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Let this Hell be Our Heaven: Richard Matheson’s Spirituality and Its Hollywood Distortions
- Journal of Religion and Popular Culture
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 2012
- pp. 130-147
- 10.1353/rpc.2012.0004
- Article
- Additional Information
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Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend, has inspired three official, and other unofficial, film adaptations. Hollywood has, however, consistently altered key elements, severely distorting the novel’s themes. Where I Am Legend is predictive of the anti-authoritarianism of the counterculture, Matheson’s later work aligns closely with spiritual elements of the so-called New Age. This article will show how Hollywood adaptations increasingly promote distinctly Christian symbolism in opposition to Matheson’s own spirituality, nascent in I Am Legend.