Margaret (Maggie) Walsh and her boyfriend Pete Danner are interior decorators, and currently busy with a client in California. One day Maggie receives a large financial retainer from an anonymous client in Britain, but they can’t really leave because of their current obligations. Then, their client in California suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances. Well, off to England then! They end up in a rambling country estate: Ravenhurst. The place is owned by Jason Mountolive, who has invited several potential heirs to his estate. Jason is dying, and he wants someone to take over when he’s gone. All the guests also have to wear a signet ring with the Mountolive family crest upon it, and Maggie discovers that she cannot take it off. Maggie and Pete then decide this all looks shady as hell, and leaves the place. Except no matter how much they drive around, they always end up back at the Ravenhurst grounds. They cannot leave…and must stay until the heir has been chosen. And then the guests start dying…
The Legacy is a horror film from 1978, directed by Richard Marguand in his directorial debut. The Ravenhurst mansion is the musician Roger Daltrey’s residence, and he lent out the building for the movie on the condition that he would be a co-star in it, and he plays a character called Clive Jackson. There’s also a novel, but here’s a twist: the novel is based on the movie, and not vice versa. It was released in 1979.
The movie is a mystery-fueled occult horror film, where characters are dying one by one under mysterious circumstances. Despite having several kills, the movie is not at all gory. There’s several inventive death scenes, although they do lack a bit of buildup to be properly effective. The most chilling death scene is the one involving the Clive Jackson character, where he is choking on a chicken bone (despite not having eaten any chicken) and it all ends up with a botched attempt at tracheotomy. Other deaths includes a mirror that explodes and the glass shards kill the person in front of it, a fireplace that suddenly shoots out a large deadly flame, and of course a swimming pool death. The film shows pretty early that there are supernatural elements at force here, and several of the death scenes are obviously not done by human hands alone. There’s several body counts here that needs to be disposed of, and let’s just say that there are some rottweilers that aren’t going hungry. It’s always nice to have some pets that can take care of certain business matters. Speaking of animals, there’s also a mysterious white cat with heterochromia (one blue and one green eye).
While you don’t really wonder who will be the survivor considering we have a very clear protagonist here, the story is kept intriguing due to the mystery about why the other people are killed off and what the deal with everything here really is. The location with the English countryside, and the old mansion’s exterior and interior sets a spooky haunted-house like atmosphere. The pacing is actually quite good, where there’s a gradual build-up and a heightened sense of mystery. So overall, The Legacy is a 70’s supernatural horror film that’s worth checking out, with some great atmosphere and fun kills. And of course, the also that adorable white cat!
Here’s a sweet little fun fact: Sam Elliot (who played Pete) and Katharine Ross (who played Maggie) fell in love for real when they co-starred in this movie, and married in 1984 and are still a couple to this day. Aww.
Director: Richard Marquand
Writers: Jimmy Sangster, Patrick Tilley, Paul Wheeler
Country & year: UK, 1978
Actors: Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Margaret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, Hildegard Neil, Marianne Broome, William Abney, Patsy Smart, Mathias Kilroy
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079450/
