There are only so many hours in the day–not to mention dollars in our bank accounts. With almost unlimited streaming options to choose from this weekend, every platform is competing for your attention with Halloween content. So is The Craft: Legacy worth your time and money?
Honestly, it probably depends on whether you’re Gen Z or a Millennial. It’s basically a Buzzfeed quiz writ large, and either you’ll love it or complain about how it’s not as good as the original.
In the 24 years since the original film premiered, many of the high school kids who grew up on The Craft have teenagers of their own. Witchcraft has also gone mainstream–or at least the TikTok-friendly version of it. In fact, writer and director Zoe Lister-Jones revealed that three of the main cast members were already practicing witches in real life.
“Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, and Zoey Luna – were already practicing witchcraft before they joined the film,” according to IndieWire. Caillee Spaeny soon joined her costars in a coven of their own. The film has received criticism for being too empowering. The filmmakers, perhaps worried about showing their diverse leading ladies in a negative light, went too far in making them above reproach.
The original version of The Craft wasn’t afraid to get dark. Legacy feels like it was afraid to take risks, which is a real shame considering the talent behind the camera and in front of it. The movie might be fun for tweens and younger teens, but grownups hoping to recapture that sweet mid-90s high of watching The Craft at a sleepover will likely be disappointed.
If you haven’t seen The Craft: Legacy and want to watch it un-spoiled, then you should look away now. For the rest of us, let’s talk about that ending.
The movie is the same kind of “loose sequel that feels like a reboot” style that made The Force Awakens feel like déjà vu. It hits almost all the same beats as the original, with the four new witches following in the footsteps of their Gen X foremothers.
Except that, in the final moments of the film, we learn that one of the OG witches is literally the main character’s mother! Fans speculated how the new cast might be connected to the originals, especially after Fairuza Balk was confirmed for a cameo. Not to toot my own horn, but I totally called this twist. Lily, our natural-born witch heroine, is the biological daughter of none other than Nancy Downs.
Unfortunately, the moment felt squandered as we only see Nancy for less than a minute. She says one line: “Can I help you?” That’s it. It seems to be setting things up for a sequel, but sequels only happen if the first film performs well enough to warrant them. Although Legacy has gotten plenty of pre-release buzz, reviews are mixed-to-negative. At $20 to rent on Amazon (and a lackluster rating of 3 stars as of this writing), Blumhouse may end up with a buzzy but disappointing dud.
