I'm watching The Last Man on Earth right now. It's from 1964 and stars Vincent Price, and it was the very first movie adaptation of the novel I Am Legend. Fifteen minutes in, and it's already five times as creepy as the Will Smith version. This movie works because, well... because it works. Vincent Price hasn't seen or spoken to another human in three years. He spends his days burning corpses, refreshing his food stores, and methodically searching door to door killing all of the zombie/vampires he can find. (Haven't gotten far enough in to establish what the creepy non-humans are.) Nights are spent barricaded in his home, while the zombie/vampires taunt him and try to scratch their way inside to kill him.
I Am Legend never worked for me because I didn't buy Will Smith's 'being alone has made me crazy' bit, and also because the CGI monsters were so poorly done that Big Willy might as well have been menaced by these guys.
And I guess the creepiness of this movie also suprises me because, despite an extensive filmography of horror films, to me Vincent Price will always be that guy from The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.
I Am Legend never worked for me because I didn't buy Will Smith's 'being alone has made me crazy' bit, and also because the CGI monsters were so poorly done that Big Willy might as well have been menaced by these guys.
And I guess the creepiness of this movie also suprises me because, despite an extensive filmography of horror films, to me Vincent Price will always be that guy from The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.
Comments
Sounds like the life of a typical happy-go-lucky teen from Halton Hills, if you ask me.