When a plague devastates life on Earth, the population dies or becomes a sort of zombie living in the dark. Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the unique healthy survivor on the planet, having a routine life for his own survival: he kills the night creatures along the day and maintains the safety of his house, to be protected along the night. He misses his beloved wife and daughter, consumed by the outbreak, and he fights against his loneliness to maintain mentally sane. When Dr. Morgan finds the contaminated Ruth Collins (Franca Bettoia),he learns that there are other survivors. He uses his blood to heal Ruth and he becomes the last hope on Earth to help the other contaminated survivors. But the order of this new society is scary.

"The Last Man on Earth" is a frightening and dark view of the fate of mankind. In those years, the preoccupation with radiation and biological weapons due to the cold war leaded people to this type of fear and preoccupation; later with AIDS; and presently with the disease in chickens. Fortunately science has developed means to cure or at least avoid epidemic situation, but we do not know how far we might be from such sad end of mankind. Vincent Price has a great performance in this movie, particularly in the beginning of the insanity of his character showed when he sees a photo of his family. The screenplay is very well developed, but the violent conclusion is weird. I always thought that George A. Romero was the creator of the "zombies", because of his excellent 1968 "Night of Living Dead". But now I can see that the origin of these creatures was in "The Last Man on Earth".

When I was a teenager, the remake "The Omega Man" was a very successful film in the movie theaters. I had not had the chance to see the original movie, since "The Last Man on Earth" (and "The Omega Man") had not been released on VHS or DVD in Brazil. Fortunately a minor Brazilian distributor has just released "The Last Man on Earth" on DVD, giving me the chance to see this great unknown movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mortos Que Matam" (Dead That Kill")

Obs: On 25 May 2008, I watched this great classic movie again.

On 15 March 2014, I saw this movie again.

Vincent Price is just about the whole show in this Italian horror film set in the near future. Apparently, everyone on Earth but him has either died or become zombie-like vampires. And through much of the film, Price does a lot of mundane maintenance-type work--shopping, getting gas, burning the corpses of the dead and killing the occasional odd vampire--then returning home to his ordinary suburban bungalow.

If you watch this film, it's very likely you'll think to yourself that you've seen this before. That's because a decade later it was remade with Charlton Heston as OMEGA MAN, though there are a few differences in the plot and overall appeal of the two films. While OMEGA MAN was very high on the "cool factor", had neat special effects and some dandy overacting by Heston that actually made the film campy fun. In THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, Vincent Price is involved in an Italian production and most of the cars, homes and actors look Italian--a very strange thing indeed. Plus, it's obvious that the production company had a very, very, very low budget and the script had some serious logical errors that were worked out in OMEGA MAN. Some of the problems are that there is no explanation for why the virus occurs and why Price in immune, Price's home was easy for anyone to invade and kill him yet they didn't, the vampires seemed brain damaged and too easy to defeat and the ending just fell apart and delivered a whimper instead of a bang. As a result, OMEGA MAN manages to do the unthinkable--it's a remake that is significantly better than the original--more fun, more well thought-out and just better in every respect.

Of the three films based on I Am Legend, The Last Man on Earth is my personal favourite. I also liked The Omega Man, though didn't care for the 2007 film I Am Legend. This futuristic horror is very engrossing stuff, slowly paced yet deliberately so with an ending that has always moved me. There may be lapses in logic in the script, however so much compensates. The sets and filming are minimalistic and stark, and this approach adds much to the apocalyptic feel of the story. The score is haunting, the creatures are appropriately creepy, the film is beautifully directed and the story is full of suspenseful yet beautiful atmosphere. Vincent Price here gives one of his more restrained performances, often interacting to little or nothing, very different from the arch yet sympathetic roles that show him at his very best. While also stoic and vulnerable, he shows terror and despair brilliantly.

All in all, engrossing with a different but wonderful performance from Price and a real sense of atmosphere. 9/10 Bethany Cox