On 1 April 2012, the Horror Writers’ Association, in conjunction with the Bram Stoker Family Estate, named Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend (1954) as the Vampire Novel of the Century, effectively declaring Matheson's work as the best – or most significant – vampire novel to be published in the century since the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula (Horror Writers Association 2012a). The other nominees included oftendiscussed publications such as Salem's Lot (Stephen King 1975), Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice 1976), Hotel Transylvania (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro 1978), The Soft Whisper of the Dead (Charles L. Grant 1983) and Anno Dracula (Kim Newman 1992) (Horror Writers Association 2012b). This recognition for Matheson's work, received just over a year before his death on 23 June 2013, acknowledges the significance and influence of the novel upon the horror genre.

In 1957, just three years after its publication, Matheson was commissioned by Hammer Studios, responding to the success of their first foray into the horror genre with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), to adapt the work as a screenplay for their consideration. While the studio decided not to produce the film (more on that below), the book has been officially adapted three times: The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) and I Am Legend (2007). It has been unofficially adapted in the form of the mockbuster I Am Ωmega (2007), made by Asylum productions – the creators of Snakes on a Train – as a straight-to-DVD production. I Am Legend has most notably been acknowledged as an influence on George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) but Chilean director Jorge Olguín also cites the novel as an influence on his film Descendents [Solos/ 2012]. Burr Steers describes his approach to the undead in his adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) as ‘more I Am Legend … They're more cognisant and have retained more of who they were. My whole idea was that the zombie now think of themselves as being a competitive race with humans … They've evolved’ (quoted in Berriman 2016: 84).