I did not enjoy The Craft: Legacy even a little bit.
Rather than beat around the bush and talk about how I don’t like writing negative reviews, I’ll be straightforward: this movie is unworthy of its title in every way imaginable.
Granted, sequels to popular films rarely live up to expectations, and the fact that this sequel came out more than 20 years after the original movie should’ve turned me away. But my biggest problem with The Craft: Legacy is that it feels nothing like the first film. In fact, it feels like a made for television Disney movie with several Lifetime Channel moments.
The movie follows Lily (Cailee Spaeny), who begins a new life when her mother moves them in with a Adam (David Duchovny), who happens to be a semi-famous author. Unlike Duchovny’s other author character in Showtime’s “Californication,” Adam writes self-help books about the struggles of preserving masculinity. You can pretty much guess what type of role he plays in the story.
After a humiliating experience during her first day of school, Lily meets and immediately befriends a trio of witches, and within the first 20 minutes or so of the movie they’re absolutely inseparable. I won’t bother with any details about Lily’s friends, since the screenwriter certainly didn’t. They’re as forgettable as everything else about the movie, and I respect the actresses (Zoey Luna, Gideon Adlon, and Lovie Simone) for giving their all and embracing the goofiness of the script.
I want to pause momentarily and point out that the actors in The Craft: Legacy all did a fantastic job. David Duchovny seemed half-asleep throughout the movie, even during his “big reveal” in the third act. I wish the actors had been given something juicier to work with, or at least something more thought provoking.
I spent most of the movie waiting for conflict to arise, since conflicts within young witch coven was what drove The Craft in 1996. However, there’s virtually no conflict in The Craft: Legacy. Everything just sort of works out for Lily and her friends—they master their powers almost immediately, they flagrantly disregard risks of being seen using their magic, and there’s absolutely no power struggle between them. Hell, one of them shoots fire out of their index finger on several occasions, and there’s not even a look of wonder in their eyes as they dabble with these powers. The group really needed a Fairuza Balk character to make the story more interesting, but unfortunately every character is the same starry-eyed and naïve teen who uses magic primarily to look pretty, take selfies, and promote wokeness.
Conflict is non-existent, the story is half-baked, and the “twist” at the end is predictable if you’re aware of who’s due to make a cameo.
So, on behalf of everyone who eagerly wasted $20 to watch The Craft: Legacy…
“I bind you, Blumhouse Productions, from doing harm; harm against my favorite 90s movies and harm against your gifted actors’ careers.”
4/10
Throughout the month of October, I’ll be reviewing 31 movies I’ve never seen before. Is there an excellent movie you think I haven’t seen? Tell me in the comments below, and I’ll check it out!
Comments