I Am Legend (1954)

This compact novel by Richard Matheson—really, at about 100 pages, it’s more like a long story, or novella—may have been oversold to me a little. While generally quite well done in the boiled-down Matheson style, the story never quite reached me. What I found most interesting about it, and a little surprising, is that it’s mainly a vampire tale. Yes, it has the zombie element too—these monsters crowd together and lurch around like zombies and there are many of them. But they are explicitly vampires. I give the first movie version, The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price, more credit for creating recognizable George Romero-style zombies. But then Romero also cited I Am Legend as an influence, so there you go. Something in the air, something in the water. As a postapocalyptic story it has much the doomy feel of many Twilight Zone episodes to come (some of which Matheson wrote). Our guy, as the first movie’s retitle puts it, is the last man on earth as far as he knows. He spends his days scavenging for goods and reinforcing the barricades on his house. At night the creatures come out and howl for him, pounding at his door. He reads Dracula by Bram Stoker and considers all the vampire lore the creatures confirm. They shun sunlight, recoil from garlic, mirrors, and crosses. They want blood. The basic thrust of the story is our guy’s scientific investigation into them. There are flashbacks to his sad life, a wife and daughter taken by this plague. He buried his wife and then she came back. I wanted more on her “second chapter” but all we learn is he’s sure she’s gone for good. Maybe he got her with a wooden stake—more vampire lore that is used in an interesting way here. There is another sad episode with a non-vampire dog. The story spans a few years, specifically January 1976 to January 1979, focusing on four periods in his life. There’s a climax when a woman shows up, which feels mechanical as much as anything. Three major film versions have been made: the 1964, The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). I’ve only seen the first and then I was more distracted by the obvious influence on Romero. I’m not sure Matheson’s novel actually lends itself well to film treatments, but they keep trying and now I’m curious about the other two. There may be too much concept here requiring exposition. Matheson, ever the trafficker in brutality, also provides an unpleasant sexual charge, with female vampires trying to entice our guy with lewd gestures. This leaves him thinking about sex more than he or any of us would like. I Am Legend is on many short lists of best horror novels of all time. I can’t go all that way. Maybe this is one you have to decide for yourself. It’s good and dirty, the way Matheson does, and I’m happy enough I took a look.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.