The Omega Man (1971)
The Omega Man was made in 1971 and pessimistically assumed that by 1977 pretty much everybody in the world except Charlton Heston would be dead. The film imagines a scenario in which biological warfare has spawned a lethal plague that kills off a majority of the global population. Heston plays a U.S. Army Colonel and scientist living in Los Angeles who injects himself with an experimental vaccine that allows him to survive. L.A. is then overrun by a cult of nocturnal plague-addled mutants (zombies, in essence) who stalk around in hooded robes and try to kill Heston.
Granted, 1977 in America had some rough spots, but it wasn’t that bad!
The movie was later remade into the much less enjoyable 2007 film I Am Legend, which features a bullshit scene in which Will Smith kills his own dog so it won’t become a zombie.
