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Thursday, March 6, 2008

Original Ending of I Am Legend Surfaces Online

I have to preface this by saying that I still haven't seen the newest remake of I Am Legend (hoping to catch it on IMAX in the next couple weeks). So I'm not entirely sure how it ends, although I have seen the Vincent Price adaptation. But for those who have seen Will Smith's version, this is the original ending of the film that got the Warner Bros. suits in an uproar and led to all those reshoots, courtesy of FirstShowing.Net:



Despite not having seen the movie, I found this to be powerful, gritty stuff, and I'm kind of sad it wasn't used. Even though Neville fails to save the vampires in the end, the ending still gives us a glimmer of hope. But alas, not the Hollywood ending they were looking for. I always find it funny how sci-fi/fantasy/horror often gets a bad rap as being unrealistic and escapist, yet whenever it deals with something seriously and realistically it gets the studios all nervous. There's a terrific book called J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century which makes the argument that in spite of its metaphoric trappings, speculative fiction often deals with harsh realities even more head-on than mainstream fiction, and this would be a perfect example of just that.

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Some quicks things I wanted to touch on today:

First off, kudos to Karl Hungus on a terrific post yesterday. This is a rather spacious Vault, with more than enough room for fine guest writers.


Secondly, I wanted to announce that The Vault of Horror was honored with its very first blog award earlier this week:



Thanks to the one and only Horror Guy for bestowing this accolade upon me. Now, according to the rules of this particular award, I must now pass it along to ten blogs I consider worthy of it. Therefore, I will be handing these out to the following excellent sites:



Spread the love, people!
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7 comments:

  1. Mr. KarswellMarch 6, 2008 at 2:33 PM

    Awesome, thanks! This totally makes up for getting ignored by the Rondos. Thanks again!

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  2. B-SolMarch 6, 2008 at 2:45 PM

    You're quite welcome. As for the Rondos, there's always next year!

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  3. UnknownMarch 6, 2008 at 3:45 PM

    I liked I Am Leged, it was a pretty compelling and enthralling experience to me.

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  4. B-SolMarch 6, 2008 at 3:54 PM

    I'm curious, how does this ending compare with the one that was actually used. Because it seems very effective to me.

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  5. UnknownMarch 6, 2008 at 3:56 PM

    I didn't watch that alternate ending because I would like to watch it with the whole film sometime, but at the end of the film that was shown in theaters, Will Smith sacrifices himself and blows himself and some of the crazies up, and the boy and his mother go to a town where there are all of these normal people, and she brings Will Smith's book of studies, experiments, and antidotes with her.

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  6. AnonymousMarch 11, 2008 at 11:54 AM

    The theatrical ending was pretty shoddy, in my opinion. This alternate one is a lot better, and carries a lot more emotional weight that puts it closer in spirit to the original novella. I still think Vincent Price got the best finale, though.

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  7. B-SolMarch 11, 2008 at 3:27 PM

    I also liked the Price version very much. I'm actually in the middle of Charlton Heston's version right now, and I have to say, I'm not enjoying it.

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