Horrorfest 2025: The Last Man on Earth

The Last Man on Earth

Written by Richard Matheson and William F. Leicester

Based on the novel by Richard Matheson

Directed by Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo B. Ragona

Starring Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli and Giacomo Rossi Stuart

USA/Italy, 1964

What better way to start Horrorfest 2025 than with one of the first names in fear, Vincent Price. What’s Horrofest, you ask? It’s my way of celebrating spooky season, when the weather cools, the days shorten and the leaves get crunchy and fall: write about 31 horror movies in 31 days, preferably ones I’ve never seen before.

This year we kick things off with THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, the first film adaptation of the novel I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson, which was later remade as OMEGA MAN with Charlton Heston and I AM LEGEND with Will Smith.

Vincent Price, as the titular last man, spends his days hunting the vampires that have taken over the Earth and nights hiding from them as they come out and bang on his door. We know they’re vampires because Price wards them off by hanging garlic and mirrors on his front door and dispatches them with the old stake-in-heart routine. But other than that, they function as precursors to what we now think of as zombies — turns out a virus got out of control (like that would ever happen, amirite) and turned everyone into zombie-like vampires.

It’s nice to see Price carry almost the whole movie on his own, but his performance is held a bit at arm’s length because this Italian co-production has a lot of overdubbing, typical of that country’s productions of the time. Also, he seems to be a bit miscast, not necessarily as the scientist he was before the apocalypse, but as the family man and later vampire hunter he has the edge he needs but maybe doesn’t generate the sympathy the movie is looking for? It’s hard to put your finger on why this master of horror isn’t the right lead for this picture, but he’s not.

Still, the movie has an interesting twist ending that explains the title of the novel (I AM LEGEND) in a way I feel like the Will Smith flick never did. Or, it did, and I forgot. Either way, it was a fun and surprising end to an otherwise fairly dull movie.