In the end the vampires were the normal ones. (well, they weren’t actually vampires, and not actually "normal". . .but as Silbs says, “I digress.”) Robert Neville, our hero, was actually the monster of death who came to kill you as you slept. Thus the title, “I am Legend”.

You could say “I am Legend” by Richard Matheson is just a book about vampires. . . Or it could be a moral play where we become monsters in the name of “normal”. As they say, "It’s all in how you look at it."  Interestingly each time the book "I am Legend" gets remade, a new screenplay has to be written to conform to the culture of the day.  I’ll admit I’m excited to see the new film.  It certainly can’t be as screwed up as the 1971 version; "The Omega Man" that ended with our martyred, yet well armed last man, dying in a perfect crucifixion pose in a pool of blood.  (It had to be Heston!!)  Hopefully we’ve moved a bit past that 1970s world view!

I grew up on classic science fiction that used the cover of fantasy to talk about social issues that may not have been to popular in the light of day. Many of us today easily see the shadows of  HG Wells, Huxley, Heinlein, Bradbury, Orwell and many others come to darken our doors.  Not surprisingly, movie-makes often run to these guys for ideas and profit. Occasionally a movie will come out that was fairly true to the authors message. The timeless and brutal classic, A Clockwork Orange is a great example.  However more often then not, the stories are re-written to produce some sort of car smashing, gun flashing, action flick. A more recent example was Robert Heinlein’s  “Starship Troopers”  which was so stripped of it’s message, you were never quite sure if it was pro-war, anti-television or just splatter fest with lots of bugs in it. 

It will be interesting to see what they do with the new release of “I am Legend”.  I mean, If you’re going to strip the soul from a book. .  a vampire story (that really isn’t a vampire story) seems like the perfect victim.