The Last Man on Earth
After an unknown epidemic, Dr. Morgan is the only survivor on earth: all other humans have turned into vampires. To survive, during the day he is forced to exterminate as many monsters as possible and at night he must defend himself in every way from contamination. But Morgan soon discovers that he is not the only one to have defeated the terrible virus.
The film, based on the famous novel by Richard Matheson I Am Legend, manages to recreate the atmosphere of the book well, despite the limited budget. The Italian director Ubaldo Ragona does a better job than the more famous Boris Sagal, who made The Omega Man a few years later. This is probably due to the fact that Vincent Price, very comfortable in an Italian co-production, surpasses the talented Charlton Heston. With his usual theatricality, Price offers a performance reminiscent of silent films, particularly effective in the part where he is alone, for half the film. The first part is very suggestive, thanks to the beautiful images of a deserted Rome, but the second half becomes slower and less interesting, losing the initial charm, only to pick up again with a dramatic ending. It is important to remember that the film is from 1964, thus anticipating by five years Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead, which officially gave birth to the zombie genre.
