Director Rand Vossler, no stranger to the world of horror, his career spanning back to Critters 2 [1988], brings a tale involving a cabin in the woods, a Ouija board, the summoning of evil spirits and John Savage fighting wretched demons. This production originated in 2008, but a series of freak incidents provoke an evil conjuring and took the movie into another dimension of oddness, past the original screenplay by Tracy Morse, which insinuates that other writers took to the task of rewrites, but none lent their names to the movie.
The movie seems to bring two movies together, first Michelle (AnnaMaria Demara) kicks her boyfriend Randy (Grant Alan Ouzts (Muck [2015])) out, and later decides to retreat to a very nice family cabin in a remote area of the mountains and heal from the breakup and invites along friends – all sorority sisters. They are extremely bubbly in the mannerism, and appear convincingly to associate as if old friends, with multiple rounds of drinking, and discussing every social topic possible including sex, the entire sequence keeps the male audience well entertained, especially with topless hot tub baths and a game of dares. However, as fans of horror know this happiness won’t stay much longer and thanks to Sharon (Kati Sharp) the spot on reckless one of the bunch, ventures to the basement, with a perfect set design of it burned and creepy which does not match the upstairs at all. She returns with a Ouija board and planchette which belongs to Michelle’s psychic grandmother Grace (Eileen Dietz (Itsy Bitsy [2019])) and encourages the occult practices and hence opens a window into the spiritual portal of the netherworld. Quickly the film accelerates with the evil ones possessing the sorority girls, though the viewer might not be exactly aware how it happened, and the certain sequences start to turn to jumble situations, with the demons playing distorted antics with the girls’ bodies, though nothing is truly new or creatively different from either Grave Encounters [2011] or The Evil Dead [1981]. Meanwhile, Randy suddenly reappears which leaves one to scratch their head as to know where he went, maybe he called his mother, and another nitpicking issue, he now has a buzz-cut, perhaps trying to clean up his act (though likely had another role). The so-called sinister actions don’t sell too well, and yet the sex and gore present at times, only to vanish very quickly, replace with zombie-creatures, paranormal situations, and sheer randomness occurring, faster than anyone including the audience can comprehend. It feels as if the storyline started the mad dash of grabbing elements of several 80s horror movies and heaping them onto the pile for the movie, resulting in a collapse due to mindless hell bound demons.
Freakish issues plague the movie over the years, and not all of them dealt with finances, during an early portion a scene called for the burning of a ouija board, and from there either an eerie set of consequences occur or truly the portal door to other side swung open for all to endure. Among the elements, a major and freak snowstorm ceased production for 6-days out fifteen resulting in halt of the movie, and resetting a year to attempt again, there by changing cast members and storyline due to the unavailability of others. The following year, a forest fire destroyed sets, later a flood and the cast and crew abandoned operations, setting in motion for a third script to change itself again, and more scenes, with post-production in 2011 with loss of funding. Finally, as desperation the producers had two spiritual consultants cleanse the area, sets, equipment and the cast and crew this all should inspire those who make movies of the realities of being filmmaker. In fact, at that point of production, the script suggests one needed to switch to a filming of the issues and turn the movie into a movie within a movie, more mileage in that.
The entire movie works at individual points, but not collectively, when amassed all together the film flounders, and strangely with all the clichés, nothing truly sticks well together, and then the ridiculousness of Savage’s killing and slashing demons, puts the movie over the top and not in a sound manner, his talents wasted completely. The confusing marketing appeal extends past the skimpy outfits, suggestive sexual mannerisms, and endless demon bloodshed, the movie continues with the title, that has three, first “See How They Run,” “Demon Legacy,” and lastly “Haunting at Foster Cabin”. The second title name is the one used on IMDb’s website, and this review’s title found on the site that released the movie from MTI Video and the artwork changes often, with the wrong type of pentagram showing on the box art of this movie to show the direction of intention. Simply if one seeks to check out a bit of wild mayhem and witness a movie that pushed through all the frustrations and bad karma with the burning of Ouija board then see the film.
TAGLINE:
- See evil. Hear evil. Speak evil.
https://www.facebook.com/DemonLegacy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334558/
IMDb Rating: 3.2/10
Baron’s Rating: 3.0/10