I Am Legend
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| Author | Richard Matheson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror / Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Fawcett |
| Released | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 160 pp |
I Am Legend is a 1954 horror novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in Los Angeles, California.
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[edit] Plot summary
The book takes place in the then-future of 1976–1979, and opens with the monotony and horror of the daily life of the protagonist, Robert Neville. Neville is apparently the only survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of a bacterium, the symptoms of which are very similar to vampirism. He lives in a fortified house, and sallies forth by daylight to kill the sleeping vampires. Every day he also makes repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, and disposing of vampires' corpses on his lawn.
Neville's psychological disposition is a significant element in the novel. The author emphasizes that he is an ordinary, flawed man trying to deal with an extraordinary catastrophe.
Much of the story is devoted to Neville's struggles to understand the plague that has transformed everyone he meets, and the novel details the progress of his discoveries. Instead of asking the reader to accept a supernatural explanation for vampire phenomena, the author offers scientific explanations for such things as aversion to garlic, craving of fresh blood, and resistance to bullets, but vulnerability to stakes and sunlight. The aversion to mirrors and crosses (or, in the case of one vampire of Jewish origin, the Torah) is classified as psychological.
Eventually, Neville discovers that while he is the only person immune to the bacterium, he is not the only one still alive. Others who have been infected have discovered a means to hold the disease at bay. However, during the daylight hours, they appear to be undead vampires. Thus, along with the undead vampires, he has been killing these people. He becomes a source of terror to the still living, since he can travel during the day and leaves their dead behind. These still living vampires capture Neville and reveal their nature to him, and how monstrous he appears to them. Just as vampires were regarded as legendary monsters that preyed on vulnerable humans at night, Neville has become the last of his kind; a mythical figure that kills vampires of both types while they are sleeping. He becomes a legend as the vampires once were, hence the title.
[edit] Film adaptations
I Am Legend has been adapted onto film twice, and a third adaptation, now set for release in 2007, has gone through several iterations.
In 1964, Vincent Price starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in The Last Man on Earth. An Italian production, the original title was L'Ultimo Uomo Della Terra). Matheson wrote the screenplay for this adaptation, but later rewrites were so changed that he did not wish his name to appear in the credits. The pseudonym "Logan Swanson" appears instead.
In 1971 a far different version appeared as The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston and Anthony Zerbe. Matheson had no influence on the screenplay for this film, and it deviates from the book in several ways, particularly in removing any vampiric elements, except for the creature's extreme sensitivity to light. Taking place in a similar time-period as that of the novel, the movie revolves around Colonel Robert Neville (played by Heston), an apparently lone survivor from the fallout of a biological war between China and Russia, who fights nightly battles against infected evil albino mutants. Heston portrays a military biomedical researcher who escapes infection by injecting himself with an experimental vaccine. Zerbe is John Matthias, a TV news anchor who becomes a messianic leader and organizes the surviving infected into "The Family". Matthias aims to destroy the remnants of the previous world, and has recast Neville as the "demon" that must be destroyed before a new, cleaner world can be rebuilt by the survivors. In his bid for survival, Neville drives around during the day recovering supplies and killing whatever infected he can find. The infected are extremely photosensitive, and only venture out at night to feed and conduct their purgings of technology, art, science and everything else Matthias has deemed "evil". Neville is forced to hole up in a townhouse - his actual home in Los Angeles - which is stocked full of weapons and modern conveniences. After he discovers a small group of young survivors, he attempts to develop a serum from his own immune blood that will save them from reaching the final stage of the disease. When released to theaters, it received favorable reviews from many critics, including Gene Shallit, who reviewed the film for NBC's Today Show when it premiered, as well as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, and has become a cult classic.
A Ridley Scott adaptation was scheduled for production in the late 1990s, but fell through due to an inflating budget. The film was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then director Rob Bowman took a crack at a smaller budget version with a rewrite from John Logan. Will Smith will now star in the film directed by Francis Lawrence (Constantine). Filming is underway in March 2007 in New York City.
[edit] Other works inspired by the novel
Further works inspired by I Am Legend include:
- 1968: Night of the Living Dead directed and written by George Romero, who acknowledges the initial idea for which was drawn from Matheson's book. The movie has spawned numerous sequels and clones.
- 2007: I Am Legend is directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Will Smith. The screenplay was initially drafted by Mark Protosevich and has been revised by Akiva Goldsman. I Am Legend began filming in late September 2006 and is slated for a November 21, 2007 release.
- The new-wave band The Police Included a song entitled "Omegaman" on their album "Ghost in the Machine", which lyrically uses several cues from the film of the same name.
- The heavy metal band White Zombie recorded a song called "I Am Legend" that appears on their La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 album.
- In 2005, the Swedish Death metal band Arch Enemy released their album Doomsday Machine, featuring the song "I Am Legend/Out For Blood", inspired by the novel.
- In 2001, the Italian Black metal band Stormlord released their album "At The Gates Of Utopia", with song entitled "I Am legend", inspired by the novel.
- The rock band He Is Legend takes its name from the book. Their song "Eating a Book" from the album I Am Hollywood shares a plot with the book. [1]
- New Jersey based, horror influenced hardcore band, The Banner released a song entitled "I Am Legend" on their 2005 release "Each Breath Haunted." The song's lyrics tie directly into the book.
- Hardcore ambient rock band Supermachiner titled a song I am Legend on their 2005 album Rise of the Great Machine."
- New Jersey's metal/hardcore band, Death Do Us Part recently released their new album "Legend", which is highly influenced on the book, specifically the title track and cover art.
- On their 2004 EP 'Songs for the Dead' the Virginia based deathrock band Bella Morte released a track called 'Legend' which is clearly inspired by the book.
- In 2006, the avant-garde Hip-Hop artist Warcloud with Hip-Hop producers Blue Sky Black Death released the album The Holocaust, featuring the song "No Image", with a verse that interpolated the plot to the novel.
- The rock band Static-X released a music video for their song "Cold" from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack that is an homage to the book.
[edit] Trivia
- The protagonist's name, Robert Neville, is an anagram of "Terrible Novel".
