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Episode 586 - I Am Legend - Part 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-03-03 22:46:52
Imported:
2022-03

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Content

Join us as we discuss Richard Matheson's novel of Drac-pocalypse: I Am Legend 

Special thanks to reader Erik Peabody of Viking Guitar Productions

Cosplay your own vampire siege with these Nosferatu Figurines by Cryptocurium

Here's a (brief) history of the Southern California Sorcerers from Mangled Matters

Enjoy our playlist of classical music from the novel on Spotify or YouTube

Outro Song: "The Year of the Plague" by Roger Leie "...filled his ears. Violins scraped and whined, tympani thudded like the beats of a dying heart, flutes played weird, atonal melodies. With a stiffening of rage, he wrenched up the record and snapped it over his right knee. He’d meant to break it long ago."

Composed and produced by Chad Fifer, additional vocals by Heather Klinke.

Comments

Anonymous

Come out Neville!

Anonymous

“When life gives you Draculas, you make Dracul-ade!” And for writing that song, you deserve Draccolades.

Jeremy Impson

This was a good article about the sorcerers, too. https://rodserling.com/southern-california-sorcerers/

Jason Thompson

“Year of the Plague” is a Magnetic Fields song? I like it!!

Anonymous

Okay, to start with: great song! Great, great song! But! I've seen The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price! I was just a kid, and one of the TV stations in LA used to show monster movies on Saturday afternoons, and one Saturday that was the movie. My dad was at work and my mom was out shopping, so there I was all alone watching this poor guy trying to stay live in a world full of vampires. He tries to make friends with a dog, but then he has to stake it because, yes, the dog has become a vampire. Every night the vampires surround his house, pounding on the walls and the doors, calling out his name over and over again -- and in the movie his name is Robert. Hey! That's my name, too! At some point in the movie it all became too much. I turned off the TV, and I ran and hid in the bathroom, which was the only room in the house that didn't have windows. It was a fine sunny afternoon in LA when I was watching this movie, but that didn't matter -- there are vampires, they are coming to get me, and they know my name! Eventually my mom came home and found me, hiding in the bathtub. "Did you watch a scary movie?" she asked so nicely (she told me years later that she was really trying not to laugh at me). Somehow she convinced me to get out of the tub and come out of the bathroom. Vampires were just in movies, they weren't real, come and have a grilled cheese sandwich and play with your poor dog, who was really worried about you hiding in the tub like that. To this day I still have not watched that movie again. I know that as a grownup now, with my own friends and keys and credit cards, that Last Man on Earth won't be scary at all, and I really cherish the memory of being so terrified by a vampire movie that I had to go hide in the bathtub on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Anonymous

Ha! Jaws in 3-D, I saw it in a Bronx movie theater as a 7 year old with a Grandfather I’d never met who only spoke Italian. He shouted and cursed at the screen from curtain to credits and I had NO IDEA what he was saying.

Anonymous

Chris, both you (in this podcast today) and me (before listening to it) used the word "thrice". As soon as you said it, I chuckled, which I'll reason here. Possibly a year ago, if I remember correctly, you were finding much joy in streaming "The Golden Girls". How, if at all, have those four ladies of a certain age found their way into the things you say?Personally, I've used the word "thrice" on a number of occasions, and it's always been in honor of its use in a couple of episodes.

Kevin Sommerfield

Steel was a Twilight Zone episode (by Matheson) with Lee Marvin in 1963, Low budget to put it mildly, but good.

Anonymous

Listening to you guys talk about the lewd women surprisingly brought back the memories of first reading this when I was 12 or 13. Surprising ‘cause that was a damn long time ago. I also wasn’t really keen on reading it as I was deep in Conan paperbacks and Lovecraft, but it was in a box of random horror/scfi books. I assumed it was going to be old-fashioned, i.e. boring and couldn’t have been more wrong. Of course, this was 1976 or 1977 when I was reading it, so it was all contemporary. But I do remember being confused about the lewd women incompetenly trying to entice him. Now after hearing your take on it, I can’t help but seeing a bunch of millennials badly twerking

Anonymous

I completely agree that the Price film is the best of all 3 adaptations, but I still want to hear you guys go off on Heston leading a ragtag Mod Squad against a bunch of Uncle Festers with just the 70's screaming from every shot.

Anonymous
>>79122345

Also worth noting that Matheson adapted his own "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" short story for the series, one of its best episodes, featuring... William Shatner! (It all comes around full circle...)

