Legacy of Satan

1974 "Why after a thousand years does the spirit of evil call Maya to her destiny"
3.6| 1h10m| R| en
Details

A satanic cult chooses an unwitting young girl as its new queen

Director

Producted By

Gerard Damiano Film Productions (GDFP)

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Trailers & Clips

Also starring Christa Helm

Reviews

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict
Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
goldenarrow-99823 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...
Leofwine_draca LEGACY OF SATAN is a typically poor independent US horror flick from the 1970s. It's about a Satanic cult of women who hang around in a creepy old basement wearing gothic dresses. As with many witchcraft-themed films of this era, the plot sees them 'curse' an innocent young woman who is subsequently possessed by the Devil. Her partner becomes disturbed by her new bizarre behaviour and things get more and more weird until the eventual climax. With languid pacing and poor production values, LEGACY OF SATAN is best viewed as a curio alone. The acting is as amateurish as you'd expect from the unknown cast and the attempts at atmosphere-building simply don't work very well. The end result is a film which is difficult to sit through beause it feels so tame, drawn-out, and dull.
BA_Harrison 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.
babeulous This movie looks and sounds like a home movie, except longer and more tedious. The lighting is amazingly bad. Characters' heads cast shadows on other characters' faces a lot. Impressively bad all-synthesizer score. The vampire wears a 1970s pink ruffled shirt and everybody has 1970s hair. But the editing has got to be the worst of the lot. There are long pauses between the lines of dialog. Characters pause and stare at each other or at their own feet for long periods, then hold perfectly still while they recite their lines. Between that and the muffled sound track it's difficult to follow the story. After an hour of utter tedium, there is a silly fight scene which begins when the hero shows up with a toy sword with a glowing blade.If you were looking for a picture that's so bad there's amusement value in it, _Plan 9 from Outer Space_ would be a better choice. Check out IMDB's list of the director's other work.