8 Horror Movies Ruined By Last Minute Changes

8. I Am Legend - The Disappointing Ending

I Am Legend is a pretty famous example of how filmmakers shouldn't always trust test audiences. Sure, having test screenings is a helpful way to gauge opinions on lots of aspects of your film, but you’ve got to draw a line somewhere.

I Am Legend is based off a book by Richard Matheson, showcasing his innovative zombie-vampire hybrid type monsters. The book was so inspirational in fact that a good four well-known movies came out of it, from The Last Man On Earth through to Night Of The Living Dead.

The novel has a fittingly thought-provoking ending, in which the survivor protagonist finds that the monsters are the new evolution of the human race. They are sentient as he is, with thoughts and feelings, and they hate him as he has slaughtered their kind. He realises now that he is a relic of the past, of the un-evolved and the world has outgrown him.

Stunning, right? Well instead of sticking with that, test audiences said they’d rather have something easy to swallow. The original ending was binned and replaced with the ‘Will Smith makes a cure then sacrifices himself’ schtick, which is totally meaningless and predictable.