It’s been a weird Hallowe’en. I haven’t left the house all day. It’s my first Hallowe’en doing nothing in decades. Aside from Hallowe’en-themed sleepwear, it’s just like any other day. (Although, to be honest, I still wear these throughout the year.) My indoor Hallowe’en lights stopped working today – of all days. If that’s not a the understated metaphor of the year for the year, I don’t know what is.
The last day of my 2020 horror-thon is a movie that some will argue that nobody really asked for – but then, who ever asks for a movie that makes the merest mention of women being shat on by men habitually?
That said, it’s a shame The Craft: Legacy didn’t dig deeper on this. It’s a very pretty but very tame sequel to the 1997 original (and a dear favourite of mine), but with a much more positive message about girlhood, sisterhood, and femininity in ALL its forms (i.e., uterus or no). That’s welcome, and other plot-related updates are arguable improvements, but it’s not going to be like the original, and I think a large part of it is that we don’t see a lot of the actual witchcraft, bar one or two incantations and a short montage of spells in practice.
The characters, too, aren’t given much time to develop and, aside from the main lead, feel ornamental and forgettable. The uneven musical score doesn’t help, either – ethereal and tribal in some scenes, but in others reducing tense sequences to guffaws. But there are some beautifully-shot moments with colourful SFX that are pretty to look at, and a brisk pace keeps things moving without any boredom dips.
This would definitely play well with the teen moviegoing crowd or Hallowe’en gathering, so it’s sad that covid has put a dampener on all things cinema, but it’s an enjoyable movie even as a standalone one.
Score: 🎃🎃🎃
An Englishwoman in Salem 