Rated 4 out of 5
A Strictly "Subjective" Assessment
I first saw this film in my mid-teens, when I had no critical faculties whatsoever. In those days, Bergman and Fellini would have bored hell out of me (Fellini still does), and "Citizen Kane" would have left me cold. And many of the films I used to love as a child now strike me as boring. But for some reason, "Last Man on Earth" continues to plunge me into a state of pleasurable gloom, and I keep returning to it every other week like some sort of drug, or one of those amulets cinematic hypnotists dangle before their victims while coaxing them toward some nefarious climax.I won’’t attempt an "objective" review of this film, since I’’m far too familiar with it, so my impressions are visceral rather than analytic. Also, I long ago ceased to care about the plot (which is amply detailed in many of the other reviews included here). The acting? Here, too, I’’m too close to it to make a reliable assessment. I’’d have to say that Vincent Price is only slightly hammy in his role as a weary vampire-hunter, and in one scene, where he’’s vocally mourning the loss of his wife, "Virge," he lapses into some rather embarrassing self-consciousness. The only other aspect of the film that annoys me ---- from an adult vantage point, that is ---- is the atrocious dubbing of the Italian actors, and the ridiculous exhortations of the vampires as they surround the protagonist’’s house, trying to lure him outside.
Otherwise, "Last Man" still strikes me as one of the best examples of atmospheric film-making in the history of the genre, and it is on this level that I can wholly immerse myself in its special qualities. It does not really resemble any other film ever made ------ much like the international collaboration, "Daughters of Darkness" in that respect. It does not even resemble "Night of the Living Dead," though it clearly influenced that film thematically. It has that sleazy, low-budget quality that most true horror fans love, but other than that it is sui generis.
Part of the power of the film, I believe, is that it concentrates largely on the situation of a totally isolated character, surrounded by alien beings with whom he has no chance of communicating. The fact that he loses both his wife and a close friend to this "enemy camp" only adds to his sense of despair (not to mention a stray dog which he briefly befriends before discovering that it, too, has succumbed to the "vampire germ").
The music score, while not in the class of Bernard Herrmann or Maurice Jarre, is nevertheless wonderfully appropriate for the film, and assists the production with just the right touch of eeriness. Parts of it spill over into excess, perhaps, but it’’s the right kind of excess.
The DVD (Diamond) edition of the film is only passable, and hopefully it will get transferred from a better print eventually. But for now, we should be grateful for this budget version. "Last Man on Earth" is not the greatest horror film ever made ---- and this is as "objective" as I can be at this stage ---- but it’’s one of the most effective when approached in the right spirit.
