Editing I Am Legend (novel) (section)

==Influence==
One major influence upon Matheson and others of the genre is the [[Mary Shelley]] novel, ''[[The Last Man]]'', about an immune person surviving in a plague infested world.

In ''I Am Legend'', the "vampires" share more similarities with [[zombie]]s, and the novel influenced the zombie fiction genre and popularized the concept of a worldwide [[zombie apocalypse]].<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book |editor1-first=Deborah |editor1-last=Christie |editor2-first=Sarah Juliet |editor2-last=Lauro |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oZIlm84F2oC&q=romero+&pg=PA57 |title=Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human |publisher=Fordham University Press |page=169 |isbn=9780823234479}}</ref>

Although the idea has now become commonplace, a scientific origin for vampirism or zombies was fairly original when written.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20071223%2FSTYLE%2F225372455%2F-1%2Fstyle |work = Nashua Telegraph |title=Tale with long history has legendary opening |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228040501/http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20071223%2FSTYLE%2F225372455%2F-1%2Fstyle |archive-date=28 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to Clasen:

{{blockquote |''I Am Legend'' is the product of an anxious artistic mind working in an anxious cultural climate. However, it is also a playful take on an old archetype, the vampire (the reader is even treated to Neville's reading and put-down of [[Bram Stoker]]'s ''[[Dracula]]''). Matheson goes to great lengths to rationalize or naturalize the vampire myth, transplanting the monster from the otherworldly realms of folklore and Victorian supernaturalism to the test tube of medical inquiry and rational causation. With ''I Am Legend'', Matheson instituted the germ theory of vampirism, a take on the old archetype which has since been tackled by other writers (notably, [[Dan Simmons]] in ''Children of the Night'' from 1992).|Mathias Clasen<ref name="Clasen">{{cite journal |last=Clasen |first=Mathias |year=2010 |title=Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v034/34.2.clasen.html |journal=Philosophy and Literature |doi=10.1353/phl.2010.0005 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=313–328 |s2cid=170456875}}</ref>}}

Although referred to as "the first modern vampire novel", it is as a novel of social theme that ''I Am Legend'' made a lasting impression on the cinematic zombie genre, by way of director [[George A. Romero]], who acknowledged its influence and that of its original cinematic adaptation, ''[[The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)|The Last Man on Earth]]'' (1964), upon his seminal film ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' (1968).<ref>David Carroll and Kyla Ward, [http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline2.html "The Horror Timeline"]. ''Burnt Toast'' No. 13.</ref><ref name="books.google.co.uk"/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.houseofhorrors.com/night68.htm| website = House of Horrors |title=Night of the Living Dead | date = 5 February 2019| access-date = 29 December 2007| archive-date = 1 October 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161001182804/http://www.houseofhorrors.com/night68.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Biodrowski |first=Steve |url=http://blog.cinefantastiqueonline.com/wordpress/retrospective-night-of-the-living-dead-1968/ |title=Night of the Living Dead (1968) – A Retrospective |work=Cinefantastique |date=2008-02-13 |access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref><ref>Richard Matheson Interview, in Tom Weaver, ''Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1999), p. 307, {{ISBN|0-7864-0755-7}}.</ref>

Discussing the creation of ''Night of the Living Dead'', Romero remarked:

{{blockquote|I had written a short story, which I basically had ripped off from a Richard Matheson novel called ''I Am Legend''.|George Romero<ref>"One for the Fire: The Legacy of ''Night of the Living Dead''". ''Night of the Living Dead'' DVD, 2008, Region 1, Dimension Home Entertainment</ref>}}

Moreover, film critics have noted similarities between ''Night of the Living Dead'' (1968) and ''The Last Man on Earth'' (1964).<ref>{{cite web |last=Scalzo |first=Thomas |url=http://notcoming.com/reviews/lastmanonearth/ |title=The Last Man on Earth |website=Not Coming to a Theater Near You |date=2006-10-14 |access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>

[[Stephen King]] said: "Books like ''I Am Legend'' were an inspiration to me."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2278832,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725002628/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2278832,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 25, 2008 |first=Stephen |last=King |author-link=Stephen King |work=The Times |location=London |title=The Legend that inspired me |date=2006-07-22 |access-date=2010-05-04}}</ref> Film critics noted that the [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British film]] ''[[28 Days Later]]'' (2002) and its sequel ''[[28 Weeks Later]]'' both feature a [[rabies]]-type [[Plague (disease)|plague]] ravaging [[Great Britain]], analogous to ''I Am Legend''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=109016&section=review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711233136/http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=109016&section=review |archive-date=2009-07-11 |title=28 Days Later Review |first=Daniel |last=Etherington |website=Film4}}</ref>

Tim Cain, the [[Video game producer|producer]], [[lead programmer]] and one of the main [[Video game designer|designers]] of the 1997 [[computer game]] ''[[Fallout (video game)|Fallout]]'', cited ''I Am Legend'' and the movie ''The Omega Man'' as influences on the game:

{{blockquote|This book was how a[n] individual would handle thinking that he was the last survivor on Earth. This is why in ''Fallout 1'' when you're voted to leave the Vault, we really wanted that sense of isolationism; that sense of: you are the only person out here on the Wasteland who is, quote, "a normal person", and we wanted you to feel, like, special in that way.<ref>{{cite AV media|first=Timothy|last=Cain|work=GameSpot|via=YouTube|title=Fallout Classic Revisited|date=2012-03-09|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa5IzHhAdi4&t=8m21s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Xa5IzHhAdi4| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-01-09}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}