 Hello and welcome to another episode of Frightfully Forgotten Horror Movies, and this is the start of our October Halloween episodes. But before we get started, what are we drinking? Today we're drinking Mad Man Marsden. Ha ha ha ha! So for our first episode of the October season, we're gonna do something a little different. We're gonna compare three movies to its original novel. So we're gonna compare The Last Man on Earth and Omega Man and I'm Legend to the novel I'm Legend. And see which movie is the most like the book, and overall which is the best of the three movies. The book was written in 1954 by Richard Matheson. He did a lot of short stories. He did a lot of Twilight Zone episodes. He also wrote a lot of scripts for Roger Corman, too. Two books that he's done is Hell House, which they did a film adaptation, The Legend of Hell House, and Duel. The novel I'm Legend is about Robert Neville. He's a sole survivor after this crazy pandemic hit the world and basically wiped out everybody turning them into essentially vampires. And for some reason he is the only person who is immune to all this stuff. He actually slowly becomes like a makeshift scientist trying to find out why this is happening and how he can maybe try to cure these people. It really kind of scientifically explains what makes someone a vampire, which is neat. Neville keeps himself boarded up in his house because at night time these vampires come out and they go looking for him. And the leader of these vampires is his old friend actually, Ben Courtman. During the day he hunts these vampires and there's also a woman that he finds running around in a field and he brings her back. Turns out that she's infected too. So that takes us to the first movie adaptation of I'm Legend and it is called The Last Man on Earth. It came out in 1964 and stars horror legend Vincent Price as the main character in this. One thing they did do is they changed his name though. He is not Robert Neville, he is Morgan. Morgan is actually a scientist before the shit hits the fan and the world ends. Him and his friend Courtman were actually working on a cure together. Courtman still comes to his house every night to come out Morgan, he's got like a two by four. They're very weak in this, you can tell they're very zombie like. He goes hunting for these monsters during the day and at night he's got to make it home before the sun comes down. He does find the dog, the dog comes up to his house. And it's not the dog I pictured from reading the book. I pictured more of like kind of a mutt looking like really scrawny, mangy thing. It's just things like this beautiful, well kept looking black poodle thing. Wait, where are you going? Where are you going? And he also runs into a woman too, right? Just like in the book, right? Wait, I'm not gonna hurt ya! Can't you understand? I'm not gonna hurt ya! He's running after, he's old and like you can tell she's slowing down to make it seem like he's catching up. He tries to kind of weed her out too, he's got that garlic. That garlic? Why are you turning away? Why are you turning away? Yeah. Last Man on Earth basically tells the story almost perfectly compared to the book. The dialogue is almost exactly the same, the events are almost exactly the same. Vincent Price does a great job in this movie. It's probably one of his better roles of being a dramatic actor. No campiness in this really. If there is any kind of hokiness or campiness, it's just because that was the style of acting at the time. It's just the way people acted back then. You know, in movies a little bit dramatic, right? But he does a great job of carrying this movie all by himself and really shows off some great dramatic chops, I think. The settings in this movie are great and they're so simple too, right? It's enough to make you feel alone. His house by himself, it's kind of sort of run down a little bit. It kind of feels very somber and you feel very upset for him, right? You feel sad for this guy. The pit? Do the burning pit retakes all those zombies and stuff? Yeah, that's a great setting. Fuck yeah. Because it does really feel like the end of the world in that shot where it's all steaming, the pit's on fire, he's wearing that gas mask. So this movie does a great job of telling this story on a really low budget, very effectively. He was sick again and this is really good. Right off the hop you feel the sense of dread, like, oh fuck, what an awful world he's living in. And because he's by himself and there's not tons of dialogue, he's not talking to anybody besides you hear him thinking. But so the music has to carry all those dead spots where there's no dialogue. It does a great job of carrying the movie when there's no dialogue. Exactly. In the flashbacks it's sort of bright and sunny out, right? Even though it's not in color, you can tell it's brighter. Yeah, you can tell and feel it, right? The present that he's living in, it feels like fall all the time. Leaves are blowing, things are dead, right? It's dark. It's always dark and drab. And it's obvious that this movie was an inspiration for the Romero-style zombie film. The Night of the Living Dead, totally inspired by Last Man on Earth. From the zombies slow, you know, hitting the walls, knocking on the door and trying to get in of the boarded up house. Total Night of the Living Dead. Yeah. Next one we have on the list here is 1971's The Omega Man. Yeah. Charlton Heston stars in this. He's already a scientist that's working on a vaccine. If you're a plague that's been happening from germ warfare between these two countries, right? Conjects himself with the vaccine, and after that he's not able to synthesize