Dr. Robert Morgan begins his day like any other: he makes himself some coffee and orange juice, he marks his calendar, he goes out to get gas, and goes shopping for groceries and other items. Oh, and along the way he piles stray corpses into his station wagon, to haul them off and burn them in a giant pit.

The Film
Based on Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend (and co-adapted for the screen by Matheson himself), The Last Man on Earth follows the day-to-day life of Robert Morgan, the only survivor of a plague that apparently wiped out the entire population of the earth. He’s the only living survivor, anyway -- everyone else whose body hasn’t been completely destroyed has returned as one of the bloodthirsty undead.

Set in California (shot in Italy), the film opens with a montage of shots of an eerily empty city, eventually revealing stray corpses littering the streets and steps. Dr. Morgan is revealed to be the one man left alive when he is woken by his alarm clock. His first thought is appropriately grim: “Another day to live through. Better get started.”

Like 12 Monkeys, the film’s outer narrative takes place some time after the plateau of a plague that supposedly begins within a year after the movie’s release. The overall structure is that of a modern zombie plague movie: society collapses, everyone you know is at risk of becoming undead, and the survivor(s) must barricade themselves in a building while the undead mindlessly bang on the doors and windows, trying to bust their way in. Many of these scenes of the undead attempting to enter Dr. Morgan’s house -- or draw him out -- are seriously chilling, even by today’s standards. However, if you’re looking for blood and gore or in-your-face horror, you won’t find it here; the creepiness is largely psychological. The nightly assaults on Dr. Morgan’s house -- while he waits them out by listening to jazz, watching home movies, and drinking -- make for a kind of horror that doesn’t rely on surprise; like a recurring nightmare, one grows to expect it, which fosters a constant sense of dread and despair.

Robert Morgan, a chemist (and armchair biologist / pathologist), has regimented each day into a routine, which includes systematically seeking out and destroying the undead he can find during the day (when they\'re vulnerable). It seems he\'s desperately hoping to perpetuate in his own life the order that has disappeared from society (culminating with the disappearance of society itself). He even tries to compartmentalize his own emotions for the sake of preserving his reason -- which, as he sees it, is the one advantage he has over the undead. But the walls he’s erected within his psyche are as battered as the walls of his house, and Dr. Morgan’s struggle to survive starts seeming secondary to his struggle to stay sane. (How’s that for alliteration?)

The Performances
Although some reviewers have criticized the casting of Vincent Price, I think he does a fine job; his soft-spoken voiceovers sound like the epitome of rationality (as they should, in his mind) -- while his actions and physical utterances betray far more desperation. Price manages to convey a compelling combination of strength, loneliness, and exhaustion. His large frame contrasts well with his wearily stooped posture; his grim determination balances his subtly genteel manner. The viewer can easily imagine how he has spent years burying his sorrow and terror deep inside himself in order to cope with a horrifying and desperate situation. That Morgan is such a sympathetic yet troubled character makes it very effective when the plot takes some interesting twists late in the film.

The Zombies
Okay, they’re referred to once or twice as “vampires” in the movie. And they share some of the classic allergies of vampires: sunlight, garlic, mirrors, stakes-through-the-heart, and crucifixes (which is left unexplained). I might provoke some objections by placing this review in the “Zombies” category; however, most true fans of zombie cinema will immediately recognize the forerunners to our feared and beloved shamblers here. While the vampire attributes seem incidental, the zombie attributes help form the tone and structure of the film. Although these undead possess limited speech and memory, they look and function just like the ghouls from Night of the Living Dead -- recent corpses lumbering around, malevolent but practically mindless, able to use simple tools but incapable of strategizing, etc. Their only real drive is to feed on people. George A. Romero has acknowledged the novel I Am Legend as a major source of inspiration for NotLD, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this film was also used as a reference. The overall look of the two films is similar, with their stark black-and-white photography and occasional exterior shots showing the undead’s progression. Some scenes from LMoE could even be spliced into NotLD relatively seamlessly; the undead banging on the doors and boarded-up windows of the house, smashing a car, etc. Some sequences in LMoE closely resemble -- and may well have influenced -- scenes in other zombie / pseudozombie films such as Cronenberg’s Rabid, Romero’s Day of the Dead, and Boyle’s 28 Days Later. In truth, The Last Man on Earth is an ostensible vampire movie that functions as the first modern zombie movie, anticipating the structure and concept that Romero would use in his own seminal film, which itself served as the template for nearly every subsequent entry into the subgenre. (Set in the near future of when it was released, The Last Man on Earth takes place, appropriately enough, in 1968 -- the same year Night of the Living Dead came out in real life.)

I’ll mention that unlike Romero’s ghouls, who emphatically are not cannibalistic (i.e., they don’t eat each other, even though they are anthropophagous), these undead apparently feed off the weakest among them when they don’t have other food sources. It’s not essential to the plot -- if it even makes sense -- but it is interesting.

Also, don’t expect any “shoot ‘em in the head” battles; much of the action here is of the “shoving match” variety. That’s right; these undead are vulnerable to being literally pushed around. (Maybe it hurts their feelings or something.) The film does contain some real action, however, especially later on.

Other Thoughts
The theme of conflict between “new” and “old” society that’s so important for Romero emerges in Last Man on Earth in a powerful and unsettling way, especially as the story’s broad scope reaches a bleakly mythic level late in the film. The film also poses serious social and individual identity questions (comparable but not identical to Romero’s “They are us, we are them” zombie issues).

From the beginning, and with help from a lengthy flashback to life as it was shortly after the plague’s outbreak, the film shows society itself collapsing at various levels. The initial confusion and paranoia are manageable enough, but the social fabric begins to tear when normative funerary rites are disrupted by the State and a sort of martial law comes into effect. People stop going to work and socializing with each other. Eventually even the bonds between friends, neighbors, and family members disintegrate. Romero dealt with this theme brilliantly in Night of the Living Dead, and posits much of the problem within individuals; LMoE, however, shows (and implies) the dismantling of society whole sectors at a time.

Matheson’s novel would later be remade into The Omega Man, and apparently it’s currently being adapted into a new film under the original title I Am Legend. I recommend that zombie, vampire, and sci-fi fans alike take a look at this somewhat obscure yet highly significant horror tale.

Review rating: 8 out of 10 garlic cloves that magically remain fresh for years in the supermarket.