Last Man On Earth: Zombie Movie Or Not?
Where do we draw the line on what is and what is not a zombie movie? We just can’t decide on our own, so every Monday we’ll post a new movie to be debated by, you, our readers and ask the question: Zombie Movie Or Not? Every Sunday we’ll post our findings and possibly strike that movie off our Zombie Movie List. The week should give you enough time to rent the movie if need be or you desire.
What every reader must keep in mind is that there are two basic types of zombie that every zombie movie based off of – the Voodoo Zombie and the Romero Zombie. The Voodoo Zombie, while not always raised by Voodoo necessarily, is basically a person, either undead or entranced, that is controlled by a person or entity for the purpose of completing tasks, often killing. Romero Zombies are basically mindless, flesh-eating undead whose bite will turn victims into zombies. Now, not all movies adhere to all of these rules, but if the basics are there, you got a zombie movie.
This weeks debate is over The Last Man On Earth (1964) Starring Vincent Price.
IS: While written as a vampire story, writer Richard Matheson felt he had to distance himself due to its radical difference from his book. The undead in the movie were definite influences on George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and could definitely be considered zombies.
IS NOT: The movie is about vampires, not zombies. While both are undead, there is a marked difference one of them being sensitivity to light, plus mode of dispatch being through the heart, not the head.
Now it’s up to you, reader. What do you think? The Last Man on Earth: Zombie Movie Or Not?
Comments(14)
yes.zombie movie
Gosh, I think they’re pretty clearly vampires what with all the mirrors and garlic on the doors. I’m going to say NOT a zombie movie but it should appeal to most zombie movie fans.
I’m going to have to go with a big no on this one. I am legend aka last man on earth is basically a vampire story\movie where the vampires are aware of who they were and what they have become they see the last man alive as an abomination and want to kill him so they can move on with a new society. Zombies however are corpses that are risen from the dead with no memory of who they were or have become they have no intention of taking over the world….. but they always manage too :)
yer right
it feels like a zombie flick
except he wards them off with vampire hunter skillz
things get fuzzy when you get into undead hierarchical structures
but i don’t even remember what they were after
did they hate the living for being in the sun?
the end was cool!! =D/
I <3 Vincent Price!
Wait…what was the question…?
Ohh…..
Gotta go with “no.”
NO!!!!!!!!
one of my faves of all time, but not a zombie movie. close, but then there’s garlic (and mirrors). And now I’m thinking about how the undead wife scene influenced the daughter in the basement scene and…….must stop myself. Save it for a proper paper or summat.
\m/.w00ts.\m/
_kelly
I’m going to have to go with not a zombie movie, and if anyone needs to see this I point you over to archive.org whrer can watch it since its in the public domain now.
If it is not a zombie movie…it is the main non-zombie movie that should be in every zombie film collection. It occupies a very critical spot in the 1960′s and captured a lot of the nihilism seen in the zombie films of the 70s.
This is without a doubt a vampire movie, not a zombie movie. Yes the creatures are undead but not zombie undead. They’re vampires and that’s all there is to it.
Close, but no cigar. While the vampires in Last Man On Earth have many attributes in common with zombies that may or may not have been an influence on George Romero’s zombies, they still have all the attributes of vampires; sunlight sensitivity, fear of garlic/the cross/mirrors and such. This makes it a vampire flick, NOT a zombie movie.
I feel the same way about it as The Signal (from last week’s ZMON?). While not a zombie movie, I can’t think of less than a bajillion reasons a zombie film fan wouldn’t eat this film up (including the fact that nobody does a monotone narration as interesting or enthralling as Vincent Price). So…no.
Yes. This is a fine example. Zombies, as evidenced in even the Romero films, can and do drink blood, which is otherwise considered vampiric in behavior. And even later zombie films had some zombies which could speak, as this one does. And LMOE directly influenced NOTLD in many obvious ways. And, these creatures are the undead and somewhat decayed. All of these traits tie this directly into the zombie realm. Even though garlic turns up in the plot, there aren’t any references to Transylvania or sleeping in coffins, or even sightings of fangs. Nothing traditionally supernatural. The vampires in this film are nothing like any vampires I’ve seen in any other film; all the usual stereotypical aspects are just not there, and the plot itself (a viral outbreak) also does not tie in with typical supernatural vampire fare. There are no vampires in LMOE turning into bats, growing fangs, etc. This is a zombie film.
Oh, by the way….watch the widescreen copy of LMOE, not the one on the otherwise-superb archive.org site (unless you want to compare). The widescreen version provides the full image, with far greater clarity and depth, and the audio is excellent. The print from TV distribution is the archive.com print, and it’s the usual dupe reduction print from TV distribution and is in comparatively poor shape, with splices, missing footage, and bad sound. The film has far greater resonance if you enjoy it in its intended form; you’ll see the incredible difference from the very first scene.
“Last Man on Earth” was a Romero Zombie movie, from just before the first Romero Zombie movie was made.
Romero acknowledges this film as an inspiration for his more famous Romero Zombie movies, and there are arguably more similarities than differences. Sure, some of the familiar trappings of Universal Gothic vampire stories (such as fear of mirrors, garlic, and wooden stakes) are present – blink and you almost miss them. But the hordes of pale, decayed, moaning, infected undead slowly shambling through shadowy empty streets in an apocalyptic landscape, clawing at the doors of fortified buildings holding the last few survivors (who are implied to be just as monstrous as the undead hordes), has far more in common with “Night of the Living Dead” and its sequels and clones, than with the vast majority of vampire movies.
(Other film versions of Matheson’s original story, “The Omega Man” and “I Am Legend”, would be far harder to classify as Romero Zombie films, though.)