The Legacy

This can't seem to decide if it wants to be a kitch 70s Hammer Horror-em-up, or a glossy romantic US TV movie. Slick moustache man heart throb Sam Elliot clearly thinks he's in the latter, while Roger Daltrey bounds onto the screen like he's auditioning for a part in 'Eastenders: The Pantomime'. To say The Legacy is uneven is putting it mildly, no two characters appear to realise they're in the same film. Shove them all in a grand old mansion in the English countryside, add a touch of supernatural hokum, some surprisingly inventive death scenes, a whole lot of messing around doing nothing, the most pointless random car drive scene in movie history, a cat which has more screen time than half the cast yet has no reason to be involved in the film, and enjoy - but not that much because it drags after an hour or so.

Based,as users have pointed out ,on the "and then there were none "aka "ten little Indians" aka "Ten little n...." model which had already begun to be thread-bare at the time (although "mindhunters" recently used it relatively smartly), "the legacy" was mainly a Katherine Ross vehicle ,whose hair is really beautiful.The rest of the cast is faceless,although they hired Roger Daltrey to attract the rock audience:he has five or six lines to say.

"They have all done something wrong in their life and they have not been punished" discovers the heroine,in the grand Christie tradition.this is not only a thriller,it's also a horror flick with some gory scenes .The mixture is stodgy .The ending does not make any sense .

"Nothing works in this f.... country!" yells the hero after a hot shower and a drive in the English country.

I'll start by saying, I'm a big fan of this film, and have enjoyed watching it many times over the years. As a teen I can remember this regularly being on The BBC late on a Friday night.

By today's standards of course it's tame as a horror, but look beyond that and it's actually a really clever, very well acted movie.

The story itself is very dark, any film that involved the Devil would be.

I love the village scenes, when Maggie and Pete try to escape in the car but are trapped and always end up back at the house, it's so clever.

It feels very Agatha Christie from the odd, and there are definitely elements of And then there were none, one by one the gathered guests start to die. Unfortunately the film doesn't have the claustrophobia that Agatha Christie had in abundance in her book.

It's looks stunning, that's the films biggest strength, the house looks incredible, Roger Daltrey's own place.

It isn't particularly scary, but it has its moments, I can remember having a few bad dreams about the mirror scene (I was only about 9 or 10.)

I particularly liked Katherine Ross, there was a soft sincerity about her, I also really liked Margaret Tyzack's cat nurse.

It's a very decent film, it creaks in parts, but on the whole it ticks a lot of boxes, I just love the nostalgia.

8/10.

I finally saw THE LEGACY on DVD, after looking for it for ages. Though I'm a fan of horror and know most of every horror film made out there, for some reason, this one always eluded me. Well, the final result is a mixed bag. The horror elements are not really creepy or memorable. In fact, some of the killings are quite silly (for instance, the guy who is burned alive...). There's almost no creepy feel to it, due mainly to the super slick look of the film, which, by today standards, looks more like a high budget TV movie than anything else. Because there's so little violence or gore, and because there's almost no nudity or sex (except for Sam Elliot's famous nude scene), I wonder why THE LEGACY was even rated R. Without Elliot's nude scene, this would be rated PG-13 today. So, even though I was expecting a horror film, I was unimpressed by the final result.

With that said, I have to say that the story is actually great and is ripe for a proper all out Gothic remake. This story is filled with so much potential for amazing horror moments and elements that the lackluster finish product makes it look even worse than it actually because it is so uninspired. The film can be summarized in a few words: yuppies taking over (a very 1970s concept if there ever was one).

Finally, the music for THE LEGACY is point blank awful. It is, by far, the worst soundtrack I've ever heard for a horror film/thriller. No Goblin soundtrack here or expansive Jerry Goldsmith score. Instead, we have the crappiest "music" that doesn't even try to create tension or any mood aside from treacly upbeatness. It's shows how important an effective soundtrack is in creating that unique feel for horror story. And it's yet another reason why this story should be remade, so the cool story can reach its full potential for mind-blowing horror.

Enjoyed this film though I've seen this story before. Most of the acting was good, especially Elliott, Ross and Daltrey in a small role. Charles Gray though plays the same role in every part he plays and Hildegard Neil is criminally underused. In all a decent effort.