The Craft: Legacy Reviewed By An Actual Teenage Girl
Let’s get some things straight first. This is not a remake of the Craft. This is not the Craft for Gen-Z. This is a great sequel to the Craft for Gen-Z, and one of the only ways to get my friends excited to watch the original. It doesn’t do what the Craft did for Gen-Z (because we already have the Craft, witchcraft is somewhat normal now), but it is one of the first films I’ve seen that actually captures today’s teens.
The Craft: Legacy is exactly what I’ve been calling for in terms of teen horror.
As a teenage girl that moved across the country during Junior Year, it felt almost too close to home. The uncomfortable awkward silences combined with befriending a group of lovable weirdos was essentially my experience.
The language was nearly flawless, it is exactly how Gen-Z speaks. The characters were very well-written, I could definitely see myself and my peers in them. It felt like the actors were really involved with making the characters their own, which seemed to help make them accurate and convincing teens. Everything from the Twilight references to the party music (I was literally listening to Princess Nokia and reading about Janet Mock right before I watched this) was 100% Gen-Z. It’s the best portrayal of my generation I’ve seen in a film since Eighth Grade.
The trailer made this film look… well, the trailer did not make me very excited. I didn’t have the highest expectations going in, but Lister-Jones totally blew me away.
The acting was beautiful and the overall aesthetic was gorgeous! It certainly didn’t have the same dark and gritty feeling as the original, but it still managed to recreate the overall tone. The coven itself felt very authentic, like they were all real-life besties. I could totally see my friends and I crashing selfies and getting back at bullies if we were that coven. I would’ve loved to see more of them all together rather than the short montage. Additionally, I had to rewind a couple times because I was so distracted by the direction. The shots are incredibly mesmerizing and effective, I recommend giving yourself an extra couple of minutes to rewatch and appreciate them.
The story is heartfelt with awesome LGBTQ+ representation (we love to see it). Instead of having the coven battle each other, they work together to battle the forces of evil (toxic masculinity). It’s a compelling story, but one I wish would’ve been fleshed out a bit more. I did love the idea of the girls in the coven actually supporting each other rather than competing. Lister-Jones continued the original’s theme of teamwork and trust in a (dare I say) more convincing way than the Craft (simply because the original coven didn’t feel like real friends). The story showed girls making mistakes and taking responsibility for them, something we rarely get to see in any medium let alone film. It still upheld the message of magic backfiring, but this time the coven was more aware of and confident in their power. They were much more well-educated on magic (this is again realistic because of the internet), which made magic seem sort of like fire: dangerous when used idiotically, but useful in the right hands. I really enjoyed this portrayal of witchcraft because it allowed the girls to practice magic as long as they did so responsibly.
I was overjoyed to see how many women worked on this film. Besides being written and directed by a woman, it also had a female cinematographer (Hillary Spera), editor (Libby Cuenin), composer (Heather Christian), and production designer (Hillary Gurtler).While I think some of the feminist message got lost towards the end, it definitely felt more like a female-told story than Blumhouse’s other films. It was a wonderful celebration of femininity and intersectional feminism. This film proved once again that women are SO powerful.
The film wasn’t perfect, but it was really refreshing. The one thing I think it lacked was time. If it had been 20-30 minutes longer we would’ve become more attached to the characters and gotten more development for the villain. Whether that’s on Blumhouse or Lister-Jones, I don’t know. I certainly would’ve preferred the gothic style of the original Craft, I was a little disappointed with the fashion in this film (it was accurate to Gen-Z but a lot of us dress like the witches in the original anyway so it would’ve been just as accurate if they were goth). Also what was up with the sparkles? Where did those come from, I don’t remember them from the original. I didn’t hate them, they were just sort of odd. The graphics might’ve been better with a higher budget, maybe they would’ve looked more realistic?
Despite its few faults (no film is perfect so please stop acting like films directed by women are the only ones with flaws), there is a lot to love about The Craft: Legacy. If nothing else, it’s a genuinely fun comfort film with a great message. It did the Craft justice, and was an awesome way to continue the story. I hope it gets the respect it deserves because I would love to see more films like it!
SPOILERS- Don’t read if you haven’t watched...
I think the ending was okay, but a little too obvious. I felt like Adam could’ve just tried to take Lily’s power without mentioning her gender and we’d all understand what that was implying. I had the same problem with Black Christmas, it just seemed like they were really trying to spell it out for the audience unnecessarily. I’m a huge supporter of feminist stories, but I don’t think it needed to explain itself that much. That being said, I really enjoyed the witches vs. toxic masculinity plot. It’s an age-old story that somehow rarely gets told. The line, “Now it’s your turn to burn” was epic. I could’ve used a solid 15 more minutes of character development for the brothers (especially Abe, he was so wholesome) and their dynamics, I really wanted to see more of Adam’s creepy meeting-thing.
Nancy, our goddess, is alive and (sorta) well! I was waiting for her the entire film, and I screamed when she finally appeared onscreen! While she was missing her legendary haircut, I was so happy with her cameo! It makes me wonder if they’re setting up a sequel or perhaps a series? If so, call me Blumhouse :)