Anonymous

Really excited for this year's March is for Draculas. I first read I Am Legend as a freshmen in college and was instantly captivated and immediately understood why it is one the most influential vampire novellas of all time. However it is precisely because of that influence that I have one major issue with this story - something which Chris and Chad just breezed by in this first episode. The line "The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him" is NOT from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula! Rather it is from the 1927 theatrical adaptation of Dracula written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which subsequently served as the basis for the 1931 Universal Studios film version where the line is also said. Now I'm not so pedantic as to fault Matheson for misattributing a line from the play/film Dracula to the original novel. Rather my issue is the way that this idea - people's resistance to believing in vampires - has metastasized over the years as a result of the popularity and influence of Matheson's novella. In particular I'm thinking about the trend seen in both vampire and zombie fiction where these monsters suddenly appear or re-appear but the characters nevertheless refuse to name them due to a dogmatic conviction that such creatures can not be real. The 2007 Will Smith version of I Am Legend is one example of this, but a more recent and in some ways more egregious one is last year's Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass where a vampire invades a small New England island community and despite overwhelming evidence of this not a single character ever has the wherewithal to identify the monster they are facing as a vampire. As horror author/film critic/Dracula connoisseur Kim Newman has observed: "a vampire story in which characters are confronted by immortal, blood-drinking, back-from-the-dead, turn-into-a-bat, nocturnal creatures and don't call them vampires just isn't convincing... If you were doing Jaws, you wouldn't bend over backwards to have characters avoid using the word 'shark' in discussing what's eating them, would you?" Or to quote George Clooney's character from one of my favorite vampire movies, From Dusk till Dawn (1996), when asked what kind of threat the protagonists are up against: "Yeah, I know what's going on. We got a bunch of fuckin' vampires outside trying to get inside and suck our fuckin' blood! That's it, plain and simple. And I don't wanna hear any bullshit about "I don't believe in vampires" because I don't fuckin' believe in vampires either. But I do believe in my own two fuckin' eyes, and with my two eyes I saw fuckin' vampires! Now, does everybody agree we're dealin' with vampires?" *Everyone agrees*

Anonymous

"Re: Your Brains" always makes me think of Ben Cortman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmzjaN2DWc&ab_channel=JonathanCoulton-Topic

Anonymous

Listening to Year of the Plague elicited Bauhaus flashbacks!

Anonymous

I'm looking forward to hearing your coverage of this book! I started watching the Will Smith movie, but fell asleep...I remember him sitting in a bathtub and cuddling his dog, then the next thing I knew it was the end credits and my friends were waking me up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Evan

So happy you guys are covering this. I love Matheson, for some reason I always have this feeling that he’s deeply under appreciated, kind of like Gene Wolf. Obviously, given the numerous massive awards that you guys listed this isn’t true, but it still sticks with me, so I’m always glad to see him get some love. This was the book that got me into creepy stuff, I read this before Lovecraft or Smith, hell even before I touched anything by Stephen King. It’s so well done, the will smith movie made me sad even though it was a good movie. However, I suppose I prefer that, because most adaptations make me sad because they’re just awful movies. Anywho, great stuff with the soundtrack. Peace

Richard Horsman
>>79149897

I think it's that he's unappreciated in the wider world, where at one point virtually everyone in the US would have seen something he wrote. He never had a name that could sell to a general audience, like say Stephen King or Shirley Jackson.

Richard Horsman

I reread this ahead of your coverage. Last time was about 20 years ago. It was both familiar and completely new this time. One thing that really struck me is that Matheson uses Neville to explore what we call toxic masculinity today, at a time where we didn't have that name for it. Reminded me a lot of Algis Budry's Rogue Moon, another short novel that seems like just a really unique genre piece, but is also a really strong gender piece, without beating the reader over the head. Looking forward to the rest of this month!

Anonymous

The "one man against a world of monsters" type of plot always reminds me of my French teacher making us read this insane play called "Rhinoceros." The gist of that it was that a disease turns everyone into a rhinoceros... except for one abusive alcoholic who is humanity's last hope against the rhino apocalypse. It's about fascism, or communism, or masculinity, or something. Based on my experience with the French the rhinos probably represented Americans.

Richard Horsman
>>79172500

Ionesco! There's a film of this with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. It's...something.

Anonymous

Matheson! So excited for this one. I read this ages ago and naturally fell in love with it, as one does. It does feel "modern," but the 1950s were not that long ago really and they were definitely struggling with many of the same things then that we struggle with now, which may be why this story still resonates so strongly with audiences.

Anonymous

Even with the preface, I was not prepared for how bad Chad's sound quality actually was. I intended to tease him about it but then I listened to the song at the end. All is forgiven. That was wonderful and oddly touching, probably because of our own plague year (s).

Incaptivity

Hope lots more Matheson gets covered, good stuff

Anonymous

Chad, you are a treasure for making that playlist. As someone who loves making playlists for novels I'm reading, I always appreciate seeing that someone else has the same addiction! Before the Neil Young debacle made me dump Spotify I had playlists for something like a dozen novels (sadly all gone; I deleted my account before I knew there was a way to preserve them. D'oh!). Speaking of dumping Spotify, yeah, do you think we could maybe copy that playlist over to Tidal? I'll help if there's grunt work.. Anyway, best idea since someone made Musical Evenings with the Captain (two albums of music mention and/or played by Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin in Patrick O'Brian's big series). Also very much enjoying the GRAVITAS, Chris 😉

Anonymous
>>79108301

That's what I thought, too. Nice assistance from Heather, too!

