The Last Man on Earth

(1964) ****1/2

Click here for Octo's and JPX's reviews from past Horrorthons.

Robert Morgan shuffles through post-plague Earth with a phantom-like detachment. He returns to the same home every night, but puts little effort into keeping it clean and in order. He performs his tasks with little enthusiasm, often spending only a few seconds working on one thing and then shuffling away to another. Outside, a horde of post-plague flesh eaters bangs on his door.

At night, he keeps the ghouls at bay with mirrors and crosses and garlic. There's nothing supernatural going on here. The film explains this as mostly psychological: the ghouls, retaining many of their human characteristics (speech, for instance) are repulsed by their own reflections, and I guess the crosses remind them of how far from grace they've fallen.


Through flashbacks, we learn that the ghouls are reanimated plague victims. They caught the plague, lost their eyesight, died, and then came back hungry. The first ghoul Morgan confronts, sadly, is his own wife. It could actually have been worse; his daughter succumbs first, but she's carted away by an army meat wagon.

I've seen both the Omega Man and I Am Legend, and will be watching both for this year's Thon. This film differs from its progeny in one key way -- it's Morgan's demoralization. He lumbers forth because he's impelled by survival instinct, but he obviously hates every part of his life -- Will Smith holds himself together by focusing on finding a cure, Charlton Heston by enjoying the trappings of his lavish apartment.

It's these luxuries, these efforts to maintain dignity, that give these men a sense that their lives have continued and it helps them to keep a sharp dividing line between themselves and the death outside their door. Vincent Price, on the other hand, doesn't even bother to pick up the corpses that line his decaying avenue. It's one of the saddest ironies of the film, and there are many others -- he's the last true man on Earth, but his life ended the moment he put a stake through his wife's chest.