I’m listed on this website as reviewer of zombie films and NYC event correspondent so technically THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is not a film I should be reviewing. The film however,
besides being one of my favorite movies , is one that many people (including the master himself George Romero) credit as being an inspiration for “Night of the Living Dead” so I wanted to have it included here.
The film is based on the classic Richard Matheson story “I Am Legend” about a man who is the only survivor of a plague that turns the world’s population into vampires. ” Morgan”(Vincent Price) survives because he is immune due to a vaccine he created. The film plays like a video diary documenting the day to day drudgery and loneliness that is the life of a solitary vampire hunter who has lost everything while struggling to hold onto his sanity and ultimately his humanity. In the end he finally meets another “survivor” only to find out that she’s is simply a vampire that has adapted and she proves to be his undoing by film’s end despite her attempts to save him.
It’s a great looking movie filmed in a sort of bare bones fashion that suits the barren decomposing world it depicts. Price is excellent as usual and does some of his best acting despite being silent for much of the film. The rest of the cast is basically inconsequential and their parts could have been played by any competent actor although I wonder if the zombie-ish way the vampires come across was intentional or a result of wooden acting. In the end it doesn’t matter because it works. The scenes of the vampires shambling outside Morgan’s house are pure zombie
action. One could almost splice these scenes into “Night of the Living Dead” and they would hardly seem out of place. I can easily see young George Romero drawing his zombie vision from this film and those scenes in particular . I know he had other influences(like Hammer’s Plague of the Zombies) but few are so clear. In fact, Romero has been known to use the term “Ripped Off”
when referencing both “I am Legend” and “The Last Man on Earth”
As a zombie historian of sorts I consider this movie essential viewing but even if you don’t give a crap about zombie movies at all I still consider this essential viewing. Take your pick of the reasons. A classic Vincent Price performance , A classic cold war era apocalyptic film or a precursor to one of the greatest horror films of all time…Either way you can’t go wrong.
-Eric (Aka: Zombielover)
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
