Legacy Of Blood

Cue dramatic music!

Dum dum duuuuuummmmm....

Legacy of Blood!

A wealthy man has died and left his family a fortune with strings attached. He didn't have much regard for these people, and this little setup of his will prove it. They have to live at his house for a week with no preparation, and should any of them die the survivors split the remaining share.

There is a lot of animosity in this place (which the script tries too hard to draw attention to by having its characters ask, “Why is there so much hate in this house?”) though some of the people try to veil it with niceties. Some are malicious, some just self-serving, and some certifiably crazy.

A beloved pet is the first victim, and the body count begins to grow. But why does someone have it in for the investigating sheriff? Following his death the family finds themselves trapped without any communication. At this point they have to stay at the evil house whether they want to or not.

I guess the overreaching issue here is that everything the movie sets out to do it does poorly. There is no atmosphere, no suspense, no tension, nor any kind of stirred emotion. Plot holes abound, and attempts to create a mysterious backstory through weird flashbacks create more confusion than curiosity.

The characters are poorly done which is worsened by very weak acting. I didn't feel like I ever really got to know any of them, and half the time I had to pause to try to remember who some of them were supposed to be in relation to the others. Pretty soon I quit caring.

The scenes of insanity are so bad they are annoying.

The movie thinks it is clever. Comments made at the end suggest that they really think they have successfully mislead the viewer to create a surprise twist. It isn't nearly so clever as they evidently thought. I had figured out these twists about half way through the movie.

MORALITY:

This movie is rated R mostly for the bloody violence although that violence is quite campy. This includes someone getting whacked in the head over and over with an ax later to have his severed head presented to other members of the house (strangely missing any indication of cranial ax trauma), someone having the flesh eaten away by fish, electrocution, and a variety of other violent exits from this mortal coil.

There really isn't much else of a questionable nature. The strong language is mild; there is nothing overtly sexual and no nudity.

SPIRITUALITY:

I guess you can see this as a sort of cautionary tale about greed and hatred. That's a dangerous combination when large sums of money are on the line.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This one was never likely to be a great movie, but with any manner of decent writing might have at last been entertaining. Instead it's more tedious than interesting. Unless you like campy violence for its own sake and don't care anything about the other movie elements maybe you'll be mildly entertained, otherwise this won't be worth your time.

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