When The Craft: Legacy was originally announced, most people figured it would be a reboot designed to cash in on the enduring cult appeal of the original, which continues to find new fans with each passing year almost a quarter of a century after it was first released. However, the second installment is a direct sequel that acknowledges its predecessor even though it doesn’t bear much similarity or possess any direct connections to Andrew Fleming’s beloved teen horror.
The Craft: Legacy was originally scheduled for a theatrical release before being pulled from the calendar entirely and sent straight to VOD this past Wednesday, although it will still hit the big screen in some international territories. With Halloween almost upon us, though, making the movie available digitally is a smart way to generate a bit of extra income from new and old fans alike, especially when theaters across the world remain shuttered.
In a recent interview, writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones had nothing but praise for the cast and crew of the pic, and also admitted that she’d love it if The Craft: Legacy proved popular enough to lead to further installments.
“I think it would be such a dream for all of us to work together again. It truly was a magical experience. And I think really transformative for all of us. So it would be incredible to reunite and get in there again with all of these incredible women. We don’t know if we’ll get to make another. That’s really for the people to decide. I do have ideas. And I always had imagined, I sort of wrote this film with a third in mind. But yeah. We’ll see how this one goes.”
It isn’t exactly a shock to hear the filmmaker behind a sequel voice their hopes that it leads to yet more sequels, but critical reaction to The Craft: Legacy has been decidedly mixed so far. The loose continuation of the series currently holds a middling Rotten Tomatoes score of 49%, but as a Blumhouse production, the budget probably wasn’t too high, and if it generates strong VOD sales, then the prolific production company will certainly be open to the idea of continuing the franchise for at least a little longer.