THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

The movie that scared me the most is ‘The last man on Earth’. I saw it on TV in the late sixties. I was about ten then, old enough to understand and young enough to be frightened. I did not know the name of the actor then. Later on, I checked the net and found that it was Vincent Price. I also noticed that there was a slight difference in the way I understood the story.

It is about a man who finds people around him dying. They are affected by a Plague. He is immune to the plague because he had been bitten by a vampire bat earlier. Soon he loses his family, friends and everyone he knows. He is the only man alive. He goes into a supermarket and takes whatever he wants. He does not have to pay for it. There is nobody around. He gets fuel for his car at a petrol station. There is no cashier to receive payment.

At night, the dead bodies get up and start walking around. They are in various stages of decay. His dead friends and relatives come looking for him. They knock on his door and windows and try to get in. They call out his name. He gets home before dark to avoid them. One night he is late and they crowd around him. They don’t seem to hurt him. He uses a small crucifix to repel them. He hangs garlic on his door which also helps to keep them away.

Later on he learns that the dead bodies can be prevented from getting up at night by driving a stake through their chest. He starts making stakes using a lathe at home during the night. During the day he goes around looking for dead bodies and drives the stakes into their chest.

He listens to the radio to see if there are people living in some other city or country. One day he meets a woman. Since she is walking around during the day, he is convinced that she is not one of the dead bodies. She tells him that her friends will be arriving soon. Her friends see him in the evening and mistake him for one of the dead bodies. He tells them that he is a real man. They don’t believe him and attack him. He runs into a church. They follow him and stab him to death near the altar.

After watching this movie, I was afraid to go out alone at night for several days.