anymore, right? So he's the last man on Earth. Germ turns people into these nocturnal monsters. These mutants. Yeah. That wear those black cloaks and everything too, right? Yeah. And their eyes are all white. Yeah. They've got their own society set up now, and Neville is the one who's the bad guy. Neville's hunting them too at the same time. During the day, Neville hunts them. During the night, they come out. Yeah. And they try to get him out of his huge loft that he's in. Yeah, his penthouse, his high-rise penthouse. But they don't want to use any technology from the old ways, right? Because that's what turned them into the way they are, was technology. Like in the book, he does run into a woman. The circumstance is completely different. They actually capture him, and they're going to execute him in this fucking stadium. They get him all strapped up, and they're going to burn him alive. And this mysterious person shows up on, like, a motorcycle and saves him, and he gets away. Then he runs into this sexy woman with an afro, like, got a gun on him. Yeah, yeah. Now cool it, mother! We do find out he's not the only survivor. There's a whole batch of them living out in the country, and she is part of those people. They're all infected, and they're slowly going to turn into these mutants, but they don't know when. You don't know when you're going to turn. They can turn at any time, right? Yeah. Now he uses these people to kind of experiment on to try to find a vaccine to save everybody. This is the least like the book. Besides the fact that his name is Robert Neville, and he is kind of the last man living, that's about the only thing that's the same. The general idea, right, is sort of the same too, but the way they go about it is completely different. They really push the fact that there's a new society, right? That's anti-technology, because technology is what got them here in the first place, right? And Neville is the last vestige of this old world, right, that they're trying to get rid of. Neville sees it the other way around. They're the new people, but they're monsters, right? They need to be taken care of. So even though the events in this movie are very, very different than the book, the major themes and ideas are still there. Really kind of pushing that agenda that there's a new society on earth, and it's their earth now. It's no longer his earth. That old human they're done with. We are the new human, and this is our time. Let him live up there with his infernal machines. Let the old ways go, brother. The music in this movie is the best. It's so awesome. It really gets you fired up, right? Yeah, and it's super 70s too. There's that opening scenery. Fucking drop all that gas and everything in life in the ground on fire in front of him. And the music starts and you pull up the gun and you shove them all in. Oh man, is it ever awesome? It's definitely the most action packed of all movies. Yeah. Charlton Heston again, everyone knows that he is a fantastic actor, more of an old school actor, a little bit over the top, but that's the way it was back then. You relate to him a lot, because things he does is like, oh yeah, I can see myself doing that if I was all by myself. He's making his house look all fancy, because what else are you going to do with your time? Going out to see movies during the days, watching the Woodstock movie, and they're like, yeah, you're bored, you've got nothing to do, you're going to do stuff like that. Dresses up for his Sunday dinner still, because it's just routines. We're in that crushed velvet suit with those ruffles and everything. I can see myself doing that in the fucking apocalypse, because it makes you feel better about yourself. And he drinks tons too, right? Like he does in the book. Just a kind of escape, and again, why not? You might as well, you're not doing anything else. That brings us to I'm Legend, who came out in 2007, and stars Will Smith as the main lead. Again, his name is Robert Neville. Again, he is the sole survivor of this crazy pandemic that happened, and in this case, the whole reason behind the pandemic is different. They had actually discovered a cure for cancer, but it's this cure that kind of backfired on them and turned everyone into these mutant-type things. And again, they're not really vampires. They're not really zombies. They're just kind of these monsters. Like the book, there is a dog, but in this case, the movie starts off with him having the dog. He's always had the dog since it was a puppy. It was like his daughter's dog. He's trying to synthesize a cure for whatever is causing this, right? He's got a bunch of test subjects, too, in this basement. He does run into a woman as well. She rescues him from an incident and takes him back to his apartment. And unlike the book, she's got a kid with her. There's a sanctuary, too, that she wants to get to that's in Vermont, and he doesn't believe it, right? Well, there's no one left. There's no one, and he's fighting her on it, right? She's adamant that there's something else out there. But unlike the book, the monsters didn't know where he lives until she rescues him, and then they follow them back, right? That sort of shit hits the fan. Unlike the book, though, you don't know anything about these monsters. There's no society that they're forming. They don't speak. Like, in the book, they do speak. They call his name, and in this version, they don't speak. They... Yeah, that's all they do. That's it. They kind of maybe allude to their starting to get a little bit smarter and starting to form a little bit of a society. They don't really push that at all. They hint to it very slightly, but not enough that