Actors: Vincent Price
Director: Ubaldo Ragona
Formats: VHS, DVD
Price: UK £2.99 (Remastered Colour £3.24), USA $3.98 (Remastered Color $11.63)
Or watch for free at the bottom of this post! :-D
Not strictly a horror movie but more of a post-apocalypse movie. I'm reviewing today as my personal view is that the theme of the movies does fall in to the boundaries of the Zombie genre. Vincent Price play the role of Dr Morgan, the sole survivor of an apocalyptic outbreak of disease. However, the bodies of the dead re-animate and seek death to the living. To get round this problem Morgan must burn the bodies of the infected that pile up at his door each night. Each day Morgan must carry out his life in a new way to survive, there are the daily tasks of collecting gas, burning bodies in the pit, gathering fuel etc. By night he must barricade himself in his home and fend off the infected horde.
Throughout the movie we get small fragments in to life before the apocalypse including seeing Price's family, colleagues and general impressions of the time. It adds a nice roundness to the story telling and puts the disaster in context. As the plot progresses we see Morgan's state of mind come to terms with the new world. I don't want to give away much plot here so it is suffice to say that Morgan establishes communication with the zombie-like humans and raising the interesting dilemma of what life is.
Verdict
The idea has been played out in a number of movies such as "The Omega Man", "Last Man On Earth" and more recently "I am Legend" and all adapted from the same book. Having seen all three movies I still favour "The Last Man On Earth". Perhaps because I'm slightly biased towards Vincent Price as an on screen presence but also because I feel that it's the most rounded of the movies. As always Price is timeless in the role of Dr Morgan. The routine nature of his new life is played out to perfection and you really get the feeling that the start of the film is more like a documentary rather than a feature film. Where "The Last Man On Earth" really triumphs though is in it's simplicity, no special effects save for a couple of interesting camera techniques and no high budget sets. It's not needed and wasn't included which I think is it's greatest strength against "I Am Legend". Overall this is a movie that won't scare you but it will make you think about the nature of humans and disease.
Pros: Vincent Price in a serious and jaded character role yet accessible as a character.
Cons: For me the ending just doesn't work as well as it could but this is really down to personal taste.
The Haunted Cinema Rating: 7 burnt corpses out of 10.
If you liked this try: The Omega Man, I Am Legend.
Should our review not be enough for you try these links.
IMDB: Last Man On Earth
Wikipedia: The Last Man On Earth
Amazon: The Last Man On Earth [DVD] [1964]
, The Last Man on Earth (Digitally remastered in colour) [DVD] [1964]
, The Last Man on Earth (Digitally remastered in colour) [DVD] [1964]"Last Man On Earth" Full Movie.
Happy hauntings, Jiblet.
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