The Last Man on Earth

Buy This Item The Last Man on Earth by American International Pictures (AIP)  Available from Amazon  $9.99  on 11-25-2008     Vincent Price gives an atypically restrained performance as the sole survivor of a worldwide plague that revives its victims as bloodthirsty vampires. During the day, he canvasses his abandoned hometown, tracking down and stalking his former friends and neighbors, always making sure to return before nightfall, when the dead rise to assault his fortified house. Hope arrives in the form of an apparently normal young woman (Franca Bettoia), but her agenda proves to be even more sinister than that of the vampires.<p> Based on the 1954 novel by coscripter Matheson (whose displeasure with the final product spurred the use of a pseudonym), this Italian-made production is best known for its influence on George Romero's <I>Night of the Living Dead</I>. The similarities between the two films go beyond the presence of shuffling zombies and housebound heroes; both feature taboo-breaking scenes of interfamilial murder, and both end on bleak, dystopian notes. While <I>The Last Man on Earth</I> lacks the political and darkly satirical shadings (and graphic gore) that make <I>Night of the Living Dead</I> a more memorable experience, the combination of Bava-esque Gothic atmosphere and bleak, documentary-style camerawork by directors Ragona and Salkow (the brother of Price's agent Lester Salkow) lend themselves to moments of pure frisson that compare laudably to Romero's film. Matheson's novel also provided the source material for the awkward 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle <I>The Omega Man</I>. A planned third version, helmed by Ridley Scott and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was shut down in its earliest stages due to skyrocketing budget costs. <I>--Paul Gaita</I> Reader Reviews So,I AM LEGEND has finally come out, with its big name star and its big budget and its big computer generated special effects, but when the smoke and hype cleared the fect remains that THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price filmed back in the 1960's in black and white with no virtually no budget and no special effects at all is still the best available adaptation of Richard Matheson's classic Horror/scifi novel. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is the story of a single human being and his day to day struggle to survive in a world devasted by a plague that has turned all other living creatures into vampires, while at the same time trying to understand the nature of virus that caused the plague and perhaps bring about a cure. Its far deeper and more complex than the newer film, but like the newer film it deviates from Matheson's novel in its ending by giving us a Christian interpretation of Neville's attempts to save the world with his blood. The differences between the two films come in showing Neville's dayto day existence, and more impotantly by continuing what the film I AM LEGEND starts with...that viruses mutate. I don't want to give that away. You should experience it for yourself, its what makes this movie and the novel unique. I AM LEGEND is a must read. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH is a must see.

The Last Man on Earth Available from Amazon Price: $9.99 Updated on 11-25-2008.

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