It’s been almost a year since the last time I posted a review, but watching a movie from 2020 with 48% on rotten tomatoes brought me back from the dead.
After watching Red, White and Royal Blue for the 3rd time (spoiler: I will be writing about this masterpiece), I decided to look at Nicholas Galitzine’s filmography. TikTok was so kind to reveal to me that Nicholas plays a bisexual character in The Craft, so I decided that would be my next watch. Before I go any further, let’s briefly recap the plot.
The Craft: Legacy is somewhat of a sequel and a reboot to the original The Craft, a movie from 1996 that follows 4 teenage girls as they form a coven and practice witchcraft. Disclaimer — I haven’t watched the original yet, so my general understanding might be lacking. All I know is that there are a few winks to the original, as well as some actors from the original. This sequel/reboot follows a similar concept — Lily is an outcast who moves into her mom’s boyfriend’s house, in which he raises three teen boys. During her first day in the new school, she bleeds through her jeans in an almost comical way, seriously no one bleeds that much on their period she should’ve gotten that checked. Some dumb boy, Timmy (played by Nicholas Galitzine), laughs at her and she runs to the bathroom where she gets help from three other students. Those three girls turn out to be witches missing a forth witch to their coven, which of course is where Lily comes in. The girls then proceed to put a spell on Timmy as a form of revenge, and everything goes downhill from there.
I’m not going to write down the whole plot, but pretty much from that moment forward things start to go downhill for the quality and the plot too. There are a few nice moments, but mostly it’s like the plot is happening off screen and we need to pick up the pieces. I appreciate hinting at things, but in this case, I feel like it’s just like someone cut out entire parts of the movie, and the result is a bumpy and awkward progression of the plot, which leaves the audience confused and disappointed.
See, this movie should have had everything I could ever want in a movie. Witches, gay people, feminism, and Gen Z vibes? Yes please. But unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I get the whole thing with Adam being a toxic misogynistic warlock, but why is everything happening?? Why does he want Lily’s powers?? Was the whole move planned?? Are his boys warlocks too?? So many unanswered questions. Also, the girls coming to save Lily from Adam is such a transparent Deus Ex Machina moment, it’s kind of lazy. Speaking of the girls, the whole binding and giving up magic was so clearly only there to make the kidnapping make sense, it was very rushed and definitely could have been handled better.
Before I share my final thoughts, we of course must discuss the queerness of the movie. I have to say, this is where we see excellence. It has a few casually queer moments, with one of the girls being trans, or when they stop a bully from tormenting a gay kid. The main moment is when Timmy reveals he hooked up with Isaiah, one of Adam’s sons. He sort of comes out as bisexual, which is a turning point in the movie, and probably my favorite part. I don’t love the concept of the bully being secretly gay, but I’ll take it. I also didn’t love that immediately after that Timmy is killed and only becomes a plot device for the girls to save Lily. Honestly, him talking to them through the Ouija board is also sort of Deus Ex Machina. What was missing for me was probably that Lily is so clearly a lesbian?? What is she doing kissing Timmy when she is so coded for the girls. Guess you can’t win them all.
In summary — this was a fun cute watch for when you have nothing else going on. A lot of flaws for sure, but like I mentioned, I do love queer witches and feminism, so it still works. 3/5.
