The Worst Film Ever

Really Surprised!

Absolutely the worst movie.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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.

The title might give one the erroneous impression that this is another 'haunted house' film in the tradition of THE HAUNTING (1963), while the theatrical poster – with its feline imagery – gives rise to comparisons with THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964); ultimately, it is more like THE OMEN (1976)-meets-SUSPIRIA (1977), with a dash of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945) thrown in for good measure (albeit no discernible reason)!Typically, we find American stars (in this case, Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott) lost in a British setting: they are summoned there for a mysterious $50,000 contract but are apparently diverted from their destination by an automobile accident – yet, when the man responsible invites them to his large mansion, it is obvious that they were expected! Ross, in fact, is revealed to be a direct descendant of – and dead ringer for – a 17th century witch who had been burned at the stake (but conveniently left behind her memoirs!). The current landlord, John Standing (recently seen in the contemporaneous THE CLASS OF MISS MacMICHAEL), is actually the original witch's son(!) – but he is slowly losing his power and reverting to his true decrepit age: the sight of him bed-ridden in silhouette evokes memories of the ancient hag at the ballet school in the afore-mentioned SUSPIRIA. He is doted upon by sinister nurse Margaret Tyzack (who can also turn into Standing's familiar – a white cat! – at will) and whose scrupulous devotion to her charge recalls the Antichrist's nanny in THE OMEN; for the record, Tyzack died only recently, and the same is true of co-scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster – in whose honor this viewing was held to begin with.The other guests (who turn up at the mansion in a helicopter), form with Ross, the six disciples who have been blessed by Standing over the years in exchange for their service: Charles Gray (as a former Nazi adept at shooting arrows), Roger Daltrey (ideally cast as a jovial but sarcastic music producer), Lee Montague, Hildegarde Neil and Marianna Broome (an Olympic swimmer-turned-nude model in her last film before retiring to paint!). The catch here is that all the others had been responsible of some crime which will soon come back to haunt them, so that when Ross takes over, Standing asks her to replace them with new acolytes/victims. The deaths themselves are quite inventive (drowning, choking, combustion, shotgun malfunction) and at least one of them downright creepy (the mirror sequence) but, as I said, do not make much sense especially when it seems that Standing is always hovering in the vicinity when they happen – though Tyzack is at least partly responsible for Daltrey's bloody asphyxiation, whereas Ross notices a pattern in her always being the last to interact with the victim prior to their demise.While the heroine does not immediately recognize – or even accept – her legacy, her boyfriend is seen as an inconvenient presence all along, so that there is immediately an attempt to get him out of the picture by having him scalded while taking a shower and then injured when breaking through the shower glass!; later, he is also attacked by a pack of dogs which, again, is a nod to THE OMEN. Still, the two subsequently make numerous attempts to escape, on horseback and by stealing Standing's Rolls Royce but, eerily, every road they take only leads them back to the mansion (a Bunuelian touch though probably unintentional). In the end, Ross decides to stay and embrace her destiny and apparently convinces Elliott too (after having almost had his head blown off, taken a fall down the stairs along with Tyzack-cat, and having also made a shambles of Standing's room – filled as it was with hospital equipment – and even burned the old man to a crisp!). The film benefits from having two top British cameramen on board (Dick Bush and Alan Hume), but the score by Michael J. Lewis is less successful especially since it incorporates a romantic ballad sung by Kiki Dee over the opening credits!

How much you like this movie will probably depend on how many times you saw it on television in the early 80s. It also helps if you like Gothic overtones, spooky stories about black magic, and Sam Elliott's naked butt circa 1979. I like all of the above very much, and I do remember "The Legacy" fondly from its extensive run on HBO.It's not a very good movie, though. Watching it recently gave me a new perspective on it, and it makes very little sense. It's not quite as disjointed as Argento's "Suspiria", and nowhere near as bloody, but it was most definitely influenced by "Suspiria"--right down to a scene where Katharine Ross approaches an ominous bed, which is swathed in white sheets, and a pair of withered hands lunge out to grab her. Even though the film doesn't quite work, it's still got a couple of gruesome moments, and is often enjoyably campy. Really could have benefited from a more gratuitous approach....like "Suspiria".

Really not a lot of horror going on in this one, however from what I see of other reviews this was just supposed to be a horror remake of a crime classic and it shows. There is one truly scary scene in this film and it involves the young lady in the pool, but other than that scene this film falls into a long line of horror movies from the 70's and early 80's that had potential, but were defeated by to much talking and not enough horror. This one starts out with a young lady and her boyfriend (I think it was her boyfriend) having some sort of accident where they end up being invited to some mansion where a whole crowd of people are assembling in the hopes of being named the successor to some guy who is dying upstairs. Funny, this very guy is the one who invited the young lady and the gentlemen to his home and he seemed just fine when he invited them. So on to the house where people, other than the pool victim, die in rather uninteresting ways and a new heir is on their way to being chosen. At one point the girl and guy try to get out of the situation, but the town seems to have a hold on them or something, you can not get away from this situation all that easily. Near the end though there is very little horror to write home about and the crossbow scene just punches that point home that this movie just is not really a horror movie at all