DVD & BluRay

MARTIN: LIMITED EDITION

Second Sight. Cert 18; 4K UHD/Blu-ray/Book boxset £39.99

It’s one of the mysteries of the horror world that director George A. Romero had such huge success with popular zombie classics like Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead - yet Martin was almost overlooked.

Perhaps because Martin (John Amplas - pictured) is a shy vampire, in fact he’d rather not think of himself as a vampire at all, and shudders at the thought of attacking a victim by sinking fangs into their neck. That’s why he carries a little kit of syringes containing knockout drops.

He’s no sinister black-cloaked figure of terror emerging from dry ice mist like Christopher Lee’s Dracula, that’s for sure. But, Second Sight now do the late Romero’s forgotten classic proud with a fine 4K UHD restoration of the 1977 film complete with a standard Blu-ray version, a 108-page booklet of new essays and a feature-length documentary on the making of the film, Collectors will be falling over themselves to get the superb limited edition box before they’re all gone.

Martin isn’t a bloodthirsty zombie who shuffles through a shopping mall in search of victims. He’s a more low key vampire, just a crazy mixed up kid with an insatiable thirst that turns him into a killer. And its realism, being set in a dyingon-its-feet American town that was built on steel and has been hollowed out by cheap imports, makes it more frightening on many levels than Hammer’s Gothic portrayals.

Of course using razor blades and sedatives may disqualify Martin from any claim to be a vampire. Maybe he’s just your psychotic kidnext-door.