Movies
The 3.5 Hour Director’s Cut of George A. Romero’s ‘Martin’ Has Reportedly Been Unearthed!
Much like Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero‘s 1977 horror movie Martin, centered on a man who believes he’s a vampire, is currently being restored by the UK’s Second Sight Films, with a physical 4K Ultra HD release on the way. As we learned just last week, the 4K restoration is “nearing completion,” and we’re expecting a release sometime in early 2022.
As a bit of a follow-up to that exciting news, we’ve learned the even more exciting news that George Romero’s 3.5 hour, black & white director’s cut has reportedly been located!
Ronald Gorewood posts on Facebook, “I simply can’t say enough about the efforts of KEVIN KRIESS and THE LIVING DEAD MUSEUM in locating the seldom (if ever) seen, black and white, 16mm version of MARTIN. This “Director’s Cut” of some three and a half hours in length was always Romero’s preferred version. May it soon return safely to the custody of Richard Rubinstein and Braddock Associates for digital revitalization and distribution to the world.”
“Ronald Gorewood,” it seems, is an alias for the film’s director of photography, Michael Gornick. In other words, this scoop seems to be quite legit, though at this time there’s no word on whether or not the Director’s Cut will be released to the public any time soon. Will Second Sight now wait until they can restore this cut of the film as well? We’ll keep you posted.
The cut of Martin that we’ve all spent the past several decades watching runs just 95 minutes long, so needless to say this “Director’s Cut” is *LOADED* with footage we’ve NEVER SEEN.
In the 1977 movie, released one year prior to Dawn of the Dead, “A young man (John Amplas), who believes himself to be a vampire, goes to live with his elderly and hostile cousin in a small Pennsylvania town where he tries to redeem his blood-craving urges.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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