Film Review

The Craft: Legacy (2020)

A group of high school students form a coven of witches.

The Craft (1996) made stars of Robin Tunney and Neve Campbell (in a breakthrough year for her alongside Scream) and became a cult favourite, so Blumhouse Productions has produced a belated sequel for a new generation of teenagers to obsess over. Actress Zoe Lister-Jones (Whitney, New Girl) makes her movie directorial debut, working from a script she also wrote, so I don’t doubt she’s a massive fan of the original and wanted to make something to honour its, well, legacy.

The core idea stays much the same, with a troubled young girl moving to a new school and getting bullied (in scenes reminiscent of 1976’s Carrie), then finding unexpected support and friendship with a trio of high school witches. The lonesome teen this time is Lily (Cailee Spaeny), who’s moved to Los Angeles with her mother Helen (Michelle Monaghan), to both live with her boyfriend Adam (David Duchovny) and his three teenage sons. The young occultists are Frankie (Gideon Adlon), Tabby (Lovie Simone), and Lourdes (Zoey Luna), an interchangeable bunch who are overjoyed to find their fourth member to complete…