The Last Man On Earth

Atmospherically shot in an eerily deserted Rome, this spare and haunting chronicle of a man who uncovers and exterminates the undead by day, and holes up in his besieged house by night, remains the best version of Richard Matheson’s classic 1954 novel, I Am Legend. A plague has wiped out humanity and transformed the world’s population into vampires, leaving scientist Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) to a lonely and futile one-man war—until one day he finds he’s not alone. Forget 2007’s overproduced Will Smith version and the strained ponderousness of Charlton Heston in The Omega Man: This is the closest in mood and tone to Matheson, even if the author adopted the pseudonym “Logan Swanson” when he saw the finished film.