MARTIN Book vs. Movie — Every Major Difference Explained

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]What's going on everybody? Um, here with a book review. Yes, we are doing book reviews now and I'm talking about Martin by George A. Romero and Susanna Sparrow.

[00:00:12]Now, this book was published and released in 1980. Uh, it's a fairly rare book. It's kind of hard to find. You can kind of see them you can see them popping up on eBay every now and then for 50, sometimes 60 depending on, you know, which edition you get. Some of the like first edition hard cover usually goes for a little more than that, but you can usually find this paperback version on eBay for about 50 or 60 bucks if you get lucky. And of course, we've all heard about the black and white 2 and a half hour, three-hour cut of Martin that the um the George A. Romero archive um has at the University of Pittsburgh right now. and and only a handful of people have seen it, but George always talked about that cut as kind of being the version that he preferred, the version that he wishes would have gotten released, which of course, I mean, a black and white, you know, horror film, two and a half hours in the late '7s, just wasn't going to sell. So, he eventually went back, colorized it, did a um cut it down to 90 minutes, and it's the version we got, which is the version that I love. Uh you guys know I'm a huge fan of Martin. It's one of my top two or three favorite horror films, favorite films ever. Like I I'm I love Martin.

[00:01:28]But uh after reading this book, um and actually digging into it, the book kind of reads and feels like from everything that I've heard about the two and a half hour black and white cut of Martin, it kind of feels like the book is that version. Um, which there are various details and and and and various aspects of the book that we'll get into here in just a second that that kind of lead me down that down that pathway to kind of make me think like, oh, this is the version that George wanted us to see. Um, which even Mike Gornick has talked about. He's not a fan of Martin in in the current form that it's in right now. the the colorized 90minute version, the one that we've all seen, the only version that we've ever seen. He always preferred the black and white two and a half hour cut as being the version of Martin that he prefers.

[00:02:19]Now, there are various differences in this book uh in compared to the film.

[00:02:23]There's a lot of similarities of course, but there are some different scenes, some more character development. Um, and the first thing that really stood out for me, um, as a whole getting through the entire book is really the difference in tone that the Martin character has from what we see in the film to what is in this book. Um, in the book he's he's far more diabolical, it seems like. Um, and I think it really I think that really says a lot about John Amplas' performance.

[00:02:54]You guys know I'm a huge fan of Amplas' performance in Martin. To me, it's my favorite my favorite performance in any Romero film is John Amplas's performance as Martin in that film. And I think that's the major difference is that Amplas, the way that he portrayed that character with such sympathy. Um because like we've talked about before, it's like the character of Martin himself. I mean, yeah, he thinks he's a vampire. He thinks he's, you know, 84 year old vampire, whatever. And he's a murderer. He's a, you know, a rapist.

[00:03:26]He's a stalker. He drinks blood. I mean, he's literally everything bad that one person could be rolled into one. Um, but the way that Amplas portrays him in the film is is so sympathetic and you almost feel so sorry for him that you're kind of on his side. Like you want him to kind of get away with with this [ __ ] You know what I mean? Um, so I think that's that's one of the big like the big difference that I felt when reading this book was I felt like oh the Martin character is a little bit more slimy, a little bit more conniving in the book as opposed to uh as opposed to the film whereas the film you feel a little more sorry for him. So yeah, I think that's just a big shout out to John Amplas and and the brilliant performance that he brings to that character because I mean he just really does bring such uh sympathy and almost a sort of likability to that character that you don't really get uh when reading the book um or you know probably the screenplay for that matter. Another major difference, the one the one first thing that immediately popped out to me when I first started reading this book was that it has a different opening. There's a different um uh series of events that takes place um in this novelization that doesn't take place in the film, which from everything that I've heard about the black and white 2 and a half hour cut of Martin is how that version opens as well. And it actually opens with uh a businessman, the man that you see on the train as Martin's trying to get off when all the women are, you know, they're, you know, the women are trying to come in, Martin's trying to go out and you see a businessman right behind Martin.

[00:05:00]the mo the movie um the the black and white two and a half hour cut of the movie as well as this novelization begin with that businessman as kind of like the central focused character who's sitting on the train uh late at night.

[00:05:14]Martin's sitting at the table kind of like he is in in the uh in in you know the finished film playing the cards, you know, whatnot. And the businessman tries to uh kind of strike up a conversation with Martin because I mean they're the only two guys left on this car, you know, this late at night and Martin really wants no part of it. And that's kind of where the transition begins where the businessman goes away and then we're stuck with this Martin character.

