SOURCE: I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson

DESCRIPTION: "He never looked at them anymore. In the beginning he'd made a peephole in the front window and watched them. But then the women had seen him and had started striking vile postures in order to entice him out of the house. He didn't want to look at that." (I Am Legend by Richard Matheson)

NOTES: The vampires are of two types or stages. There are actual undead creatures like those in old stories, and there are living, infected people, who are survivors of a germ. Vampirism is caused by this germ (which Neville calls vampiris) that is spread through contact as well as on the winds, in the form of giant dust storms. The disease is transferable to at least one non-human species, dogs. The great plagues of history like the Black Death were caused by vampires. The vampire germ, when inside the host but not exposed to air is symbiotic, but turns parasitic when exposed to air. The stake driven into the vampire causes air to enter the body and allows the germ to kill the host. Bullets do not harm the vampires because the germ has a kind of 'body glue' that seals wounds quickly to stop air from entering.  The vampires are intelligent enough to speak, saying things like "Neville, come out!" all night long but not smart enough to burn down his house. This may be due largely to psychological shock in the living variety. The vampires have no loyalty or much social cooperation at first. Each night a few of them (usually the weaker living females) are drained by their fellows. The females disrobe and make sexual gestures in the hopes of luring Neville out of his house. The vampires can be repelled with garlic, which they are allergic to, crosses, if they were religious in life, and mirrors, which work on them psychologically, reminding them of what they have become. Sunlight kills the germ when it is in the host but not when it is airborne. After years the germ mutates and the living vampires become more cooperative. They develop a pill, combination defebrinated blood and chemicals that inhibit the spreading of the germ, that allows them to put up with sunlight for short periods. These vampires begin a new society, a society that has only one boogieman, Robert Neville. To spy on him, the vampires send Ruth, an infected woman wearing make-up to hide her white skin, into his home. She falls in love with Neville but can't save him. When the vampires capture Neville, Ruth gives him poison so he can commit suicide.

HISTORY: Matheson's book is one of the great horror novels, both because it is uniquely scary (before hundreds of copies) and because it comments on society as well. It is not just a creep-fest. The book discusses cultural point-of-view and the nature of what is a monster? Three film versions attest to the appeal of the book's central conflict of one man against a world of evil. Vincent Price was featured in the b&w 1964 version which can be tedious watching because of the voice over. The second version with macho Charleton Heston is better for this because the filmmakers made sure there were other characters to have more conversation. The un-Matheson hopeful ending ruins it though. The latest version with Will Smith has a new special effects edge the earlier ones lacked but still seems only half of Matheson's book since there is no vampire culture which is key to Matheson's idea that what is normal is largely a matter of point-of-view.

Vincent Price as Robert Neville in 1964

Chuck Heston macho-fies the role in 1971

Will Smith in the latest CGI version (2007)