Anonymous

Chad, “The Year of the Plague” is an absolute banger. Thank you. It really reinforces a theme of the show that stories always have something to say to our current life. Please release this as a single

Anonymous

https://www.film-news.co.uk/news/UK/92300/Michael-B-Jordan-and-Will-Smith-to-star-in-I-Am-Legend-sequel I'm sorry this is my only contribution to the discussion. I did write a post and thought I posted it, about the Vincent Price (1964) film version, and the experience of reading Matheson's novel for the first time while staying overnight on a barge, and being terrified the vampires were going to crawl on deck. But I mustn't have clicked save! Really enjoyed this episode. You guys always make discussing stories fun. Can't wait for the next one.

Anonymous

I originally read this back in college, but I now better appreciate Matheson’s mastery of such otherworldly horror as: *Suburban neighbors wanting you to come out and join them. *Having a falling out with your carpool partner. *Home ownership/maintenance. *People not following pandemic protocol. *When did you last check the oil on your car? *TO-DO list anxiety (hating yourself for never quite finishing your daily tasks, and thus never getting to your long-term tasks) *The stomach-dropping paranoia that is: “Did I remember to shut the garage door?” Excited to be reading along with the podcast this month!

Anonymous

Another great Matheson script was The Devil Rides Out. He really was a master

Mark Brett

You guys should really check out the Price film. It's exactly the sort of low-budget adaptation you were talking about. And while it doesn't follow the book perfectly, it's as close as anyone's come. It has the right desperate tone, and a third act that at least echoes Matheson's. It's a personal favorite, anyway, and I think you might enjoy it.

Anonymous

With the return of 'March is for Draculas' comes the return of references to Dracula's paprika chicken recipe, described as "excellent" by Jonathan Harker. However, you've never actually included the recipe in the podcast, after all these years. It is provided by Leslie Klinger in 'The Annotated Dracula', note 12 of Chapter One, provided as follows: John Paget's 1850 'Hungary and Transylvania' recounts: "I do not think I have yet enlightened the reader as to the mystery of a 'paprika hendel;' to forget it, would be a depth of ingratitude of which, I trust, I shall never be guilty. Well, then, reader, if you every travel in Hungary, and want a dinner or supper quickly, never mind the variety of dishes your host names, but fix at once on 'paprika hendel.' Two minutes afterwards, you will hear signs of a revolution in the 'basse cour;' the cocks and hens are in alarm; one or two of the largest, and probably the oldest members of their unfortunate little community, are seized, their necks wrung, and, while yet fluttering, immersed in boiling water. Their coats and skins come off at once; a few unmentionable preparatory operations are rapidly dispatched - probably under the traveler's immediate observation - the wretches are cut into pieces, thrown into a pot, with water, butter, flour, cream, and an inordinate quantity of red pepper or paprika, and very shortly after, a number of bits of fowl are seen swimming in a dish of hot greasy gravy, quite delightful to think of." A more modern version of the recipe is as follows" '1 chicken, cut up, 8 to 10 pieces; 2 Tablespoons Oil; 1 onion, grated; 1 Tablespoon Hungarian paprika; Salt; 2 to 3 Tablespoons tomato paste.' Wash and dry the chicken pieces. Heat the oil in a pan, add the grated onions, and brown. Add the paprika, and when the mixture bubbles, put in the chicken pieces, turning to coat. Salt the chicken and cover. braise over a low heat, turning the chicken from time to time, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Add tomato paste to thicken if desired. (This is a lower-cholesterol version of Paget's recipe, which was thickened with butter, cream and flower.) Bon appetite. You can't get spicy with vampire brides on an empty stomach.

Anonymous

Wow! Chad does The Magnetic Fields! Love that outro song!

Anonymous
>>79401742

Yeah, it's very low key - I might have to watch that again come to think of it.

Anonymous
>>79366895

When Chad and Chris just listed all the stuff he had written it really brought home how important he was and how many personal favs I had among them. And The Devil Rides Out is peak Hammer!

Anonymous

If I remember correctly, hearing about all his writing in the Twilight Zone, there was a Twilight Zone episode I believe called Steel as well, which also was some inspiration for the more recent Real Steel. I think the episode and the movie need to be combined in some kind of multiverse sequel, "Too Real - Too Steel," perhaps?

Anonymous

I'm currently reading it and will wait till you're done to listen to the show(s)....it's already freakin' me out... so good.

Anonymous

Matheson also gave us the 1990 classic "Loose Cannons" with Gene Hackman, Dan Aykroyd, and Dom DeLuise. As Wikipedia puts it, "Loose Cannons is a 1990 American action comedy film, written by Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson and Bob Clark, who also directed the film. The film is about a hard-nosed cop who is teamed up with a detective with multiple-personality disorder to uncover a long-lost Nazi sex tape featuring Adolf Hitler, which would jeopardize the political future of the German chancellor-elect." It made back only about a third of its budget.