Horror Movie Classics Part III

Today we have a little film I was very excited to watch.

The Last Man on Earth!



The reason I was so excited to see this film is because it's based off of one of my all time favorite novels - "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson. There have been two other attempts to make this novel into a film. After "The Last Man on Earth!" there was "The Omega Man" in 1971



and then "I am Legend" in 2007.



So how does the original compare?

Well, it's closest to the book. I think that's because it was the only version where Matheson was actually involved with the script.

I love movies about the end of the world. The beginning of "The Omega Man" is great at this, I even enjoyed watching Will Smith walk around an empty New York in the new version. The biggest problem with "The Last Man on Earth" is the lack of these types of scenes. Vincent Price does visit the burn pits where the bodies were dumped before society completely went down the crapper, which was cool. But beyond that, well...the small budget really hurts this film.

At first you can tell by the buildings in the background that this film was not made in America, after a little research I found they filmed it in Rome. Which to me was just plain weird. When you read the book you have to visualize it as one of those old black and white 'Twilight Zone' episodes filmed in an abandoned LA of the mid-1950s. It helps. But this film was just off somehow.

Is it good? Yeah, it's better than the others. The ending is the closest and doesn't suffer from the pretentious ending that plagues "The Omega Man". Vincent Price is not a good choice as Robert Neville (in this film called Dr. Robert Morgan) - but it does address his depression which the other films don't really seem to capture. If you have a free afternoon with nothing better to do and this comes on television I would recommend you give it a chance. But really what you should do instead is go to the library and check the book out and read it yourself.



It's a short novel and will take just as long to read as it would to watch the film.

Three out of Five Skulls - (For a decent attempt at a fantastic novel)