User reviews

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.

That's right, the easiest place to find this stinker is Elvira's Movie Macabre. The top-heavy hostess offers her share of commentary on "Blood Legacy" (also called "Legacy of Blood"). The plot - to the extent that there is one - is that a patriarch has died and his offspring gather at the estate for the inheritance, but then someone starts killing everyone off. Unfortunately, it's one of the slowest movies that I've ever seen. I bet that the reason why it's most readily available from Elvira's Movie Macabre is because no one wants to release it as its own movie. That's right, there are some movies only worth watching when presented by the Mistress of the Dark, or by "Mystery Science Theater 3000" or by Joe Bob Briggs.

It's so weird to think that John Carradine starred in some of the all-time classics, such as "The Grapes of Wrath", but mostly starred in these sorts of movies.

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.

A mega-wealthy man dies and leaves his money to his four heirs to divide. The only catch is that they must spend a whole week in the house. Also, to add some suspense, the will states that if none of the heirs live, then the money is to be divided between the three servants. Well, naturally we know that everyone is going to try to kill everyone in this rather typical storyline. What is not so typical is the level of incompetence used to achieve this goal. Now, unlike the other reviewers, I was able to sit through the whole film in one showing. And as bad films go, and make no mistake here.....this is a BAD film, you could do worse(try sitting through The Wizard of Mars in one sitting for a test of real endurance!) The murders are atrociously executed(both literally and figuratively). The editing leaves much to desire as we see...for seconds only...a head on a turkey platter...some piranhas devouring something, and so on. The acting is ridiculous despite the cast. The film not only has the Grand-master of Bad Horror films, John Carradine(very VERY briefly), but also Merry Anders(her last film), Rodolfo Acosta(his last film), and Jeff Morrow and Faith Domergue from This Island earth fame! Not to mention that guy that played Julius in The Planet of the Apes! You know what kind of film you have when two of the servants names are Igor and Elga, and that Igor has a fetish/need to be whipped by a cane every so often. The other servant, Frank the driver, has a lamp made of the skin from a German he killed during the war. They say good help IS hard to find! The ending is suppose to be comical I think, but more of a relief as you no longer have to see the messy proceedings anymore.

The Quick Pitch: An old man dies, leaving his fortune to his children and servants. The only catch is that they must remain on his estate for a week (or was it just one night - who cares?). If anyone dies, their share is split amongst the survivors.

I really hate everything about this movie. Legacy of Blood (or whatever other name it's known by) is one of those instances when I question why I watch this stuff. It's all just so predictable and boring. Predictable: Guessing the killer's identity is no challenge at all. Boring: So much talking about nothing that it's a chore to sit through. When something does happen, like a murder, it's all so clumsy with what might be the worst effects of their kind ever put on screen. There are some decent actors here, but they're given nothing to work with. Did anyone involved with making Legacy of Blood really think they were doing something good? If they did, it doesn't show. I can't remember seeing a more joyless movie in my life. What a wretched experience!

1/10

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.

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.

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

***SPOILERS*** With a gathering of family members and servants of the late Christopher Dean, John Carradine, to hear his last will and testament they get somewhat of a surprise in that the Dean fortune, some 140 million dollars. The money is to be divided between them but only after they successfully spend a week at the Dean mansion. There seemed to have been a mix-up in the story when we later find out that it's really an overnight sleepover, not a weeks vacation, at the mansion for the guests to qualify for Dean's money since almost everyone ends up dead by sunrise.

The first victim of the Dean Curse have nothing at all to do with getting and money from the departed Christopher Dean estate the local sheriff Dan Garcia, Rodolfo Acosta. Acosta has his head chopped off refrigerated and then served on a platter to a shocked group of guests. Later that evening cute little Chin Greg and Laura's,Jeff Morrow & Marry Anders,little pet pooch is found dead outside floating in the pond.

The movie has all the people staying at the Dean Mansion being picked off one by one until it's revealed who the killer really is. We then have what seems to be a double-twist in the story where the original killer is suddenly killed together with two of the last remaining guest. The real killer ends up not only getting all the loot, 140 million dollars, but then ends up not having to split it with his accomplice by doing him, or her, in by giving him a poisonous cookie that kills him on the spot.

