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Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, based upon the last man
alive on earth.
The story takes place over a period of time between 1976 and 1978 in Southern California. The novel 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 bacteria, the symptoms of which are very similar to vampirism. Every day he makes repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, disposing of vampires' corpses on his lawn and going out to gather any additional supplies needed for hunting and killing more vampires (in particular his old neighbor, Ben Cortman).
Neville's psychological disposition is a significant element in the novel, and his struggles with despair imbue the character with intensity and gravitas. The author emphasizes that he is an ordinary, flawed man trying to deal with an extraordinary catastrophe. It also explores the loneliness of being by himself, excitement and hope of finding others, and disappointment over still finding himself alone. During the evenings, Neville drinks whiskey and listens to records. The records referenced by name are sometimes puns on what's happening and sometimes they simply reflect Neville's mood.
Much of the story is devoted to Neville's struggles to understand the plague that has infected everyone around him, and the novel details the progress of his discoveries. Instead of asking the reader to accept a supernatural explanation for vampire phenomena, the author strives to offer scientific basis for such symptoms as aversion to garlic, craving of fresh blood, and resistance to bullets but vulnerability to stakes and sunlight. The aversion to mirrors and crosses is classified as psychological. This represents one of the first attempts in popular culture to explain vampirism in the plot scientifically, something that has become commonplace in modern vampire movies.[citation needed] Neville hypothesizes that he is immune to the bacteria because he was bitten by a vampire bat when he was stationed in Panama.
One day, a dog appears in the neighborhood. Neville spends weeks trying to win its trust and domesticate it. He eventually traps the terrified dog and wins it over, but it dies from the vampire infection a week later.
As the story progresses, it is revealed that some infected people have discovered a means to hold the disease at bay. However, the "still living" people appear no different from the true vampire during the day while both are immobilized in sleep. Thus, along with the vampires, Neville kills the still living people. He becomes a source of terror to the still living, since he can go around in daylight (which they can only do for a short length of time) and kill them while they sleep.
The still living send a girl named Ruth to spy on Neville, and they cleverly replicate Neville's relationship to the dog. Ruth pretends to be terrified of Neville at first sight, and rather than spend weeks trying to win her over, he attacks her and drags her back to his house. Though Neville is suspicious of her true nature and much of their interaction focuses on Neville's internal struggle between his deep seated paranoia and his hope, it is clear by his seizure of Ruth that the scales have tipped in favor of the irrational. Eventually Neville performs a blood test on her, revealing her true nature to him before she knocks him out. Ruth leaves a note telling him about the group of people like her, explaining that she was sent to spy and how monstrous he appears to them. Months later, the still living people attack, shooting Neville but taking him alive so that he can be executed in front of everyone in the new society.
Before he can be executed, Ruth provides him with an envelope of pills. Neville takes the pills so he will feel no pain when the vampires execute him. He finally realizes why the new vampire society regards him as a monster. Just as vampires were regarded as legendary monsters that preyed on the vulnerable humans in their beds, Neville has become the last of a dead breed: a mythical figure that kills both vampires and the infected living while they are sleeping. He becomes a legend as the vampires once were, hence the title.
(If you have read the book, You might be somewhat dissapointed in the movie, but believe me, not by much)
Great re-adaption brought on to the big screen.....
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
They are awaiting to take us into
the severed garden
Do you know how pale and wanton thrillful
comes death on a strange hour
unannounced, unplanned for
Like a scaring over-friendly guest you've
brought to bed
Death makes angels of us all
and gives us wings
Where we had shoulders
smooth as raven's claws
No more money, no more fancy dress
this other kingdom seems by far the best
Until it's other jaw reveals incest
and loose obedience to a vegetable law
I will not go
Prefer a feast of friends
to the giant family...
Jim Morrison (An American Prayer)
The Last In Line
We're a ship without a storm
The cold without the warm
Light inside the darkness that it needs,
We're a laugh without a tear
The hope without the fear
We are coming - home
We're off to the witch
We may never never never come home
But the magic that we'll feel
Is worth a lifetime
We're all born upon the cross
The throw before the toss
You can release yourself
But the only way is down
We don't come alone
We are fire we are stone
We're the hand that writes
Then quickly moves away
We'll know for the first time
If we're evil or divine
We're the last in line
We're the last in line
Two eyes from the east
It's the angel or the beast
And the answer lies between
The good and bad
We search for the truth
We could die upon the tooth
But the thrill of just the chase
Is worth the pain
We'll know for the first time
If we're evil on the night
We're the last in line...
(Ronnie James Dio)
MusicBox