"The Last Man on Earth" opens with the desolation of city landscapes betraying not a hint of activity, and bodies lying in the streets. A community church billboard heralds: "The End Has Come". Against this desperation, one man survives and marks time on the walls of his home. For three years he has wearily resigned himself to his mission, to destroy every last vampire within the confines of the city, searching for their resting places in hopes of discovering a large colony he can destroy all at once instead of the one or two he may happen upon at random.
Vincent Price portrays Dr. Robert Morgan, curiously immune from the vampire plague. We learn that his tolerance may have occurred years earlier when he was bitten by a bat in Panama, somehow acquiring antibodies in his system to combat the disease. Via flashback sequences, we come to learn that Morgan once had a wife and young daughter, and while working at a medical lab, the plague hit, first in Europe, and then carried wind borne to other parts of the world.
The apocalyptic feel of the movie is both effective and discomfiting at the same time. The viewer shares in Morgan's hopelessness and despair, knowing that should he fulfill his mission, there is no relief from the loneliness and boredom of a solitary existence. Having lost his family, and even his dog to the ravages of disease, Morgan is driven not so much by revenge, but by a choice made to make things right in the world even to his last breath.
All of your standard vampire lore is explored in the film; Morgan protects his home with ropes of garlic, and dots his rooms with mirrors. He makes his own stakes for subduing them, and his daily forays into the city show him carrying his equipment and a mallet in readiness for what he may find.
Watch for a continuity error early in the film - the first time we see Morgan load his station wagon with dead vampire bodies, he puts them in head first, with feet coming out the back. When he arrives at the burning pit to dispose of them, the one he pulls out of the car is facing him head first.
"The Last Man on Earth" is not an easy film to watch. It's one of the few "B" grade films of the genre that actually make you think about what you might face if you suddenly found yourself in an apocalyptic nightmare. Particularly poignant is my timing to view this film, some eight days following Hurricane Katrina, with it's desolation of New Orleans. The contrast between the leveled landscape of Louisiana with the stark remains of the movie's locale bear an uncomfortable similarity. It's unsettling to realize that a work of fiction can come so close to capturing the mood and despair of an entire region faced with a tragedy beyond it's control. This is not a film to entertain, and there is no happy ending.
Vincent Price portrays Dr. Robert Morgan, curiously immune from the vampire plague. We learn that his tolerance may have occurred years earlier when he was bitten by a bat in Panama, somehow acquiring antibodies in his system to combat the disease. Via flashback sequences, we come to learn that Morgan once had a wife and young daughter, and while working at a medical lab, the plague hit, first in Europe, and then carried wind borne to other parts of the world.
The apocalyptic feel of the movie is both effective and discomfiting at the same time. The viewer shares in Morgan's hopelessness and despair, knowing that should he fulfill his mission, there is no relief from the loneliness and boredom of a solitary existence. Having lost his family, and even his dog to the ravages of disease, Morgan is driven not so much by revenge, but by a choice made to make things right in the world even to his last breath.
All of your standard vampire lore is explored in the film; Morgan protects his home with ropes of garlic, and dots his rooms with mirrors. He makes his own stakes for subduing them, and his daily forays into the city show him carrying his equipment and a mallet in readiness for what he may find.
Watch for a continuity error early in the film - the first time we see Morgan load his station wagon with dead vampire bodies, he puts them in head first, with feet coming out the back. When he arrives at the burning pit to dispose of them, the one he pulls out of the car is facing him head first.
"The Last Man on Earth" is not an easy film to watch. It's one of the few "B" grade films of the genre that actually make you think about what you might face if you suddenly found yourself in an apocalyptic nightmare. Particularly poignant is my timing to view this film, some eight days following Hurricane Katrina, with it's desolation of New Orleans. The contrast between the leveled landscape of Louisiana with the stark remains of the movie's locale bear an uncomfortable similarity. It's unsettling to realize that a work of fiction can come so close to capturing the mood and despair of an entire region faced with a tragedy beyond it's control. This is not a film to entertain, and there is no happy ending.