Director: Zoe Lister-Jones

Writer: Zoe Lister-Jones

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna, Michelle Monaghan, David Duchovny

Rating: ★★★

It took a quarter of a century for cult classic The Craft to get a sequel, and it’s surprisingly good, even if it probably wasn’t needed. The original film completely stands by itself, and there’s no real loose ends for a sequel. Thankfully, The Craft: Legacy, which is written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, does a really good job at re-capturing the magic of the original.

This time around the film focuses on Lily, who is brought to life by Cailee Spaeny with an incredible performance that steals most scenes. After moving to a new town Lily is instantly the victim of bullies at school, and because of that ends up attracting the attention of three other outcasts, who also happen to be witches looking for a fourth member of their coven. Lilly joins them and together they start to have fun discovering their new powers.

The sequel follows a very similar structure to the original film, with a teenage girl moving to a new town and trying to fit in at school. She then finds a group of witches and starts to learn about herself and powers. They mess around, not fully realising the consequences, which is when the to films start to differ and the new one gets really interesting. Not that the first half is bad either, it just gets a lot better the further it goes on.

It may be familiar territory, but it’s a well told story and the characters are good. Lily is a good main character, and the rest of the coven are good as well. David Duchovny plays Lily’s soon to be stepfather, and for the most part you don’t quite get a hold on who he is. There’s something sinister about him, and it seems like he’s just an overbearing parent, but there’s more behind that.

One of the best things about the film is it’s pacing. It’s the kind of film that feels like no time at all has passed when it’s over. It absolutely flies by. When you know the climactic conflict is coming, it’s genuinely a surprise how close to the end it is. It’s ninetyish minutes long but feels like an episode of a TV show. There’s also a good amount of humour, especially with one of the bullies, Timmy (Nicholas Galitzine). The coven put a spell on him to be nicer, and it’s a funny to watch his transformation, and there’s a surprising amount of depth to his character hidden beneath the bully.

The Craft: Legacy is a decent sequel, and a lot better than you’d expect. It doesn’t stray to far away from the groundwork of the original, but it’s an entertaining and each-watching film. There’s talk of a third film really joining the first two together, and that would be good to see.  

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