you think that they're starting to get together on the same team. Unlike the other two movies, there's virtually no music at all. There is peppered a little bit throughout the movie, but it's nowhere near like the other movies, right? And there's a lot of dead space. You need music to fill these gaps, and to also feel something. Watching the movie, it's kind of like dead air. You're just watching it, and you don't feel anything. There's not much commentary in this movie about the world we live in, really, compared to the other two, and the book was really pushing everybody else is the same, and he's different. They don't really push that. They just really make it seem like he's the good guy. They're the monsters. That's it. What about their perspective? Yeah, you don't learn that. He's killing them. To them, he's the bad guy. That's pushed in the other two movies and the book, not even remotely kind of alluded to in this. Even though it's called I'm Legend, I think it's the least like the book. The character's name is the same, and essentially the story is the same. Because it doesn't push the themes of the book, it's less like the book. Exactly. Omega-Van is not like the book at all, really, but it pushes those themes all harder than any other movie. This, to me, seems more like a remake of Omega-Van than an adaptation of the book. Exactly, and a pretty piss-poor remake of Omega-Van. One thing all movies do have in common is that at the end, the Neville character dies trying to save what's left of humanity. One thing we notice about watching all these movies is each movie is a super a product of its time. The Last Man on Earth, low budget, 60s horror movie shot in black and white, very minimal, Vincent Price is doing his Vincent Price thing. It's got the slow zombies. There's not a whole lot of crazy action. It's a lot more dialogue driven. Right, yeah. There's not huge shots of this big abandoned city. It's very isolated. Omega-Van, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of that, right? It's crazy. Super 70s, it's like just reeks of the 70s from the music to the acting to clothes. Of course, Charlton Heston gets with the woman. He's all old and everything. Like, yeah, right. I can't even remember how this goes. Omega-Van is a commentary on the day, too, right? So they use kind of the themes of the book to spin it, to make it into the commentary of the 70s. Cults, right? With Manson just finished his stint there. You have the anti-technology, which is becoming a thing with pollution. You've got race is a huge thing. And they get to I Am Legend. Again, a super product of its time. The abandoned city. You get to each movie that's further in time. You get bigger shots of the city, because they're able to do it now. They have the money to do it now. And the technology to do it. All the advertisement that we see in I Am Legend. The city is basically one big billboard for products, right? You see the fake poster for Batman vs Superman before it was ever released. Yeah. The monsters in each movie is a product of their time. Exactly. This one, the horrible fucking CGI punk rock zombie monsters. Yeah. They're like puffer fish or something. Cheeks are always fluttering, and there's no originality to these monsters whatsoever. CGI deer that come through. It's like what's with these video game deer? Yeah. So which movie is the most like the book? Last Man on Earth is basically the book in movie form. Almost exactly. Line for line, scene for scene. The only thing that's different is the character's name and the fact he's a scientist beforehand. Yeah, exactly. But what is the funnest one? The Omega Man. Exactly. The funnest of the movie is just super 70s, a super romp of a fun time. Yeah. And it does push the themes of the book, I think more than the book even does. And where does I'm legend, the movie stand in all this? It actually stands as the worst one. I think so. Will Smith does a really good job of carrying the movie by himself. The acting was really good on his part. There's some great scenes in there when he's gotta put down the dog. It's a pretty heart wrenching scene. Frankly, I felt more for the dog than I did for him. I really didn't care about any of the characters in this movie. And I didn't care about the bad guys. Even in the Omega Man, sure they're kind of the bad guys or they're trying to always attack Neville, but you understand their point of view, right? And you can see it. And you sort of sympathize with them. Yeah. More so than Neville, right? That's the whole point of the book. Exactly. But in I Am Legend, you get none of that and you don't care about anything. So basically when the movie's over, there's nothing to think about. You're just like, okay, that movie's over, turn it off, and go about your day. It's not smart. Nothing to think about. The other two movies, you turn off the movie like, hmm, yeah, there's something that they're trying to tell us here. So you may have the biggest budget and it may look the prettiest, but it's the worst when it boils down to films. That pretty much wraps up our breakdown of I Am Legend, all three movies versus the book. The one that I would always come back to, 1971's Omega Man. I love that fucking movie. And I really love Last Man on Earth. Yeah. That may be my favorite of all three, but again, Omega Man is the most fun. Exactly. If you want to have a fun time, you put on Omega Man. If you want to watch a good kind of horror movie, you put on Last Man on Earth. So let us know what you think is the best adaptation of the book if you've read the book and which is your favorite movie of all three. And until next time, keep drinking like Neville.