'The Craft: Legacy' A Review

 

The Craft: Legacy is a supernatural horror movie about a group of teens practicing witchcraft, mostly unsuccessfully, until a new girl Lily(Cailee Spaeny) moves to town and joins their circle. The four become friends and grow in power, putting a spell on the school bully Timmy(Nicholas Galitzine) to be a better person. But as Lily flourishes socially and magically she butts heads with her soon-to-be stepdad Adam(David Duchovny) who may be more sinister than he appears.

Echoing the original but with more sensitivity and camaraderie and less infighting the main four- Spaney along with Gideon Adlon as Frankie, Lovie Simone as Tabby, and Zoey Luna as Lourdes- all have energetic, youthful chemistry and balance their empathic friendship with the thrill of discovering magic perfectly.  It's unfortunate that a lot of their friendship and spell-learning is montaged through, perhaps a budget constraint. Galitzine is a refreshing romantic interest, totally believable and vile as the bully and equally charming as "woke" Timmy after the spell. Duchovny is woefully miscast as the heavy and doesn't appear to be doing much acting, it's an intriguing script point to make the villain essentially a men's rights activist masquerading as self-help guru but this thread isn't particularly developed nor is Duchovny particularly menacing. It's always a pleasure to see Michelle Monaghan who plays Lily's mom but she's not given much to do save fret and unconvincingly be in a relationship with Adam.

A killer soundtrack, excellent restrained effects(until the end), and a slick look make this sequel to the 1996 cult hit fun and successful but it's too brief run time and it's underdeveloped conflict leave you wanting more. Especially unfortunate given, clearly, it is bursting with potential and promise.

Despite its shortcomings a valiant and entertaining effort from writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones(of Band Aid fame), hopefully she'll get to make a sequel to flush out the great characters she's set up and bring in the four original witches.

Currently available for rent on most VOD platforms.

Rent It.