Incorporating traditional notions of vampire lore such as wooden stakes, garlic, crucifixes, mirror reflections, and deadly sunlight, I AM LEGEND also rethinks and expands on preconceived ideas of vampirism while tackling the theme of man’s growing isolation amid the post-war boom of the ’50s, flavored with a generous helping of religion, God’s wrath, and a topical Red Scare analogy. With the last remaining human - Neville - marauding and killing large numbers of vampires on a daily basis, who is the true monster now? But soon, Ruth is revealed to be a spy for the nocturnal creatures, and Neville learns that they are a much more intelligent race than he could have ever imagined, evolving into a new species that can withstand the daylight with the aid of medicine - and who are attempting to rebuild society. The day walker’s explanations for her survival and behavior raise his suspicions, but defy any established logic that she could be a vampire. Then Ruth comes along: an almost impossible human appearing to Neville after years of solitude. His outlook brightens upon discovering the companionship of a dog, only to be subsequently devastated when the pooch succumbs to the infection.

Now, after years of lonely existence, devoid of human contact, this shell of a man has become a depressed alcoholic. Scavenging for food and supplies by day and barricading himself in at night from the deadly fiends, he desperately seeks out other survivors while trying to determine the cause of the plague - and maybe even find a cure.Ī former family man, Neville’s daughter was claimed by the disease, and he was forced to kill his wife after she was infected and rose again as a vampire. The dystopian I AM LEGEND follows Robert Neville, the apparent last man on Earth due to his immunity to a global pandemic that has transformed humanity into hordes of bloodthirsty vampires.

Published in 1954 to mixed reviews, Matheson’s I AM LEGEND has graduated to become one of the most influential Sci-Fi novels ever written, with today’s zombie, vampire, and post-apocalyptic genre tales - from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE STAND to 28 DAYS LATER, WORLD WAR Z, and THE WALKING DEAD - drawing directly and indirectly from Matheson’s brainchild. Matheson, whose onscreen work includes THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, Steven Spielberg’s DUEL, Roger Corman adaptations of such Edgar Allen Poe classics as HOUSE OF USHER, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM and THE RAVEN, plus legendary episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, has been called “one of the most important writers of the twentieth century” by Ray Bradbury, and he wasn’t kidding.

I am legend monster light