Nonsensical who done it, and haunted house, movie with a cast of such immoral and unlikable characters that even a mother, much less the audience, would have trouble liking. There's everything you can possibly think of in the move involving the selective guests that includes incest S&M sadism and of course double-dealing and back-stabbing not even counting murder. You just couldn't care less who of the guests survives to collect the Dean fortune at the end of the movie hoping against all hope then none of them do.

Even the big surprise at the end isn't really that much of a surprise since the killer's identity is divulged with the film-maker having forgotten to keep his face in the shadows so you actual see who he is even before he reveals himself! We then have a plot-twist that eliminates the killer together with a number of remaining guest just to make the movie a little more confusing then it already is. The final plot-twist, that you can see coming from as far as ten miles away, was just to show how smart the very obvious killer was which fooled almost nobody watching the movie.

I bought LEGACY OF BLOOD aka. BLOOD LEGACY (1971) as part of a 100 movie Horror pack and was somewhat looking forward to it because I am a fan of ultra-low-budget B-movie Horror, and because it has B-movie legend David Carradine in it. I began watching it several times late at night and must confess that it took me several takes to watch the movie all the way through, because i fell asleep several times.

After the death Christopher Dean (David Carradine), a sinister and rich old man, his family and servants gather in his mansion to hear his will. To their surprise, the crazy old man has ordered that only after spending a week in his mansion they will be allowed to share his inheritance. They all reluctantly accept and move on to stay at the mansion. Then, one by one gets killed... Or, actually, every now and then one gets killed, with endless periods of nonsensical dialogue and tedious sequences in-between. LEGACY OF BLOOD has some fun aspects, such as rather explicit gore-scenes and super-demented characters such as a super-masochistic House servant or a demented veteran (played by John Russell of LAWMAN and PALE RIDER) who collects corpse parts as macabre souvenirs. But overall, the movie is incredibly boring for about 80 per cent of the time. Watching it for David Carradine alone will turn out a waste of time, as he has less than 5 minutes of screen time.

This film might be be better if it was only an hour long, but a large part of its 90 minutes are very boring. Hardcore Trash-lovers such as myself might still find it enjoyable for some truly demented characters and weird scenes. All others avoid.

For a "b" movie Roger Corman production,, this wasn't that bad at all really.. sure could have been better, but given the budget, and the time period that it was made I thought it was delightful.. sort of a poor man's House on the Haunted Hill if you will,, 4 people have to spend time in a house in order to qualify for the reading of the will of their father,, whom of course they all hated. very creepy house,, lot's of misdoings going on there,, and sure enough slowly 1 by 1 people start disappearing and dying left and right. all we have to do now is figure out who in the world done it,, was it the butler.. ala Clue,, or was it someone else,, watch and find out.

"Blood Legacy" is one of the most boring and tedious movies I have seen in a long time. It's one of the rare movies that had me almost dropping off to sleep while watching it. Is there anything positive to say about it? Well, despite a low budget, it doesn't look particularly cheap, and director Carl Monson does occasionally makes a striking visual. But for the vast majority of the time, the movie feels extremely flat. There's no feeling of tension or horror at any time, even when the body count starts to pile up. It doesn't help that the movie unfolds at a really slow pace; there's only one murder in the first half of the movie, for one thing. By the way, if you are a fan of John Carradine, you should know that all of his scenes combined add up to less than five minutes of the total running time.

While the IMDb summary says it's one night, this film is about a crazy old guy's will that stipulates his heirs must all spend one WEEK living in his mansion before they can collect. When this audio will is played, it's obvious that he hates his heirs AND that he's hoping they all try to kill each other off during this week! While the idea is hardly original, it is an interesting idea for a horror film. What also is original is having the first victim not be one of these jerks but the Sheriff--though seeing the blade of the axe coming down so ridiculously slowly onto him was pretty funny. What follows is a surprisingly talky and rather boring film--something you just wouldn't expect with the plot set up and given the undertones of incest and sado-masochism. Even a bad film is often exciting or fun--though unintentionally so. What makes it worse is that often the acting is pretty horrid--with LOTS of overacting and few moments that seemed the least bit realistic.

