The Craft: Legacy (2020) - Film Review

As someone who loved the original 90s film and had so much potential to explore in a sequel or revival, but Zoe Lister-Jones take on the legacy of the Craft in no way met my expectations. In this revamped sequel, picking up seventeen years after Andrew Fleming's first film - Frankie, Tabby and Lourdes are on the lookout for a fourth member to complete their coven of witches. When they befriend Lily and accept her into their coven, they realise the dangers of their powers.

This film forgot a core element of the original - The Craft is an ensemble drama, each character had their own arcs and caused a ripple effect when they abused their magical powers. This film centres solely on Cailee Spaeny's Lily. so much so that I realised the other girls had no plot or storyline outside of Lily and we did not get to know Tabby, Lourdes or Frankie as individuals.

The witchcraft elements of this film was remarkably underwhelming. As well as recreating iconic scenes from the Fleming's original, the magic itself was barely a plot point. The coven only cast one major spell and several obvious spells - throwing people against the lockers, smashing mean girls' heads into walls, burning slut-shaming dents out of lockers and turning a homophobic bully's hoodie into an LGBTQ flag.

There was hardly any small or imaginative moments of magic, they were glaringly apparent to the general public and barely had any consequences on the characters or story. The real charm actually came from the four leading ladies Cailee Spaeny as Lily Schechner, Gideon Adlon as Frankie, Lovie Simone as Tabby and Zoey Luna as Lourdes actually had nice chemistry together and it was more disappointing three of the actresses had no storylines of their own.

Luna in particular was a great casting and I will give this film props for casting a transgender character with a transgender actress and not making that the whole centre of her character, she's confident and nuanced - we need more characters like this in mainstream media. Other castings that stood out were Michelle Monaghan as Helen Schechner, Lily's mother who was so good (and no underused) and Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs - that I will be coming back to.

The original Craft was a cautionary tale about being careful what you wish for, Legacy is supposed to be about female empowerment and the toxicity of the patriarchy. However, the female empowerment comes across as lip-service through dialogue rather than actual empowering moments for these girls until the end, which none of them had to work or grow to achieve that realisation and that toxicity of the patriarchy - so, basically every male character in this film - is patronisingly dumbed down.

This film delved into toxic masculinity and suppressed sexuality, but to a cult extreme. The only nice character was hexed to be that way and unlike the prequel, this had no negative repercussions on the young witches and instead they were happy with this new "woke" version of Timmy. Also, I really didn't like how Timmy started off as a really aggressive and abusive antagonist, but then the audience are expected to be invested in a potential romance between him and Lily - I've never been a fan of the bully/victim romances.

To his credit, Nicholas Galitzine did perform a moving monologue about his character accepting his bisexuality and feeling that men have more pressure than women to commit to a label. Sexuality was hinted at throughout the plot, but never explored or analysed why some characters were uncomfortable or scared to express themselves - instead, the final fight sequence went for a "the evil men in power who hate vulnerability and women are bad" message, which was a pretty weak conclusion. Again, these characters felt really underdeveloped and flat - even Timmy's bisexuality and who he had a past sexual relationship with had no impact on the overall plot. Even David Duchovny as Adam Harrison, Lily's stepfather seemed bored towards the end of the film and he was the main villain of the piece.

So weak male characters and forced social awareness, this film decided to do a U-turn and incorporate one of the main characters from the original film. Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs reprised her role for the final scene and it was such a waste of her talent, honestly it added nothing to the story. The film ended on a cliff-hanger that I believe is intended to leave it open for a third film, but I highly doubt that will happen.

The Craft: Legacy had some great ideas in it, but the writing and direction reeks of faux feminism. The themes tackled should have been explored in a nuanced and complex way, but it was very surface level. I had high hopes for this film and this was nowhere near what I expected, it in no way has the same tone and depth of the prequel.

Therefore, my rating for this film is a ★★

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