By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Satanic cults of the 1970s film variety are all camp and craze. I love them. LEGACY OF SATAN (1974) opens during a black mass where a High Priestess (Deborah Horlen) conducts an insane ceremony. A woman is changed on an upside down pentagram in a wonderfully revealing dress where blood is gathered from her arm and downed by the parishioners.
Meanwhile beat-nick couple, Maya (Lisa Christian) and George (Paul Barry) entertain their post-60’s hippie friend Arthur (James Procter). They sit around talking philosophy and religion over drinks before calling it a night.
Afterwards, while Maya and George make love, cult member Carlos (Jarrar Ramze) breaks into their house and steals a picture of Maya. He brings it to Dr. Muldavo (John Francis) and Aurelia (Ann Paul) where we discover that Maya has been chosen to be Muldavo’s queen. Aurelia loves him and is jealous.
Later a bevy of beautiful women in black stand behind the High Priestess as she brings a woman in white to orgasm via a spell involving burning a picture of Maya between her legs. This act contacts with Maya in her dream, and she experiences it all. It is an intensely sexy scene and something that looks like it could have been filmed in the Satanic church circa the Anton LaVey years.
When Maya wakes up she is still turned on an starts roughly making love to her husband when she breaks down crying only moments later to be snarky, sarcastic and then seductive again. The woman is layered – psycho – but layered.
Maya starts having visions of monsters biting her neck and accosting her and paintings bleeding. She daydreams and is constantly exhibiting provocative behavior that concerns George. When he tries to figure out what’s going on, she talks about how cherry pie looks like blood. When he doesn’t agree with her, she slices her finger to show him. Then she awesomely blames him for it. I love Satanic Queen Maya! She’s forceful, takes what she wants and doesn’t give a shit what Georgie-boy has to say about it.
While George is trying to figure out what his wife is doing, Arthur calls inviting them to a costume party. Of course, it’s the cult’s party. Maya jumps at the opportunity to go and George is pissed that he wasn’t consulted when she says yes, but he agrees to go.
Maya is taken by Dr. Muldavo’s charm, which further infuriates Auriela thus bringing upon a fantastic conclusion.
I don’t know why this doesn’t get better reviews. Maybe some sexploitation fans are disappointed because the sex scenes are tame, but I give it up to the all girl Satanic squad dressed in black, red and white during Maya’s dream. That was hot as hell.
Though there aren’t too many scares, there is some psychedelic and strange images that were excellently executed. The tone, atmosphere and energy of the production was something I greatly enjoyed.
Everyone did a fine job acting but by far the standout was badass, balls-to-the-wall Lisa Christian. I loved how she showed the many different facets of Maya. When not possessed by the cult we see how insecure she is about being assertive. Even women today are like that. In the car ride over she asks George if he finds her too cold and therefore not sexy. She’s not cold. She just knows what she wants and how to get it. I love her.
That said, I love possessed Maya even better. When she’s feeling the Queen flow thru her, she is a force to be reckoned with. Whether making love to her husband or ordering him to lick the blood off her finger, it’s awesome to see her be so brazen and her husband be like , “what the hell?” I love it. Maya’s needs to get rid of that timid dude and find someone a little less vanilla and a bit more vampy. I’m not sold on Muldavo, but I think the high priestess and her could be something spectacular together.
Overall, I highly recommend this. It’s on Amazon Prime streaming so enjoy it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
