Legacy of Satan

The lovely Lisa Christian plays Maya, a sexually frustrated young woman married to the boring George (Paul Barry). Unbeknownst to them, their friend Arthur (James Procter) has gotten mixed up with a Satanic cult, and now this cult considers Maya essential to their plans, luring her & George to their lair by using a costume party as a cover.

Gerard Damiano, the adult film director best known for the iconic Deep Throat, also gave us this decidedly minor horror film that won't be very satisfying to sleaze lovers. (The whole cast actually stays clothed most of the time!). The plot, characters, and performances are all quite insipid, although John Francis still manages to be very amusing as the nefarious cult leader Dr. Muldavo.

The truly tacky makeup effects are courtesy of Tom Brumberger (Don't Go in the House), while other familiar names working behind the scenes include co-composer Arlon Ober (The Incredible Melting Man) and cinematographer Joao Fernandes (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter). That music score is HILARIOUSLY awful!

Unfortunately, this is a rather dull affair that possesses an awful lot of padding for a film running a mere 70 minutes. It may be of some interest to very curious exploitation & horror aficionados, but it's not a movie I would really recommend.

Sandra Peabody of The Last House on the Left fame has a very small role as a cult member.

Four out of 10.

Very odd film.

Enjoyable. Trippy. Leisurely (even at 69 minutes) but not even slightly scary.

There's something engaging about Maya that I can't quite put my finger on; Perhaps it's the magical influence hanging over her. Perhaps it's her potential to take the army of darkness onwards into the future. Or perhaps it's her amazing bone structure and resemblance to Annette Haven in 'V The Hot One' which I found under my Dad's bed when I was a kid and who formed the basis for many of my teenage fantasies...

A New York couple are lured to a masked party, held at the large house of an evil occultist who has set his sights on the wife. Very low budget, bad acting and a plot that could be written on a postage stamp this ticks the boxes for viewers seeking 1970's grindhouse trash. One of the movie's strongest points is the ever present, eerie synth score. This combines well with several surreal, nightmare like sequences. Some of the make up is OK too. Two things that I didn't like are - 1 - no nudity, which was unusuall for black magic films from this decade, and 2 - despite the title I never once heard the name "Satan" get a mention, instead some Lord Rakeesh, or something, is the demon to which the cult is dedicated. A name that I am not familiar with. Yes, this is trashy but it is still far more enjoyable that most of the horror movies being churned out in the 21st Century.

Legacy Of Satan - 1974 ( This Film Rates an F ) Set in New York City in the 1970's. A group of satanic cult members have chosen a woman (Maya) to be their new queen. They enjoy bloodletting and consuming blood from those willing and unwilling alike. They engage in rituals to capture Maya and she starts to have bloody and erotic dreams. She feels "different" but is unable to explain how. The husband (George) tries to understand these changes but is bewildered and frustrated by her erratic behaviors. The couple are invited to a costume party by a friend (arranged by Dr. Muldavo - a friend of a friend) where transportation and the costumes are supplied by the host. Once at this party they are escorted to a room to change into the respective costumes. At 40:30 Maya and George drink wine which immediately entrances them into what looks like a psychedelic experience. It was completely laughable. She makes her way downstairs where everyone is gathered and waiting for her. Every single one of them giddy from the blood drinking and chanting Maya's name. Dr. Muldavo courts the future queen even further. Maya soon learns how deep this all goes but remains helpless and powerless until George comes to the rescue with the help of one jealous satanists. He wields a lighted sword. Dr. Muldavo is injured as a result and requires large amounts of blood to survive. George and Maya try to escape but it's all for naught and Maya is already the queen, a wicked queen who does not take no for an answer. The 70's synth soundtrack was a bit too loud and repetitive and some of the transitions from scene to scene were a bit cut and rough. The gore is extremely minimal and there was no effort to show any. The acting is borderline but some of the stunts reminded me of a high school play. But even decent acting and good gore effects could not save this horrid film. Even at 70 minutes Legacy of Satan is still too long.

Bored architect turned devil worshipper Arthur (James Procter) lures sexually frustrated housewife Maya (Lisa Christian) into the bosom of a Satanic cult who believe that a union between her and their malevolent leader, Dr. Muldavo (John Francis), is the key to incredible Satanic powers. Maya's hubby George (Paul Barry) has other ideas and, dressed as a jester, uses a magical glowing sword to infect Muldavo's face with a life-sapping omelette.

According to another reviewer here on IMDb, Legacy of Satan, directed by Gerard Damiano of Deep Throat fame, is rumoured to have begun life as a hardcore feature, but was trimmed of its explicit sexual content to make it suitable for release as part of a grind-house double-bill; it's not all that hard to believe, the film definitely having the look and feel of a 70s porno—all grainy cinematography, trippy visuals, and lo-fi synth music, with a decadent, sexually charged atmosphere, a nonsensical plot, and an untalented cast of complete unknowns. The film's short running time and choppy editing also go a long way to support the theory.

However, if there was ever a XXX version, it has long since vanished into the mists of time, and all we have been left with is this dreadfully boring, shambolic wreck of a film, a Satanic horror with no tension, no scares and very little blood. Clearly Damiano considered himself something of an artist, and did his best to bring a hallucinatory beauty to the film through the use of coloured light and strong shadow, but his handling was way too heavy-handed to be effective, the result being a garish mess as opposed to a stunningly creative piece of cinema. Arlon Ober and Mel Zelniker's experimental electronic score proves to be just as much an assault on the ears as Damiano's visuals are on the eyes.