The Legacy

The Legacy

1979 "It is a birthright of living death..."
The Legacy
The Legacy

The Legacy

5.7 | 1h42m | R | en | Horror

A couple attempts to unravel a sinister plot within the English countryside estate of a dying man who has gathered an eclectic and notable group of house guests.

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5.7 | 1h42m | R | en | Horror | More Info
Released: September. 14,1979 | Released Producted By: Universal Pictures , The Turman-Foster Company Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

A couple attempts to unravel a sinister plot within the English countryside estate of a dying man who has gathered an eclectic and notable group of house guests.

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Cast

Katharine Ross , Sam Elliott , Roger Daltrey

Director

Dick Bush

Producted By

Universal Pictures , The Turman-Foster Company

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Reviews

Richard Bailey 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.
Paul Evans I enjoy this film very very much. As a teen I can remember this being on constantly on BBC2 Friday nights. 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. Elements of And then there were none, as one by one the gathered guests start to die. 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. 8/10 it's a very good film, it creaks in parts, but on the whole it ticks the boxes well.
Rainey Dawn Margaret and Pete embark on the most chilling mystery of their lifetimes. The couple become deeply involved in one of the creepiest families to ever graze a movie screen and may regret leaving their home that day - or will they? The couple cannot find away to leave the mansion - even driving away they find all roads lead back to the old manor home. Will they escape? Will they survive? Who or what is The Legacy? The Legacy is a very good old film that has just the right blend of mystery and horror to satisfy both audiences and is also recommend for lovers of occult films.9/10
kira02bit American Interior decorator Katharine Ross and architect boyfriend Sam Elliott are commissioned for a job in England. While touring the beautiful English countryside, they are in a traffic accident with a limo containing filthy rich John Standing, who insists that the banged up couple experience his hospitality at his grand manor while their motorcycle is being repaired. Once there, the two are joined by an array of flamboyant guests, who all seem to owe some kind of allegiance to Standing, who Ross is puzzled to hear mentioned is bedridden and at death's door. Apparently called forth to receive some kind of death bed bequests, the guests die grisly deaths one by one, as attempts to escape from the manor grounds are frustrated at every turn.Released back in the late 1970s, The Legacy was a modest box office success despite some rather lackluster reviews, but few people seemingly remember it. It is hard to understand any ill will towards it. The story is a twist on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with some supernatural elements added to good effect. This story has been used often throughout cinema history for good reason - because it is effective and solid. The death scenes are memorably grisly without the stomach-turning pretensions of the modern day torture porn proliferating the screen since the success of Saw.Director Richard Marquand has a decent command of atmosphere and his actors, and captures the beautiful English countryside in all its glory. The film moves along at a brisk clip. He establishes a respectable modicum of tension and provides enough of a showcase for some of the suspense sequences to wrap the viewer up in the story. The sequences with the woman trapped beneath the surface of a pool and a wayward fireplace log that causes a rather shocking demise are suitably memorable. I also like the sequence where Ross and Elliott launch an escape attempt only to find every single road leading them in circles back to the mansion.The cast is strong and appealing. English veterans like Standing, Charles Gray, and Hildegarde Neil are well cast. As is Margaret Tyzack as an enigmatic caregiver who seems to have some sort of symbiotic relationship with the manor's sinister cat. Roger Daltrey is on hand in an attention-getting glorified cameo as one of the ill-fated guests.Ross and Elliott are both immensely appealing and sympathetic as the trapped fish-out-of-water Americans. Ross does a credible job of rendering her character's mounting panic palpable, which she moves nicely to frustration and then ultimately acceptance of the predicament. Elliott is really not an essential character plot-wise, but he shares tremendous chemistry with Ross and provides a note of likable stability among the more eccentric house guests. Plus one is never quite sure where he will ultimately fit in the final denouement.If any real criticisms can be leveled at the film, it would be predictability. It is not really a shock who the last person standing is and it is something we have suspected all along - indeed the film does not do much to keep it a secret. Yet to say that this robs the film of suspense would be erroneous as the viewing journey to get from point A to B is largely entertaining. By contrast, I think this traditional (albeit predictable) rendering of the material is far more suspenseful and enjoyable then the more recent modern rendering found in Identity, where an overly ambitious mid-plot twist finds the suspense petering out like a deflating tire.I would heartily recommend this to fans of thrillers, mysteries or genre films without any compunction. Ironically, I have found that older viewers seem to have a higher appreciation of it than younger ones, perhaps due to its more traditional trappings.