10/09/16 – day nine of thirty-one days of horror!
It can be argued which is the best of the I AM LEGEND adaptations, but it can’t be argued which is the funkiest – that honor goes to the 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle THE OMEGA MAN. Instead of vampires like the Matheson source novel we get a weird band of powder-white hippies in hoods, which as a child who was raised in the seventies is arguably scarier than vampires. Heston does his usual grit-teethed macho man routine, which is put to good effect here as he fights off waves of “Brother Matthias”’ (Anthony Zerbe) zombie-like minions and falls for Afro’d soul sister Rosalind Cash. It’s a bunch of silly 70’s fun that manages to convey a few moments of genuine pathos as Heston travels the empty streets of downtown Los Angeles in a cool car, and takes in an ironic show of WOODSTOCK in an abandoned movie theater. Matheson’s seminal novel still has yet to find its ideal version, but until it does, I’ll take this far-out, groovy take over the cheapo Vincent Price LAST MAN ON EARTH or that Will Smith CG fest.
