the 90 CelluloidVampires film stock in order to create a gritty aesthetic. “[Gornick] used reversal stock instead of negatives, so he was able to get saturation and wash it down. We wanted it to be seedier and there’s no great difference between some of the color sequences . . . and the black-and-white. In fact, we had to push the black and white sequences further to make them grainier and grittier than the color ones.”2 The film’s visual style is just one of the ways in which Martin distinguishes itself from classic vampire films. A further generic difference is that unlike traditional vampires, Martin does not have fangs but uses hypodermic needles to sedate his victims and slits their wrists with a razor blade, drinking the blood as it spurts out from the vein. The original poster design for the film draws upon this generic innovation by featuring an image of a blood soaked razor blade with vampire fangs protruding from either end. Inscribed on the top of the blade are the words “Made In USA.” These two campaigns, the poster and the trailer, seem to emphasize that Martin is another kind of terror, not only because of his unique methods and his realistic representation, but precisely because he was Made in USA. Although there is a suggestion that he has come to the United States from Europe to live with his cousin Tata Cuda, a traditional vampire hunter whose aim is to either save Martin’s soul or destroy him, Martin has actually only traveled from Indianapolis to come to Pittsburgh and actually appears more American than his cousin. Unlike Cuda—whose accent, style of dress, and demeanor suggest that he comes from Europe, despite the claims that he has been in the town a long time—Martin is identified, from his accent to his T-shirts, combat trousers, and sneakers, as an American youth of the 1970s. (Figure 5.1) Martin’s youth is a key signifier in his embodiment of the modern and is emphasized by the oppositional relationship he holds with his elders in the town. When he arrives, the patrons of Cuda’s store comment that they can’t remember when a young man moved into Braddock. One of the customers vocalizes her disapproval of his living in the same house with Cuda’s granddaughter Christina, which suggests a distrust of the young despite Cuda’s assurances that “his family know how to behave.” Later, Martin is lambasted by the same woman for being lazy, as she claims, “We work in this town.” The “we” in her statement can only refer to the older...

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