The Craft: Legacy (2020)
HORROR-THON 2020 • POD PEOPLE
3/10
DIRECTOR: Zoe Lister-Jones
RELEASED: 2020
STARRING: Cailee Spaeny, Zoey Luna, David Duchovny
RUNTIME: 1 hour, 37 minutes
FOR RENT OR PURCHASE: Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home
SCARE LEVEL: Barely any
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT: No.
The Craft in 1996 was chokers, plaid skirts, and four girls who became terrifying the second they got power. The 2020 version has cardigans and a group chat.
Lily moves to a new town with her mom, who’s moving in with her boyfriend Adam and his three teenage sons. On her first day of school, Lily gets humiliated in front of her whole class. She lashes out, and a boy named Timmy gets thrown into a row of lockers without her touching him.
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Three girls, Frankie, Tabby, and Lourdes, notice. They’ve been waiting for a fourth witch to complete their circle. Lily joins and the coven starts testing its powers: freezing time, levitating, and casting a spell on Timmy to make him less of a jerk.
It works a little too well. Timmy becomes a sweet, emotionally open, feelings-sharing guy. Then he turns up dead. Lily starts to suspect her new stepdad is not just a self-help author with a men’s group.
The last scene reveals Lily’s birth mother and she shows up for about thirty seconds. It’s probably the best 30 seconds of the movie.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
The original works because the girls are dangerous. They get power and immediately misuse it. Legacy’s coven is supportive, communicative, and disturbingly well-adjusted. That’s a lovely way to have friends and a boring way to have a horror movie.
The Timmy storyline is the most interesting thing here. Watching a bro turn into the most emotionally available teen in America is funny. It was probably more entertaining than the third act, which is entirely rushed and gets tidied up way too fast.
David Duchovny plays a villain who could be the host of a men’s rights podcast, which just feels weird at times. The styling is fine. It’s thrift-store cute. Nobody’s going to dress as these witches for Halloween the way every ‘90s girl dressed as Nancy.
Fun fact for your next dinner party
Development of a sequel to The Craft started in the late ‘90s, but nothing went anywhere. In 2016, a faithful sequel was developed and eventually scrapped due to negative reactions from fans of the original.