By Richard Matheson

Like many Gen-X’ers I saw the film first (with Will Smith). It reminded me of a fantasy I had when I was 9 or 10. I dreamed of being the last person on earth, and I imagined that it would be awesome to drive my go-kart through cities and towns, unhindered by the law and other people. As an adult with a driver’s license I have developed a love for driving my car, but still occasionally dream of this kind of post apocalyptic freedom.

When I discovered that this film was the 3rd remake of the story, I immediately got a copy of the previous 2 versions, The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, and Omega Man with Charlton Heston. Each of the three films tell the story of Robert Neville, seemingly the only man to survive unscathed by a disastrous plague (made more real to me given the current pandemic.) By day he hunts sleeping vampires, disposes of bodies in the town burn pit, and collects provisions. By night he locks himself in his secured house, blasts music, and hides from the hords of vampires outside who torment him.

Having seen all three films, I discovered that they where based on a book my Richard Matheson. To feed my media fetish, I ordered a new copy from Amazon. I was intrigued to discover that the novella comes with a small collection of other weird short stories by Matheson. The films, it turns out, each fit pretty closely to the main thrust of the story but with some minor changes, The Last Man on Earth more closely resembling the book. The book is well written, giving us a window into the internal and external struggles that parallel each other in the day to day struggle of this, the last loneliest protagonist.

The short stories I found most intriguing was, Mad House about a writer destined to fail at everything including writing. Anyone who has tried to do any writing should be able to relate to this tale. Also of note were, Prey, about an enchanted doll that takes killing seriously, and Person to Person, about a man who receives telepathic phone calls.