Far too many characters come together for a housewarming party and are terrorized by an ancient demon spirit for no reason in A Deadly Legend, a pedestrian supernatural horror film that suggests a low budget and limited resources were used to bring it to life. That, of course, is not an automatic problem, but there’s an obvious lack of conviction or creative drive to overcome that type of obstacle. There isn’t a single person to blame here; everything comes together in such a fashion that the blame essentially can be equally divvied out to all involved with this disaster.
Screenwriter Eric Wolf’s every attempt to establish both the threat and the mythology surrounding it falls flat in a haze of circular exposition. The story follows Joan (Kristen Anne Ferraro), a real estate developer who has recently bought a summer home for the vacation enjoyment of herself, husband Robert (Jeffrey Doornbos) and children Connor (John Pope) and Krissy (Andee Buccheri). They’re celebrating at the new residence with a group of friends, but little do they know that construction on the property will unearth the legendary Stonehenge of America and a pair of evil spirits.
That’s a neat concept, but Wolf does nothing remotely interesting with it until the light-and-sound show of a climax. Even then, it isn’t quite clear what is happening or why, and the blame for that might rest in the hands of director Pamela Moriarty (a longtime assistant director helming her debut feature). Shot set-ups are basic and perfunctory, scare sequences are kneecapped by the fatal decision to introduce jittery-cam photography and the actors seem not to have been directed beyond a single take of reading dialogue. That includes the recognizable faces here, from Lori Petty as a sarcastic alcohol fiend to Corbin Bernsen and Judd Hirsch as a pair of grizzled old men who know a lot of secrets they want to impart on youngsters.
Most of the movie is comprised of a simple and wearying formula: Someone is either possessed by the Chain Witch (Jean Tree) or killed by the monotone stare-contest winner Luci (Tatiana Szpur), and another of the characters follows in their stead. That is, until the climax, in which a twist is followed by a twisted sacrifice, and the epilogue, which presents another twist of staggering cruelty toward its characters, the audience and the concept of storytelling sanity. At this crucial point, the movie stops dead in its tracks to morph from a low-fi number worthy of some pity to a genuinely repulsive effort that decides at the last minute to make light of mental health issues in the most hateful way. A Deadly Legend is a disreputable failure of craft, nerve and, finally, thematic integrity.
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