Modern zombies came from vampires

I love the story of I Am Legend, and I have watched the adaptations to films starring Charlton Heston and Will Smith (the latter being good but a bit inferior to the prior). Strange though, that I had never seen the first adaptation to film, The Last Man on Earth starring the late, great Vincent Price until now.

I was utterly enthralled with it, as it does a far better job than the newer films of building an atmosphere of loneliness and despair. It makes the job of surviving the post-apocalypse alone seem more of a routine shambling than living, along with a bit more terror. 

It's especially more effective in the horror, as it's a far more accurate adaptation of the book, in that it distinguishes that there are two types of vampires in the world, the more shambling zombie-like hoards and the more cerebral predators who can more carefully reason and think. Either way, both are willing to feed on their own when a lack of food presents itself. This makes Dr Morgan's life even more depressing in this version of the story, as he is constantly collecting and burning the bodies in a futile attempt to stop the spread of the disease. It also makes his hunting of the vampires far more personal and disturbing, as he's not able to use a gun, and has to stake them himself to prevent them form coming back. 

Freaking disturbing

As for the legacy of the movie and the title of this post, it's funny that the book it is based on won an award for it's depiction of vampires, with Interview With A Vampire losing out to it. Yet nowadays, Anne Rice's work practically defines the vampire genre, and I Am Legend is nearly alone in it's style of vampires. The only other work I can think of to use it, would be the anime Hellsing. 

However, it's legacy is not completely lost, as George Romero has stated this as his primary inspiration for making Night of the Living Dead and thus starting the zombie genre as we know it today. In a funny apocryphal quote, when Richard Matheson (the author and screenwriter) watched Night of the Living Dead and had afterwards confronted Romero about having adapted his work without permission, Romero put his hands in the air and stated emphatically, "I didn't make any money on the movie either!"

They also used extras for most of the bodies, making his handling of them very authentic and saddening.

For such a low budget film, it holds up really well, but some of that does show, especially in the action scenes. Overall, I still love it far more than the other two adaptations. If you have a chance, be sure to give it a try, as I think it's certainly the most true adaptation to the book.  Just be sure to watch it in the original black and white version, as it adds to the disturbing aesthetic as well as the colorized version being just inferior.