While the film approaches begin so bad it's good to watch, it just barely even makes this mark and is just bad.

I only watched it for Richard Davalos whose weight reminds a mystery unless he had to take steroids. John Russell was okay, but this story could have been so much better instead of a bomb. And Carradine - really? is he ever going to die?

Terrible...just terrible. Probably the worst film I have ever seen. And I did see some pretty bad pictures, throughout the years. The sound sucks so does the quality of the picture, the direction, the acting...etc, etc. The only good shoots( meaning funny, because they're so bad ) are the special effects. Overall there are about 5 minutes worth of laughs. The rest of the flick gives you brain damage.

A family of terrible people must remain in a house for a week or else they will lose their inheritance which will go to the servants who will only get their inheritance if they agree to stay on and keep the house in order. People die (and so will you if you try to sit through this) If you've ever had any desire to see bad actors- many with ill fitting dentures-act or attempt to act in a bad horror movie this is your chance. This is just awful. Its so bad I thought Al Adamson, one of the worst directors ever, directed it, but I was wrong.

Its so bad I don't want to say anything more about it, not because it isn't polite but because once I start I may not be able to stop.

avoid

Back when I was a kid and I lived with my sister, she bought every horror movie she could find and this was one of them. VCR'S had just became a household item and we didn't have but about 150 movies and we watched the hell out of all of them.

I was at a yard sale the other day and I saw this VHS copy of BLOOD LEGACY and I buy any horror movie I don't have and I knew this movie looked familiar. I thought for a second and realized it was one that my sister had bought. She had sold it years ago in a yard sale I am guessing - who knows.

I didn't recall anything at all about it and I watched it the night I bought it and it refreshed my memory because of a few scenes. I am not sure how I felt about it as a kid but I am sure I enjoyed it because it was new to me and I'd watch and enjoy anything back then.

I am a horror freak, but there are certain requirements in order for me to consider it "good" and this one fell very short. It was one of those talk talk talk and bore me to death types. What death scenes you see are done using the shadow on the wall followed by blood splatter and thats if you're lucky you get that much.

The story is good and I have seen a few with similar plots, so I think this one should be buried and forgotten. Don't watch this people unless you're hard up.

On my first attempt at watching Blood Legacy, I had to hit the stop button after forty minutes or so: it was so dreadfully dull, I kept falling asleep. The following day, I sat down to finish what I had started, only to find I had no chapter selection and that the fast-forward didn't seem to work. Believe me when I say that seeing the first half hour of this rotten film for a second time—in order to get to the last part—was no walk in the park.

An unimaginative, shoddy, low-grade, piece of garbage, Blood Legacy opens with that tired old horror cliché, the reading of a will, which in this case stipulates that the greedy relatives and staff of recently deceased multi-millionaire Christopher Dean (John Carradine) must spend a week together in the family mansion before getting their hands on any cash. Of course, should anyone die during these seven days, their share of the inheritance will be divided between the others, a detail that provides more than enough motive for murder...

Among those due to benefit from Dean's demise: his four heirs, Laura (Merry Anders), Leslie (Brooke Mills), Johnny (Richard Davalos), and Veronica (Faith Domergue), all of whom have a few screws loose; creepy servants Elga (Ivy Bethune) and Igor (Buck Kartalian), who like to indulge in a spot of consensual beating; and chauffeur Frank (John Russell), who owns collection of military souvenirs, including a lampshade made from the remains of a German soldier he killed during the war.

Given this collection of suitably insane characters, and the film's sleazy themes of incest, sado-masochism, madness, and murder, it's hard to believe quite how boring this film actually is. Writer/director Carl Monson delivers scene after scene of inane chit-chat and irritating bickering between characters, leaving precious little time for the outrageous trashiness the premise demands. In fact, if it hadn't been for a smattering of cheesy gore (an axe-attack/decapitation and a guy having his face eaten by piranhas), plus the sight of buxom Brooke Mills constantly threatening to spill out of her night-dress, I might easily have fallen asleep again, meaning I would have had to suffer through the first part of the film for a third time ***shudder***!