The Best of Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson is a writer whose name you may not be familiar with, but chances are you know his work. From classic science-fiction and horror films, to well-known episodes of The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, to novels such as I Am Legend, many of which have been adapted to the big screen, Matheson has had a strong and lasting impact on popular culture. Here's a look at some of his best work.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1955)

Matheson wrote the screenplay for one of the best sci-fi films of the 1950s, The Incredible Shrinking Man, based on his own novel of the same title.

Despite its low budget, the film has some convincing special effects, and a storyline that rises above its sci-fi contemporaries. With intelligence and courage as his only weapons, the protagonist fights to survive as he grows smaller with each passing day. Finally he shrinks out of sight, proclaiming "To God there is no zero. I still exist!"

Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations, Starring Vincent Price

In the early 1960s, Producer/Director Roger Corman released a series of films based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplays for four of these films, which were more "inspired by" Poe's stories than faithful adaptations of them, partly because the stories themselves weren't substantial enough for an entire movie.

These films - House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Tales of Terror (1962), and The Raven (1963) - contain some of the best work of both Roger Corman and Vincent Price.

Watch them now with Amazon Video On Demand:

Somewhere in Time (1980)

Somewhere In Time, a time-travel romance based on Matheson's novel Bid Time Return (since reissued under the title Somewhere In Time), has Christopher Reeve travel back in time to the year 1912 to meet an actress (Jane Seymour) he has become obsessed with.

People seem to either love this movie (the official fan club has been holding annual conventions since 1991) or hate it. I admit it, it's one of my guilty pleasures. It's a nice story, well-acted, and Jane Seymour has never been more beautiful. I think you should give it a chance.

The Twilight Zone

Matheson wrote 14 episodes of the original Twilight Zone series, and two other episodes were based on short stories he'd written. Many of these episodes are among the series' best, including:

• A World of His Own (season 1, episode 36) - a playright (Keenan Wynn) has the ability to create real people by describing them into a tape recorder.
• Nick of Time (season 2, episode 7) - a young couple (William Shatner and Patricia Breslin) are unwilling to leave a small town, as they believe a penny fortune-teller machine in a local diner actually tells them their future.
• The Invaders (season 2, episode 15) - alone in a rural farmhouse, a woman (Agnes Moorehead) battles the occupants of a tiny flying saucer from another planet.
• Little Girl Lost (season 3, episode 26) - a father (Robert Sampson) hears the cries of his young daughter but cannot find her, as she has passed through a portal in her bedroom leading to another dimension.

• Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (season 5, episode 3) - an airplane passenger (William Shatner), recently recovered from a nervous breakdown, is unable to convince anyone that a monster tearing up the wing of the plane.

Star Trek - The Enemy Within

In this first-season episode of the original series, a malfunctioning transporter separates Captain Kirk into two beings, one with all of Kirk's good qualities, one with only the bad. Neither can exist for long without the other - but can Scotty repair the transporter and rejoin them in time? And will the bad Kirk even agree to the procedure?

The Night Stalker

In this 1972 ABC "Movie of the Week", a Las Vegas reporter (Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin) investigates a serial killer that turns out to be a vampire. Produced by Dan Curtis (of Dark Shadows fame), The Night Stalker received the highest ratings of any made-for-TV movie up to that point. A sequel, The Night Strangler, and a short-lived series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, followed.

Matheson's greatest success may be his novel I Am Legend, which has been adapted to film three separate times, most recently in 2007, as the big-budget film I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. The novel was also the basis for the 1964 film The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, and The Omega Man, released in 1971, starring Charlton Heston.

This is just a small sampling from Richard Matheson's decade-spanning career. If you enjoy science-fiction, fantasy, and horror (or an interesting blend of all these genres), I think you'll enjoy these, as well as the many other works of this excellent and prolific writer.