I Am Legend Book Review

Just as an introduction, Amazon.com was running a 99 cent special on old books made into movies and I bought a few and will review them here. Here’s my review for I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

With all of the vampire, zombie, apocalypse novels and movies that currently abound, it’s refreshing to read a scientific based version of these genres rolled into one. Based in post-war Los Angeles, I Am Legend, written in 1954 by Richard Matheson, is a powerful and groundbreaking short novel. The cause of large-scale death and vampirism is a bacteria that mutated over time, evolving its victims. It’s all there- garlic, vampiric comas, sunlight, wooden stakes and crosses, plausibly and scientifically explained (by the main character Richard Neville). These aren’t mindless zombies. They have memories and can critically think, as evidenced in his chilling encounters with Ruth.
What dragged for me were Neville’s temper tantrums, the long sequence with the dog, and spotty adverbs (which I loathe). Thus, minus one star.
This novel deserves a decent film. I envision a low-budget, non-CGI version, shot Old School like the original Night of the Living Dead (George Romero has acknowledged I Am Legend’s influence). I Am Legend shot in this fashion would be a remarkable success.