The Question

Below I gave my opinion of a film that is based upon a classic zombie novel. But, zombies are not the only post-apocalyptic creatures in film lore. Other than the walking dead there are the talking apes of the The Planet Of The Apes franchise.

And I find the zombies of the 28 Days Later mode silly. The dumb, slow zombies of The Last Man On Earth and Night Of The Living Dead to be more scary, simply because they at least obey semi-plausible scientific realities.

So, forgetting whether you like zombie or ape flicks more, you have a choice. The world has ended. You are alone in the world, until you discover you are not. Which would be a scarier menace to face? The walking dead who will try to eat and/or infect you to become one of them? Or the apes, who are scared fascistic, enslaving, religious lunatics? Bear in mind, as long as you were healthy, you could likely avoid the zombie hordes, and dispatch them with ease. You would be the smartest creature on the planet, possibly a 'legend.' On the other hand, in the ape world, if they knew you could speak, they would hunt you down, lobotomize or kill you, and, even if mute, they would enslave you? You would be the low man on the totem pole, rather than at the top in the zombie world.

Here are snippets of the sorts of zombie hordes you would face:




And here is what you would face in the ape world:



Gotta love the fascistic gorilla played by James Gregory, who also boasts, 'The only good human is a dead human!'
..........

Ok, times up....which scenario would you choose, and why? Personally, give me the zombies, because I would have a more realistic shot at survival. After all, on ape world the humans are all deaf mutes or psychotic mutants, whereas there would have to be survivors on zombie world, and connecting up with them would allow a new world to begin after the cleanup of the dead, which might take a lifetime. But, how would one insurrect ape world with a bunch of mutes and mutants?

The Last Man On Earth

I have yet to watch the film I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, aka The Fresh Prince. Richard Matheson's source novel, though, is a great book.

There were two prior adaptations of the novel. In the 1970s, Charlton Heston essayed the role as The Omega Man, and though I loved ol' Chuckles, it was not nearly as good a film as Soylent Green, nor the first filmic adaptation, the 1960s version, called The Last Man On Earth, starring another of my all time faves, Vincent Price. Who could not love Vinny?

The shots in this black and white film are excellent, and that's likely because it was made at the height of Fellini and Antonioni-mania, in Italy. Price made every role he played better than it had any right to be. He brought intelligence and pathos to some of the silliest characters ever invented. That's a great actor. Watch the scene where he has to stake his infected dog, and then you see a blanket with a stake in it. But he was doomed, by his non-leading man looks, to B films. Watch the film, and the case against voiceovers is rent. This film makes excellent use of such.

Here's the trailer:



Here's the film for free:



Now, of only The Unearthly Stranger or Planeta Burg were in public domain.

BONUS POEM:

VINCENT PRICE IN THE DRAPERY FOLDS

An indignant resign resides in the box
that shapes his eyes within the frame of the world
windowed and decorated and fluttering
in the motions of motion you largely see
but choose to ignore: his earlier career
was a banal extravagance into here
where the flesh remembers no time he was not
creepy and old and decaying with silent
eyes that entwined you like the billowing cloth
which frames your gaze away from television
and into the real world or out into it
because all is tragic when one is without
as he in between the cloth and the glass or
the divine chaotics of wish and snowflake.