[00:05:37]Another big difference um for me was that you get more of the Arthur character that Tom Ceini plays. Um there's more interaction. There's actually a specific uh scene where Martin and and Arthur interact um just one-on-one, which you don't get in the film. Um and it actually kind of brings a little bit more sympathy to the Arthur character in in the book more so than the movie. in the movie he's kind of uh I mean he's not I mean he's not portrayed as like a you know a heroic or decent you know overly decent person in in in the book either but in the book you kind of feel like he's trying to you know he's trying to talk to Martin he's trying to identify kind of bring him into the fold because you know the in the book there's a party that they're going to have at the bar because Arthur's leaving to go to Indianapolis to to seek work and uh he's trying to get Martin to come to the party to make him you know like hey kid come on you like we're having this party. I'd like for you to be there, you know, type of thing. So, there is a little bit more of Arthur in the book, too, that kind of fleshes his character out a little more to make him a little bit more likable as opposed to what he is what he is in the movie. Um, there's also, I mean, the the relationship between Martin and Mrs. Santini um is is fleshed out, literally fleshed out uh a little more in the book. There is a literal three to four page sex scene in the book between Martin and Mrs. Santini that's really like in detail and it it just feels weird because it's the way that it's described it just feels like Mrs. Santini is is really doing something uh immoral by having sex with Martin. um just you know it you know it it was it was a little weird reading it but it also makes you wonder is that stuff and I want to ask John about this like maybe next time I see him at Living Dead Weekend or something like that.

[00:07:28]That'd be a big question I'd be curious to know. Did they actually shoot a sex scene with him and Ela Noo who played Mrs. Santini? Um I'd be very curious about it because it's very graphic, very detailed in the book that's for sure.

[00:07:44]Um, so I wonder if that was actually show because in the movie you just see like, you know, Martin comes to the house and he's like, I know you want me here for sex and then it just like cuts to, you know, the aftermath of the sex and then it goes on from there. Whereas in the book, it literally plays out step by step of like, oh, okay, you know, let's how does this work? How does, you know, what position are they in? You know, it really gets into the [ __ ] detail. So, another thing, the kills are different. The kill scenes are different in the book. And I think this was probably specific for the book cuz I think what they shot is what is in the final film. Um but the the kill sequences are different in the book as well. Like the train sequence. So at the beginning of the film in the train sequence, uh after Martin um after Martin kills the woman, uh he just sets it up to make it look like a suicide attempt or a suicide and leaves. And that's that's that. In the book, he actually takes the woman's body and throws it out of the window of the train, which is kind of brilliant because the train is constantly moving and he kind of waits for a specific spot like where the body would like never be found. You're like, "Oh, we're we're going over this bridge now. This would be a good spot to dump the body out the window." I'm sure they didn't film that because of just like that would be kind of hard to do um you know believably but in the book it's pretty sadistic which again goes back to what I was saying about the Martin character in the book feeling a little bit more diabolical than he is in the actual film. I think having Martin just try to pass it off as a suicide attempt as opposed to like literally you know chucking the woman's body out the out of the window of the train. Um it it seems a little bit more delicate I guess. So maybe that kind of helps the character as well. But I thought that was interesting as I was reading it. I was like I was in my mind picturing John Amplas trying to lift the body to throw it out the window and I was like this I I don't know if this works or not. It's this is a little weird. But also the the chase sequence that happens in the uh you know in the middle of the film with with Alivitzky and u you know it's like it's much more condensed. It's Martin going into the bedroom and pretty much doing it all right there. There's no phone tag or whatever. There's no chasing around the house. Um, it's pretty straightforward and pretty pretty to the point in in that one, too. So, that's where, you know, the book's a little different in that aspect as well.

[00:10:05]Now, there are some stuff that that are very similar to the film, which I was kind of surprised by. So, we all know if you're if you follow Martin, you you know anything about that two and a half hour cut. Mike Gornick has always talked about like he shot a scene as a detective. his name was Detective Berdick in the uh in the black and white cut. And the film actually ends with him and another guy that he was, you know, his his partner or whatever. Two detectives go into Cuda's shop and start questioning Cuda about this disappearance, like, you know, where this kid's at because he's kind of, you know, we think we think he's connected to these other murders. Um uh you know, but this would that was not in the book either. the book kind of ends the same way that the film ends. So maybe George in doing the novelization with the, you know, the mysterious Susanna Sparrow. Uh maybe just felt like ah that's a good way to end it. Just end it with Cuda burying the body and then that that's that, you know. Um so yeah, that the detective scene is not in the book either. So I thought that was kind of interesting. The Christina character is is fleshed out a little more. In the book, she starts to become a little bit more aware and a little bit more suspicious of Martin. You know, even though she doesn't believe in the magic, she doesn't believe what Cuda is trying to tell her. In the book, she starts kind of putting two and two together.

[00:11:25]She hears, you know, the news story about the murder that took place in Pittsburgh the same night that Martin left Bradock to go visit Pittsburgh. And she starts putting the some of the clues together. She never really comes to any real conclusion, but you can see like those little seeds of doubt being planted in her brain as the book is playing out. So, I thought that was kind of an interesting little layer, too, which also you kind of wonder, is that in, you know, is that in the uh the original cut as well. Highly recommend checking it out. Like I said, kind of hard to find. It's a little pricey, but it's a great collector's item just to have and that's why I got it to begin with. I wasn't planning on reading it because, you know, um but, you know, after a while, I said, "Fuck it. I'm going to read it." quick read. Uh interesting stuff in it. Recommend checking it out. I don't know if we'll ever get to see that uh that two and a half hour black and white cut of Martin.

[00:12:16]Hopefully someday we will. Um but uh until then, this this will suffice.

[00:12:23]Thank you for checking out this video. I appreciate it. Hit that like button. Uh subscribe if you're watching for the first time. And I'll catch you guys next time. But until then, stay scared.