The Last Man on Earth (1964) Review

"Let me in!"

-Virginia Morgan

The world has fallen into chaos as most of the population has died due to a disease.  But the victims are not gone, they have reanimated as zombie/vampire hybrids.  The only person left living is Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price), who is immune to the disease.  He spends his days hunting down and killing the creatures, but one day he discovers he might not be as alone as he thought.

What Works:

The highlight of this film is, of course, the wonderful Vincent Price.  This man is one of my favorite actors and I love him in every role I've seen him in and this film is no exception.  He brings life to what would otherwise be a painfully dull story.  His voice and performance are excellent and he's a very interesting character.

I also like the creatures that plague Morgan's world.  They are a weird mash-up of zombies and vampires.  The behave mostly like zombies, but are weak to garlic and stakes through the heart. They can also talk, which is not something I'm used to in a movie like this.  It's something different and makes the monsters more personal than most zombie movies.

Finally, this movie has one of the creepiest scenes I have ever seen in a movie.  During a flashback, Morgan's wife, Virginia (Emma Danieli), dies from the illness and he takes her away and buries her instead of burning her body like he is supposed to.  That night, we hear a voice calling out to him, "Let me in!".  It's very soft and really atmospheric.  It made my skin crawl.  Of course, it's Virginia back from the dead.  This scene left an impression and is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen.

What Sucks:

There are a lot of boring stretches in this movie.  A lot of the story is just Morgan wandering through the ruins of the world.  He doesn't get to interact with very many characters.  I love Vincent Price, but when he's just walking around it isn't very interesting.  He needs other characters to interact with.

The other problem is that most of the other characters aren't that interesting.  Most of the actors are Italian and had their lines dubbed over by other actors in post production.  This takes away some of the impact of their dialogue as the lines don't quite sync up with the movement of their mouths.  This kind of thing really takes me out of a movie, especially when Vincent Price's lines are all perfectly synced.

Finally, I don't think the 3rd act confrontation makes a ton of sense.  I don't really get why the other members of Ruth's (Franca Bettoia) group are tying to kill him.  Ruth was sent in to spy on him and to learn if he had more information on a possible cure than her group did.  That's fine.  And I get that her group is afraid of him because of how many of the monsters he has killed.  Also fine.  But, they sent her in to get information and they never give Ruth a chance to explain that Morgan has found a cure.  They just try to kill him.  It doesn't make any sense.  Why send a spy in if you aren't going to listen to her information?

Verdict:

The Last Man on Earth isn't a good movie, but it isn't bad either.  Vincent Price is wonderful, the monsters are interesting, and it has one extremely creepy scene, but the motivations of some of the characters don't make sense, there are a lot of boring stretches, and none of the other actors can compete with Vincent Price.  People who like older movies like this might get some interest from it, but I doubt most people will.

 5/10: Meh