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 first time I ever saw this one, I must have been barely in my mid-teens. And I didn't like it very much (hey, I preferred my horror filled with slimy monsters and lots of blood & gore back then). But some things about this movie stuck with me over the years (especially the infamous 'tracheatomy-scene' did, amongst other things). And I just knew that was a good thing. So you could say I was ready for a more "mature viewing" of this movie. And yes, it's actually pretty good! I didn't mind it was a bit slow during the first half, because it builds up a good atmosphere wrapped in a fine mystery. Some people in their user-comments called it a "haunted house movie", but that couldn't possibly be further from the truth, as far as I'm concerned. It's a film about the supernatural, yes, but the only 'haunted house'-related thing it does have, is indeed one big, creepy looking mansion on an isolated location on UK grounds. Margaret Walsh (played by a beautiful looking Katharine Ross) is summoned to the UK for an architect-assignment. Her friend Pete (Sam Elliot) accompanies her. Circumstances lead her to the aforementioned mansion, where she is obliged to stay the weekend. Then 5 other guests arrive and they all seem to know why they are there, but Margaret doesn't. It's up to her and Pete to find out, because it doesn't take long before the guests start dying one by one. And something inside the mansion isn't willing to let her go... That's really all you need to know before going into this movie. The death-scenes aren't particularly gory, but they were sort of original at the time (1978),and there's even a catch to them... Very happy I did finally re-watch this film, as I seem to have slightly misjudged it in my teen-days.

I could definitely see this being done with a "Downton Abbey" like atmosphere, showing a classic view of an old-school wealthy family, then the sudden loss of one of the most beloved members, and years from then the presence of a look-alike showing up by accident, somehow destined to be there, but unaware as of why. Such seems to be the case for tourist Katharine Ross who along with her boyfriend Sam Elliott is injured in a motorcycle accident, picked up and brought to a huge country estates for a rest and a cup of tea while the motorcycle is fixed. A group of seemingly unrelated strangers show up, and one by one, they are brutaly killed. The only one who seems to have any connection to what is going on is the polite but dour nurse (the great Margaret Tyzack) who reminded me of Billie Whitelaw in "The Omen".

Bodies are burnt beyond recognition and fed to the dogs, mirrors suddenly break which causes shards of glass to fly at its victim, another guest chokes and 1one drowns. For the most part, this film is not gory, and even with the end, it's up to the viewer to make up their mind as to what exactly has going on and why. Of the featured cast, Charles Gray was the most familiar to me, and he is as regal and commanding as ever. I loved the pacing. It was slow-moving but to the point, and there was enough of the mystery to keep me intrigued. Each of the houseguests have a unique personality, although at the end, I really wondered what the purpose of them being there was to the outcome of the story.

Nevertheless, this is a very well done supernatural horror thriller coming out from success of "Rosemary's Baby" a decade before and "The Omen" just two years before. There were a dozen or so similar films done for TV, but this one has a touch of class and isn't at all unintentionally funny or deliberately campy. Ross and Elliott are very similar to the couple played by Karen Black and Oliver Reed in "Burnt Offerings" which in retrospect is both deliberately campy and unintentionally funny. Tyzack, fresh from playing the regal Antonia in the BBC miniseries "I Claudius", definitely has a sparkle, and her quiet presence is an additional touch of class. In spite of all the great things, I didn't feel frightened or shocked, and watching it late in the evening, didn't fear nightmares coming from it. Had that been my feeling, I would have ranked this a bit higher.