6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
How far would you go to inherit everlasting life? When an American couple (Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott) have a mysterious car accident in the English countryside, the other driver offers to take them to his lavish country estate to make amends. But once there, the suspense deepens when they learn the other houseguests are expecting them! It's not long before the couple's fear turns to terror when the guests (including rock superstar Roger Daltrey) begin dying in unspeakable ways. Now it's clear the true master of the house is a supernatural force that will stop at nothing to find the rightful heirs for an unimaginably horrible legacy.
Starring: Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Charles Gray (I)Horror | 100% |
Mystery | 8% |
Supernatural | 8% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Of all the improbabilities running rampant throughout The Legacy (and they are legion), perhaps the most unlikely element has absolutely nothing to do with the film’s patently goofy plot and silly contrivances, but with a rather dubious piece of casting. Could there be any less feasible actor than Sam Elliott to portray an interior decorator? Elliott, a guy who fairly drips testosterone, would seem to be an at least questionable choice to play a character helping clients to choose the correct herringbone pattern to complement their new vintage wingback chairs, but there he is in The Legacy as Pete Danner, a partner with fellow aesthete Maggie Walsh (Katharine Ross), both of whom have been offered a rather giant pile of cash to trek from California to England to help on a project which neither of them knows anything about. (And of course the foregoing is all said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, lest any real testosterone fueled interior decorators are prone to take umbrage.) The Legacy is often wryly humorous, if not always intentionally so, and it plays off of the considerable charisma of its focal couple, who would of course go on to marry in real life a few years after The Legacy appeared in 1977. While the supporting cast of the film was supposedly highlighted by the inclusion of Roger Daltrey of The Who fame, acting honors (at least insofar as a menacing mien goes) belong squarely to the inimitable Margaret Tyzack, an iconic character actress whose name may frankly not be all that familiar to many on this side of the pond, but whose imperious manner and unforgettable visage have graced any number of offerings on both the small and large screens, including I, Claudius, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange .
The Legacy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shout! advertises a new high definition transfer from the IP for this release, which is culled from the Universal catalog. While there may have been some high frequency filtering applied to this release, grain is on the whole rather healthy looking and in fact quite heavy in selected scenes. Elements have quite a bit of age related wear and tear, especially in the early going, a distraction which "quiets down" somewhat after a kind of wobbly start. The palette looks just slightly faded, with aspects like flesh tones often looking pretty anemic, though in the sparser brightly lit outdoor scenes colors pop agreeably enough. There are once again recurrent compression issues which aren't perhaps as intrusive as on some other Shout! and Scream releases, but which still tend to offer splotchy yellowish artifacts throughout a rather wide gamut of lighting situations.
The Legacy's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix provides ample support for the film's dialogue and sometimes inventive sound effects, as well as more traditional elements like startle effects timed to jump cuts and the film's intermittently effective score by Michael J. Lewis. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range relatively wide, if never as pointed as in more hyperbolic horror outings.
The Legacy is strong on mood, or perhaps more accurately, moods, since there are traditional horror elements mixed with a kind of soap operatic romantic angle and even some more whimsical comedic aspects as well. The film probably would have worked better had those comedic elements been played up a bit more, for there's really not a lot of ultimate suspense as to what's going on, and the climax is kind of a letdown as a result. Technical merits are generally okay to very good (video) to very good to excellent (audio), and Scream has provided a couple of worthwhile supplements for those considering a purchase.
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