**This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!**

“Air, fire, water, earth…”

Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy premiered on Demand on October 28th 2020. The film stars Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, Lovie Simone, David Duchovny, and Michelle Monaghan. It is approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes long.

Based on the original film, The Craft (1996), The Craft: Legacy follows Lily, who moves in with her mom’s new boyfriend and his family. After getting off to a rough start as the outsider in school, she meets three girls who have been practicing witchcraft.

Here is the trailer:

The Craft happens to be one of my favorite films of all time.

However, I went into this watch with an open mind, but it’s not easy channeling the cult classic that made us all want to be “the weirdos” playing light as a feather, stiff as a board. The Craft has paved the way for shows like Charmed and others, but a fresh take on the film could be promising. Let’s find out if it can stand on its own merit…

The Pros:

Images courtesy of Blumhouse Productions

Fun tributes and throwbacks to the original with a cameo worth waiting for.

I was a little worried about this, but I thought the film did a good job of throwing in some welcomed throwbacks to the original film without overdoing it. We got a classic line thrown our way, an epic cameo, and some familiar spells and rituals.

New spells and story to spice things up.

The reboot has the formula to pretty much replicate the original film, but we did get some twists thrown in and some new spells as well. 

The Cons:

Images courtesy of Blumhouse Productions

No layers to our new four.

Part of the reason why the original film worked so well is we got to peel back the layers for every member of the coven. It helped us connect to them more and it also really emphasized the “personal gain” or consequences of magic aspect that much more.

Magic is fun, but it can be deadly and I was missing the connection to every single character in this film. Why do we care about them? Do I really care if the coven splits up?

Questions like this continued to come up and I was disappointed because the formula was there, but the effort was not demonstrated.

Forcing the female empowerment angle.

Much like the new Black Christmas (2019) film, The Craft: Legacy hits us over the head with female empowerment vs. uninspiring and played out misogyny. I was expecting a lot more here.

So am I in or out?

Unfortunately I’m out on this one…

The film is not bad at all. In fact, you can watch it and be somewhat entertained. However, it just pales in comparison to the original film. It doesn’t do anything really unique or different for the new generation. While there are glimmers of potential sprinkled in, they fade rather quickly. Other than the cameo at the end, I was pretty disappointed overall.

If you are looking for a newer version of The Craft, I recommend watching the series, Light as a Feather on Hulu instead. 

I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on The Craft: Legacy in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!

Best,

Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl

DON’T TAKE THE JOB…

It was only supposed to be temporary…but when Olivia Crewe accepts a new position that seems too good to be true, she soon discovers that twelve other girls previously had the same job as her. Only none of them lasted for more than thirty days. No notice. Nothing…right before they mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

My new supernatural thriller Girl Number Thirteen releases on November 12th 2020! Available for pre-order! I hope you enjoy!

Girl Number Thirteen is available here!

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