After the death of their father, three sisters, Veronica (Eileen Hayes), Victoria (Anne Linden) and Elizabeth (Carol Vogel) are the only heirs to his estate, Crenshaw House. The girls are only to inherit after all three have been married and settled down. Now, finally the last daughter, Veronica, has married. The husbands of the girls are William (Don Williams), Richard (Fib LaBlaque) and Donald (Richard Romanus).
The three families are summand to the office of the family lawyer, Dobbs (Neil Flanagan). Dobbs tells them that, according to the will’s instructions, all three families must live in the house for three days before the will can be read.
The estate is on an island called Crenshaw Island. The only inhabitants of the island are three servants of the house, Hattie (Maggie Rogers), Martha (Veronica Radburn) and their retarded brother, Colin (Hal Borske). The three couples arrive at the island and settle in.
It doesn’t take long before a dark figure begins slaughtering everyone.
“The Ghastly Ones” AKA “Blood Rites” was released in 1968 and was directed by Andy Milligan. It is a low-budget American horror movie. Milligan remade the film under the title “Legacy of Blood” in 1978. This was Milligan’s first color film.
Andy Milligan made a lot of crappy movies, this is one of them. Even so, I had to watch it to the end to see who the killer actually was and why so it managed to get that much of me invested in it. The movie is rather disjointed with some abrupt cuts. The cinematography is mostly tight shots and close ups which makes the film claustrophobic and dark. The quality of the film-stock doesn’t help. The total cost of the film is somewhere around $13,000 so that gives you a good idea of the quality of the production.
It’s kind of slow and there was a lot of talking between the murders. It was all blah blah blah, murder, blah blah blah, murder. It is your standard gathering of the heirs for the reading of a will where everyone gets picked off, but done badly. The acting is bad and the special effects, although gross, were primitive. There’s even one point at the beginning prior to the opening credits where you can hear Director Milligan giving an instruction to the film crew. The film also includes a little gratuitous nudity.
Don’t look for the loose ends to get tied up at the end either. The will is basically a McGuffin just used to get all the victims together. It’s a really bad movie, but good for people who like really bad movies.