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It’s been over twenty years since we were first introduced to the four famous teen witches in The Craft, and now it’s time for a new quartet to show us what magical skills they harbour.
The Craft: Legacy is half-sequel and half-reboot to the 1996 cult favourite, but it follows all the same beats as the original. The new girl is recruited into a coven, they have fun, and they bewitch a few people. This is The Craft: Legacy’s biggest failure because it seems that the writers didn’t know what they wanted the film to be. It’s so similar it sometimes crosses the line into “remake” territory, the only considerable difference is the film’s antagonist and its ending.
Another failure is, surprisingly for a film about witchcraft, is the magic. In The Craft, the four leads were performing spells, chants, and curses all the way through. However, in this version, the witches don’t so much have magic powers but superpowers. They’re telepathic, telekinetic, and each witch has their own elemental ability such as pyrokinesis. As for the ritualistic magic they perform together as a coven, there is really only one scene that is closely followed by a quick montage.
While The Craft was primarily about the new girl, Sarah and her eventual rift with fellow coven-member, Nancy, the other two witches, Bonnie and Rochelle, still had plenty to do. Bonnie had her quest to feel beautiful, and racist schoolmates tormented Rochelle. As mentioned previously, The Craft: Legacy follows the original almost step-by-step, and yet, they still weren’t able to highlight the three other witches. We don’t even really know that much about them.
As for the other characters, the only one that stood out above the rest is Nicholas Galitzine’s Timmy, who is half an original character and half a standing for Skeet Ulrich’s Chris Hooker from the original film. Much like Chris, Timmy starts as a bully, but thanks to a spell, he befriends the coven. This is where Timmy becomes his own character with an interesting backstory that will be incredibly relatable for many watching. It’s also a backstory that deserves to be seen in other teen movies.
While it has its moments, The Craft: Legacy is let-down by the confusing creative decisions made to hook new viewers and appease fans of the original, thus conjuring an identity-crisis.
The Craft: Legacy is available to buy on-demand in the US, right now, and is currently playing in UK cinemas (though I would strongly avoid UK cinemas right now).
Have you seen this film yet? If so, what did you think? Let us know! For more horror movie news and reviews follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Speaking of witches, I have also written a non-spoiler review on The Witches remake earlier this month. We also have a review about witches from an episode of the Emmy-nominated horror comedy series What We Do in the Shadows.
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