The Craft (1996) and The Craft: Legacy (2020) - Reviews of a Fantasy Drama and Its Sequel

Empowering Fantasy Drama with Four Fascinating Female Characters

The Craft is much more of a fantasy drama than an actual horror movie. Despite a lack of scary scenes, the movie convinces with its four intriguing lead characters incarnated by four excellent young actresses.

The story is quickly told. Suicidal teenager Sarah comes to town and meets three teenage outcasts at her high school. The four teenage girls are interested in witchcraft and start experimenting with it. First, they use their magical powers to prevent bullying but they push the boundaries further with every ritual. Soon enough, people are dying and conflicts arise between the four friends.

This movie convinces with its four intriguing lead characters. Sarah is a calm, mysterious and suicidal girl who becomes more courageous, passionate and resilient as the movie progresses. Nancy is a fragile character who hides her sadness under thick layers of make-up and gothic clothing as well as an arrogant attitude as she tries to find problems to solve her personal issues. Bonnie suffers from a lack of self-confidence due to burn scars covering her arms and back as she wishes to become more beautiful. Rochelle has to face racism and bullying during her high diving exercises.

The four lead actresses make a good movie out of an at best average concept. Robin Tunney incarnates the tormented protagonist very well and has an aura of fragility and mystery about her. Neve Campbell portrays a teenage girl obsessed with beauty and popularity splendidly. Rachel True plays the resilient student who faces bullying and racism in her everyday life with much charisma. Fairuza Balk however truly steals the show and convinces as arrogant but attractive gothic girl who is spiralling out of control with her extreme behaviour.

At the end of the day, The Craft might be an average horror film but a great fantasy drama. While the story is by the numbers, the acting performances and characters are truly inspiring. It's great to see four diverse teenage girls as protagonists of this movie which helps women identify with these characters and all other audiences learn more about the realities of female high school students. From this perspective, The Craft was certainly ahead of its time and has aged very well.

Final Rating: 7/10

 A Missed Occasion to Portray Female Empowerment, Transgender Identity and Toxic Masculinity

The Craft: Legacy follows the visionary fantasy drama The Craft that had been released twenty-four years ago. This movie seems to be a sequel through its first half before the story takes a twisted turn and connects with some events from the original movie. These events lead to a final scene that should certainly intrigue anyone who liked the original movie.

This film revolves around social outcast Lily whose mother moves in with a man whom she met online. Lily quickly senses that her mother's lover isn't as charming as it seems as he represents toxic masculinity with his strict rules that also have a negative impact on his three sons. Things aren't going much better at school for Lily. She forgets to wear a pad or a tampon at her first day of school and bleeds through her jeans onto the chair and the floor in her classroom. Nasty bullying ensues. Just as Lily shamefully hides in the rest room, three other students come to show empathy and support. The four students quickly become friends and realize that they have interests in and talents for witchcraft. At first, they use their powers to prevent bullying but Lily goes one step further and uses a love spell on high school heartthrob Timmy. What starts as a tender romance quickly turns into a nightmare as Timmy is found dead. Lily however quickly suspects that her lover didn't commit suicide and was actually murdered. As she discovers more about her own identity and powers, she starts to suspect that her soon-to-be stepfather might be involved in the heartthrob's grisly demise.

This movie convinces on a few levels. First of all, the idea to deal with complicated and complex family issues adds some depth to the movie. The topic of toxic masculinity is on the pulse of time. Lead character Lily oozes with charisma with her tender romantic side opposed to her mysterious origins and her hidden powers that make her different. Lead actress Cailee Spaeny is credible and talented as she becomes one with her role. Her behaviour, her clothing style and her general looks are very fascinating and unique.

On the negative side, the movie's plot is rather flat. The topic of witchcraft is barely explored if compared to the original movie. The side characters remain flat which is certainly a missed opportunity. The character of Frankie for instance has no memorable features whatsoever. Tabby's origins and experiences are only explored in a deleted scene and the makers of this film missed the occasion to develop a potentially strong female person of colour as charismatic heroine. The same must be said about Lourdes who is played by excellent transgender actress Zoey Luna. Sadly, her struggles and identity are only randomly mentioned in about two sentences when it would have been very interesting to explore both further. Another issue of this movie are the poor dialogues with forced slang that is supposed to sound youthful but rather appears to be cringeworthy. A special shoutout goes to David Duchovny whose acting is so wooden that it becomes unintentionally funny. He remains one of the most overrated actors in the world.

At the end of the day, The Craft: Legacy is only carried by its intriguing protagonist played by talented actress Cailee Spaeny. The rest of the film is only of average quality. This fantasy drama might be worth to be watched once on a rainy night but it doesn't exploit its potentially relevant topics of female empowerment, transgender identity and toxic masculinity properly. The original movie released twenty-four years was much more visionary in its depiction of social issues and certainly deserves much more attention than this sequel.

Final Rating: 6/10