Blood Legacy

After their father's death, a group of relatives forced to stay in his mansion to earn their inheritance fall prey to a grisly killer intent on killing them all off one-by-one and forcing them to try to survive.

Overall, this was a pretty disappointing and below-average slasher effort. One of the few things it manages to get right is the rather impressive set used for the house, containing all the trappings of a prototypical Gothic mansion from several years earlier and being used to great effect in this. The sprawling grounds are afforded quite luxurious details as there's no end to the massive rooms, intricate furniture arrangements and secret passages that run throughout here, all while still looking like the kind of modern-style mansion that would be used in this particular setting. As well, this also manages to make for a pretty enjoyable time here when it comes to the wild psychedelically-inspired flashbacks throughout here showing the various family members being physically or verbally abused by their deceased father which amounts to them witnessing his transgressions on their younger selves while he beats them with a whip in brightly-lit surroundings which drives them to the point of madness. Along with the fun finale where the killer's revealed, that's all that's good here as this one has too many other problems to really matter here. The biggest factor that works against this one is the fact that there's just nothing of big interest that happens here since this one seems to move about so slowly. This one takes an eternity to get going as the entire first half is spent with the bickering relatives and how their stay is going to be entirely unpleasant, leaving the killing to come along at such an agonizing pace that hardly anyone notices they're gone since they're all off doing whatever fancies them. This makes for an incredibly unappealing amount of time spent away from the killings, not that there's much more impressive material there anyway. The stalking as a whole is rather lazy and uninspired all capped off with really cheap special effects that are supposedly salacious but hardly worthwhile since their cheapness and obvious fake-ness tends to give away the result every time which when coupled with the extreme boredom here makes for a wholly unimpressive effort.

Today's Rating/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

I caught this on a Brentwood 10 movie compilation. The first thing I noticed was how bad everyone's hair looked. The only guy I recognized was John Russell. I said to myself, "That's the guy from Lawman!" He played Frank the chauffeur and was probably the only sane person in the whole film and was evidently a badass. Some wacky, wacky stuff going on here. The butler, Ygor, looked just like Mel Brooks. He was nuts. The beautiful young daughter, she was nuts. The greasy haired brother, he was nuts, too. All these people had to stay in their dad's/employer's house for a week to get his dough. That was the late, great John Carradine. He had died and evidently hated everybody. Well, naturally, the bodies start to pile up. This movie kept me interested. I was not expecting Citizen Kane. It dealt with some hot button issues for the time it was made. Overall not too shabby. I mean, you gotta take in to account the budget, state of the art of cinema at the time, things like that. Only the ending left me scratching my head. Were there multiple killers or what? Give it a shot.

Talented cast is all that saves this turkey from the mincer, as John Carradine plays a recently deceased father whose family and servants are set to gain a sizable inheritance, if they can spend one week together in the family mansion. Carradine had nothing but scorn for his selfish offspring and has twisted the terms of the will to increase the proportions paid to each, should any die. A recipe for murderous abandon, which is exactly what prevails over the course of one, frenzied night.

The film itself is pure hokum, absurd and spectacularly poor in almost every dimension. The cast is what makes it vaguely watchable. Aside from horror maestro Carradine, Jeff Morrow, John Russell, Faith Domergue, Dick Davalos, Merry Anders, John Smith, Norman Bartold, Buck Kartalian and Rodolfo Acosta feature, a talented cast that will appeal to many film buffs. Glamorous Brooke Mills in an early role, has a sizable part as the youngest offspring, mentally precarious and under the watchful eye of treating psychiatrist Smith, who may or may not be connected with the crimes that begin depleting the dysfunctional progeny.

While the twist ending suggests that it's done tongue-in-cheek, it's difficult to detect that tone throughout the film, which labours through one, dark night to a blood-splattered conclusion, far less satisfying than one could have imagined. But still, there's the substantial cast of some distinction, and performances that belie the limited content (Morrow, Domergue and Russell in particular give dedicated performances). If you can see the potential in the cast, then this one will be worth a look.

This film is known as "Will to Die" or "Legacy of Blood" (1971). The movie really does have a great cast but the story is just so-so. The film seems to have potential for a good horror movie but it just didn't quite make it to that status. I will say it's worth a watch for fans of B-horror films - even for a one time viewing.

The story has John Carradine as Christopher Dean. Dean is a father who has died and "haunts" the estate. He leaves a will -- whom among his ungrateful children will inherit the estate? Who will die? There is a catch and twist ending.

I'd recommend this film to those that like John Carradine and like just so-so B-horror films... you might get a kick of the movie.

5/10

Ridiculous horror film about a wealthy man (John Carradine) dying and leaving everything to his four children, and his servants to be divided up equally. One condition--they must spend one week in his estate to get the money. And if any of them die, the others get more. Guess what happens next....

I saw a brand new print of this film on cable. The colors were bright and vivid and the house itself looks beautiful. That's about all the good things I can say about it.

Let's list just some of the problems this film has: the killer is screamingly obvious; the servants are called Igor and Elga--come on!; some of the sound recording was so bad I couldn't make out the dialogue (no great loss I'm sure); the gore was sparse and very poorly done; the other murders were simply boring, stupid or impossible and this movie contains some truly abominable acting--so bad you just stare at the screen in disbelief. Even pro Jeff Morrow was terrible! The only fairly good acting was from trouper Faith Domergue (who deserved better than this) and John Carradine (who looks painfully old and frail here). I do have to admit though--the closing line in this movie is a gem!

Why this was renamed "Legacy of Blood" is beyond me--there's another 1978 horror film with that name!

Whatever its name is, it's a bad movie. To be avoided at all costs.