The Legacy (1979)

If you're the kind of person that enjoys stories over glitz and glamour then this film may be of interest to you. Whilst travelling in the English Countryside American couple Maggie and Pete are driven off the road but collected by English squire Jason Mount Olive. Jason puts them up in his country mansion and soon his guests arrive. Once there the film becomes an Agatha Christie inspired work, the guests start dying. Some creepy moments, Pete's shower scene is rather nasty, imagine being locked in a boiling hot shower room, and Clive's choking is also an uncomfortable viewing. As in all horrors the more possible the scare, the worse it is. Kiki Dee provides the opening music, 'The other side of me,' beautifully sang. The movie cost an estimated $2.5m to make, and grossed $11.3 at the Box Office. A few silly moments , but worth a late night viewing nevertheless.

Perhaps the reason why Lucas hired Marquand to direct "Jedi". This guy even managed to turn a Satanic thriller into a semi-cheerful romantic piece.And here you thought all along that Satanists only kidnapped people and poultry that it wanted to use as sacrifice. Not always. Katherine Ross gets a very sweet deal by being abducted, getting no less than limitless power from the whole ordeal. "I can do anything I want" - her last line. Did that include hiring better acting coaches? If Jason wanted Margaret (Ross) to come to England, why the road accident? He could have just told her to show up at his address. No need for all that overly dramatic hoopla. Seems like a rather complicated, unnecessary, roundabout way of meeting someone.Looks like the TL's producers were more concerned with promoting Kiki Dee's crappy single than turning this into a quality product. "Another Side Of Me", a Dee track that opens the movie, in no way, shape, or form suits this genre. It wasn't just played at the outset, but during the American couple's escape attempt as well, which played out very strangely as a result. A somewhat cheerful, romantic semi-ballad as a background for an escape scene from the House of Satan? Even Ed Wood knew better.Sam Elliot's character makes little sense. He reacts to murders and other bizarre goings-on as if they were mere nuisances. His reactions are almost non-chalant at times, as if being abducted by rich British Satanists is a process he undergoes 2-3 times every year. His reaction to being almost killed by an arrow? A smirk and apparently no grudge against the guy who did it. I don't really see much panic in either of them, actually, although to be fair Katherine Ross's acting coaches had been on strike just before TL was to start shooting. And I'd really like to know why Margaret simply didn't ASK the people there what the hell was going on! That would have made matters easier. She takes part in a strange group "séance", meets Jason the 1000 year-old man, is promised a vague "inheritance" - and still she asks nobody anything. Instead, the couple makes vague plans for escape attempts. Duh.There are many things here that simply don't hold any water, like that hot-water shower scene, just one example. Was that a murder attempt gone wrong? Surely a bunch of powerful Satanists can do better than pour hot water over a strong, young man in the hopes that he dies from it. Duh. Sort of like throwing darts at a buffalo or immersing an elephant into a bird-fountain. Half-hearted, badly planned, silly.It would have been much simpler for Jason to have informed Margaret years earlier that she was a reincarnation of a witch and all that. Nor do we quite understand how it is that she wasn't aware of who she was all that time.So if you ever get abducted by a Satanic cult, sit back and relax, don't fight them, because it might all be for your benefit, as it was for Margaret.Nevertheless, TL has nice scenery, photography and a plot that strays somewhat from the usual Satanic-cult flicks, with touches of Agatha Christie almost.

This is one of those countless films that seems on the surface to have all the right pieces, but just cannot put them together well enough to really make a memorable film. Here we had a good cast, an eerie location, some gruesome deaths, and an interesting premise. Yet somehow they couldn't sustain the right mood or keep the tension at a high enough pitch. Maybe a better soundtrack would be the first thing they should have tried. Honestly that Kiki Dee song at the beginning and later instrumental parts of it are very off-putting. Way too upbeat for what should have been a Gothic horror movie.The plot deals with an American woman and her boyfriend who are unknowingly summoned to a mansion in rural England where she will fulfill some kind of Satanic prophecy and inherit the powers of evil from a dying old sorcerer guy. Nothing we see early on happens by chance, even the early motorcycle crash that strands the couple in the countryside. The man of the house that takes them in seems too nice. What is his real agenda? And what about all his creepy servants? And who are all these big shots who have also been summoned to the mansion? Honestly, much of this plot on the surface reminds one of The Rocky Horror Picture Show! Even the criminologist from that movie is in this one!! Yes! This is not by any means a terrible film. Its clear after the first half hour what is happening, yet it takes the Americans forever to figure it out. Director Richard Marquand had much bigger hits later on with Return of the Jedi and Jagged Edge before dying very young. He just cannot sustain the needed tension in this one, though. Sam Elliot and Catherine Ross are fine as the Americans. Look for a cameo from The Who's Roger Daltry. There are some very unsettling scenes, and a very good ending. Honestly, how much fun would it be if good won out over evil every time? 6 of 10 stars.The Hound.

This movie doesn't seem to compare to the horror movies of today but I remember really liking this film when it came out. It may have been considered much better back when the film was released. I had read the book first when it came out before seeing the film and thought it was fantastic. I found it to be a great story and played very well in my mind. Though most seem to have a complaint about the special effects/ cheesiness of the film. I think they fair well in the time frame that the movie was made, plus to this day the swimming pool scene still gives me a chill. If the special effects don't work for you try reading the book and see if your imagination doesn't bring this story to life for you. I gave it an 7 because I felt it was a good solid movie and that is what I would have rated it back in 1978.