Conversion by Infection
The Sociophobic of Cults in The Omega Man
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v1i2.261Keywords:
omega Man, The Family, counter-cult movement, Richard MathesonAbstract
The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston, is a film adaptation of the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Matheson’s novel tells the tale of Robert Neville, the last man left alive after germ warfare has infected humanity with vampirism. The Omega Man differs from the original novel and its other adaptations in several ways: The most notable is that it imbues Heston’s character with obvious Christ-like symbolism. A more significant change went largely unnoticed: instead of vampires, those infected with the plague become part of a militant group called “The Family.” Although The Family is never overtly described as a religion, the antagonists speak to a popular fear of new religious movements that emerged in the 1960s. By pitting a medicalized Christ against a disease-like religion, The Omega Man helped to engender a dual perspective of deviant religion as simultaneously medical and heretical. This dual perspective would shape the discourse of the “cult wars in the United States for decades, from the abductions carried out by cult “deprogrammers” to the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
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Victor, J.S. 1993 Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago, IL: Open Court.
Woods, R. 1971 The Occult Revolution: A Christian Meditation. New York: Seabury Press.
Barkun, M. 2003 A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Blatty, W.P. 1971 The Exorcist. New York: Harper and Row.
Chidester, D. 2003 Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, The People’s Temple, and Jonestown. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Conrad, P. 2007 “The Discovery of Hyperkinesis: Notes on the Medicalization of Deviant Behavior,” In Deviant Behavior, edited by E.J. Clarke and D.H. Kelly, 75–86 New York: MacMillan.
Conway, F. and J. Siegelman. 2005 Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change. New York: Stillpoint Press.
Cowan, D.E. 2008 Sacred Terror. Waco: Baylor University Press.
Chryssides, G.D. 2001 Exploring New Religions. New York, Continuum International Publishing Group.
Chryssides, G.D. and M. Wilkins. 2006 A Reader in New Religious Movements. New York, Continuum International Publishing Group.
Deacy, C. 2006 “Reflections on the Uncritical Appropriation of Cinematic Christ-Figures: Holy Other or Wholly Inadequate.” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 13. http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art13-reflectcinematicchrist.html
Ellis, B. 2000 Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Engelhardt, H.T. and A.L. Caplan. 1987 Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511628719
Forbes, B.D. and J.H. Mahan. 2000 Religion and Popular Culture in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Frankfurter, D. 2006 Evil incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Ritual Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Gallagher, M. 2006 Action Figures: Men, Action Films, and Contemporary Adventure Narratives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gould, C. 1995 “Denying Ritual Abuse of Children.” Journal of Psychohistory 22(3): 329–339.
Guerrero, E. 1993 Framing Blackness: the African American Image in Film. Culture and the Moving Image. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Jenkins, P. 1994 Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide. Social Problems and Social Issues. New York: A. de Gruyter.
2000 Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2004 “Satanism and Ritual Abuse.” In The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, edited by J.R. Lewis, 221–242. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, C. 2007 Revolutionaries to Race leaders: Black power and the Making of African American Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Joshi, S.T. 2007 Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of our Worst Nightmares. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Heston, C. 1995 In the Arena: An Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Kazlovic, A.K. 2004 “The Structural Characteristics of the Cinematic Christ-Figure,” The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 8. http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/ art8-cinematicchrist.html
Kreitzer, L.J. 1999 Pauline Images in Fiction and Film: On Reversing the Hermeneutical Flow. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
McCann, Joseph T. 2006 Terrorism on American Soil: a Concise History of Plots and Perpetrators from the Famous to the Forgotten. Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications.
Melton, G.J. 2005 “An Introduction to New Religions.” in The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, edited by J.R. Lewis, 16–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nama, A. 2008 Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.
The Omega Man. 1971 Directed by Boris Sagal. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Paffenroth, K. 2006 Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth. Waco: Baylor University Press.
Patrick, T and T. Dulack. 1976 Let Our Children Go! Hialeah: Dutton.
Prothero, S. 2003 American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. New York: MacMillan.
2004 “Hinduphobia and Hinduphilia in U.S. Culture.” In The Stranger’s Religion, edited by A. Lannstrom, 13–37. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Richardson, J.T. 1995 “Manufacturing Consent About Koresh.” In Armageddon in Waco, edited by Stuart A. Wright, 153–176. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Richardson, J.T. and M. Introvigne. 2007 “New Religious Movements, Countermovements, Moral Panics, and the Media.” In Teaching New Religious Movements, edited by D.G. Bromley, 91–112. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/978019 5177299.003.0005
Rovin, J. 1977 The Films of Charlton Heston. Secaucus: The Citadel Press.
Sample, M. 2002 “There Goes the Neighborhood: The Seventies, The Middle Class, and and The Omega Man.” In Necronomicon Presents: Shocking Cinema of the Seven- ties, edited by X. Mendik, 29–57. London: Noir Publishing.
Shupe, A. and J.K. Hadden. 1995 “Cops, News Copy, and Public Opinion.” In Armageddon in Waco, edited by Stuart A. Wright, 177–204. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, J.Z. 1988 Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Spitzer, R.L. 1987 “The Diagnostic Status of Homosexuality in DSM-III: A Reformulation of the Issues.” In Scientific Controversies: Case Studies in the Resolution and Closure of Disputes in Science and Technology, edited by H.T. Engelhardt and A.L. Caplan, 401–416. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511628719.019
Streatfeild, D. 2007 Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control. New York: MacMillan.
Tabor, J.D. 1995 “Religious Discourse and Failed Negotiations.” In In Armageddon in Waco, edited by Stuart A. Wright, 263–281. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Tabor, J.D., and E.V. Gallagher. 1995 Why Waco?: Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Versluis, A. 2006 The New Inquisitions: Heretic Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Victor, J.S. 1993 Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Chicago, IL: Open Court.
Woods, R. 1971 The Occult Revolution: A Christian Meditation. New York: Seabury Press.
Published
2011-01-12
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Laycock, J. P. (2011). Conversion by Infection: The Sociophobic of Cults in The Omega Man. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 1(2), 261-278. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v1i2.261
