Review: Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price-- October Frights bloghop--#‎Octoberfrights‬ #giveaway #zombies #movies

I am participating in paranormal author Clarissa Johal's October Frights Blog hop.

As I mentioned in my last post, Richard Mattheson's book I Am Legend has been made for the big screen more than once. The 1964 movie, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, is just one. People around the world are dying from a mysterious illness.
 Though he and his colleagues at the CDC try, they can’t find a cure for it. Some three years later, the dead have been rising from the grave to return and walk the streets as vampire-like zombies. There's only one survivor of this catastrophe: Dr. Robert Morgan. He’s lost his wife, his child, and all his friends to the plague. The entire world’s population has been wiped out…or at least he hasn’t seen any other unaffected human in three years. Society has degenerated, and Robert lights his home with generators and forages the abandoned markets during the day, to stay alive. And when not doing that, he seeks out hives of the infected to destroy them before they come and destroy him.

Then one day, he finds a dog, and then a woman shows herself, clearly, like him, unaffected by the plague. Or is she? Whatever she is, he learns from her that the infected seek his death—for the crimes he’s committed against them. Crimes? He’d never thought of his hunts as any such thing.

So the question here becomes, are the creatures the monsters? Or is Morgan?

This version retains the Us vs. Them, feel, and Vincent Price is as ever, great, and one can see comparisons between the zombies here and George Romero’s famous shambling zombies.

There are a couple scenes where they mis-edited things (it’s supposed to be night and Price turns a corner and it’s daylight, etc); the director also (in contrast to I Am Legend) included voice-overs so you get Morgan’s thoughts, but still, it’s intense and  enjoyable. If you'd like to check it out, it's available at Amazon.

(And yes, it too is an influence on my zombie story, Bicycle Requiem. You can check out the giveaway for it here.)

Have you seen this movie? If so, what'd you think of it?
Thanks for stopping by. You can see the rest of the participants in the hop by clicking the blue button below. Happy Halloween!!




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I Am Legend review--#‎Octoberfrights‬ #giveaway #zombieapocalypse

So every time I think of Halloween this subject comes up. What books and movies can I talk about? Well, I realize I haven't done a review in a while. So, I pulled out my favorite of the last few years: I Am Legend. Yeah, yeah. I've heard a lot of people grumble about this movie, but I loved it. So! I thought why not. I'll probably review Vincent Price's 1964 movie version, The Last Man on Earth, later, so stay tuned.
The premise of Will Smith's version of I Am Legend, the movie is  pretty much the same. Sort of.

I Am Legend starts out with a newscaster interviewing a doctor (played by Emma Thompson) announcing the cure for Cancer has been found. YAA!!!

Well, not so fast. Three years later, we're shown a New York City that's completely abandoned and in ruins, overrun by wild animals, flora and fauna. Turns out, that so-called cure launched a virus that wiped out 90% of the world's population. Only 10% survive and, as far as our main character Dr. Neville knows, only one person has survived. Himself. The others have all turned into twisted, animalistic creatures, more zombie than human. Not to give any spoilers away but he works tirelessly to create a cure for this virus and distracts himself as he can, doing everything from working out, to watching every movie the local video stores have to offer (yes, this movie was made in 2007--before the collapse of the video stores!) and listening to cds, and scouting for supplies. On said-missions around NY Neville hopes to find survivors, but all he finds...are the infected. And
animal-er-zombie-like they see him as a possible food source. EEP!

Those scenes, particularly when he must go into a dark building where the zombies (or Darkseekers, as the movie calls them) are quite harrowing. The world itself, or what it has become with only one man left walking around tending to it, actually seems *snark* less far-fetched than most End of the World set pieces. But the story itself is just riveting in my opinion. Fans of Richard Mattheson's novel complained because the movie is different from the book, and those differences are probably why it got so many bad reviews. However,  I think Will Smith and crew did a fine job and despite the differences, I loved it. The message is just great, it's the end of the world as we know it, but we'll survive, we'll fix it, and be just fine.

*And yes, in case you're wondering, both I Am Legend/Last Man on Earth did have an influence on the little zombie story I'm giving away: Bicycle Requiem. Click here to find and fill out the Rafflecopter for said-giveaway.

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