SOURCE: I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson

DESCRIPTION: "The dark-suited men knew exactly what they were doing. There were about seven vampires visible...The men surrounded the seven, held their flailing arms, and drove razor-tipped pikes deep into their bodies...Robert Neville felt tight fists shaking at his sides. He didn't like the looks of them, he didn't like the methodical butchery. They were more like gangsters than men forced into a situation. There were looks of vicious triumph on their faces, white and stark in the spotlights. Their faces were cruel and emotionless." (I Am Legend by Richard Matheson)

NOTES: Some of the infected people who became vampires had their germs mutate into something a little different. The New Race can withstand sunlight for a short while. With the help of pills, they keep their more manic symptoms of vampirism under check. This allows them to think and act collectively. One of the first things they do is to kill all the regular vampires. They use guns and razor-tipped lances to do this. The next thing they do is capture Robert Neville and kill him. Their new society is violent but quickly taking over.

HISTORY: The second film version focused on the New Race, calling them "The Family". The novel does a great emotional shift when the New Race kills the vampires outside Neville's house. he feels sorry for them, in particular, Ben Cortman, who looks like a rotund Oliver Hardy. Everything that Neville once feared and hated has become familiar and homely.

Vampire leader Matthias played by Anthony Zerbe