Editorials
How ‘The Craft: Legacy’ Invokes the Spirit of Legacy and Utilizes Authentic Witchcraft [Set Visit]
On the Toronto-based set of Blumhouse production The Craft: Legacy, writer/director Zoe Lister-Jones oversees the setup of a scene that’ll look very familiar to fans of the beloved 1996 film. Mirroring the opening credits of The Craft, the camera captures an altar from overhead, rotating in a circle as it looks down upon mysterious hands moving in and out of frame, touching the various candles, feathers, and spiritual items gathered around the pentagram in the center.
Once satisfied, Lister-Jones moves on to the next scene in this sequence, introducing the three teens sitting at the altar. They chant and summon their respective corners, the North, the East, and the South. After flubs, slight bickering, and failed results, the trio debates the need of a West to complete their circle. It’s a setup that matches the original film’s in nearly every way. Still, as the day on set progresses, it becomes clear that Lister-Jones has some very different ideas in her approach to modernizing this teen witch classic.
The most apparent departure begins with the witches.
The Coven
Tabby (Lovie Simone) – Fire
“My character’s Tabby, her element is fire. She’s the South. What else? She’s very chill. She’s very into video games, and she’s very into her craft. She’s got it from her mom, and she’s been into it all her life. That’s when she met Lourdes and Frankie, and then they just bonded because they all grew up with witchcraft,” Simone shares of her character. Simone has her own history with witchcraft and crystals, which made it easy for the actress to assume the role. A fan of the original, Simone had extra incentive to portray Tabby: “Because I’m doing what I normally do, and it’s a way to empower other women too.”
Frankie (Gideon Adlon) – Air
“Frankie is air, that’s her element,” Adlon describes her character, “Ok, this is going to sound stupid, but she’s a mix of DJ Khaled energy, badass feminist energy. She’s worldly. Frankie’s kind of always the goofball, but when it’s time to get serious, she can flip that switch. Her style and her personality look like a kindergartner like she threw it all together. She’s loud, and I love her.” Frankie’s the spirited witch of the bunch, the one that likes to crack jokes or play a little prank. When things get too serious, also call upon the air sign.
Lourdes (Zoey Luna) – Earth
“The character is just so insanely close to me because not only is she trans, Latina, and a witch -I’m all three- she also gets kicked out by her mom. That happened to me when I was 17, a couple of months ago. Life imitates art or art imitates life; I don’t fucking know. But yeah, it’s crazy,” Luna marvels on the uncanny similarities with her character.
Much like Rachel True‘s Rochelle faced racism in The Craft, expect this trans witch to face discrimination in her storyline. It’s a role that Luna feels honored to portray, “It was extremely important for me to be in this movie because, I mean obviously, I’m trans and there are not that many trans people who are in film that aren’t just a sex worker who gets killed at the end. I’m doing this for the little girls that grew up and didn’t have someone to look up to. And my character, she’s fucking fabulous.”
Both Luna and Lourdes are full of personality, something the character likely has in common with Abuela, the Brujeria that raised her. Per production designer Hillary Gurtler, Luna and Abuela’s distinct traditions of witchcraft played a role in her production design: “I was excited about Abuela and Lordis, just because they’re really colorful and layered. There’s a lot of personality and a hidden identity in each of them. I love the adjacent influence of Abuela’s beliefs in practice. And then Lourdes has her interpretation of it, and how she’s coming into her own.”
Lily (Cailee Spaeny) – Water
Lily marks the new witch in town. Spaeny explains her character’s background: “She’s a young girl that’s been a loner. Her best friend is her mother. She hasn’t had friends her own age at all. And she’s being uprooted from her life with her mom and moving into a whole new life with brand new people. She’s starting a new school, and then when she meets these girls, everything changes.”
While Lily’s storyline seems closest to Robin Tunney‘s good witch Sarah, there are overt hints that Lily’s story arc is far more dramatic. The first tease comes from costume designer Avery Plewes. Plewes drew from each character’s elements in designing their wardrobe, and revealed, “So Tabby, Frankie, and Lourdes are fairly consistent throughout the movie because they’re practicing. But Lily has three arcs.” That little tidbit gives insight to both the costuming and the trajectory of Lily’s induction into the world of witchcraft.
Plewes gives further insight into the characters through their costumes. “Lily’s element is water, and so we’ve incorporated a lot of pearls into her look. If you keep an eye out in the movie, there’s a lot of them. As the movie progresses, there are more water elements. You see the little droplets in here.”
“Then Hillary Gurtler and I picked a crystal for each girl and the color story for each girl. Lily’s water and her crystal is aquamarine, but I also have the motif of pearls in her closet. You’ll see a lot and then tie-dye. Tabby is fire, so she wears a ton of orange, and there are some scenes where she has flame print socks. On the first day of school, she has flames up her sleeve. Lourdes, for me, was more about texture. She’s earth, so she wears a ton of velvet, a ton of green. Green is her color and then also plaids to represent the Highlands. Frankie is air, and her closet is very all over the place, which represents air. She’s amethyst, so purple is her color, but she doesn’t wear a ton of purple.”
The Witchcraft
In the second scene observed, all four girls are gathered together in a bedroom, getting ready for a party. As they’re prepping their makeup, they recount an incident earlier in class involving a boy they usually have unpleasant interactions with. Frankie laughs as she tells the girls of his strange behavior, while another quickly dismisses its relation to their magic spells. Meanwhile, Tabby listens on while using glamour to create flames on her newly painted fingernails, while Lourdes glamours makeup on Lily. The multiple uses of magic in this scene indicate the girls’ success with witchcraft as a foursome, and Lister-Jones sought to cover all bases. “In terms of witchcraft and the history of witchcraft, it’s so easy to see it as this one lane of Wicca. Our coven has to focus on their own particular brand of witchcraft, which is exciting about witchcraft, this sort of DIY. But I wanted them to come from traditions that were representative of various communities that practice witchcraft. I’ve always been interested in that tradition, and even things that are more voodoo, hoodoo related, without naming them specifically. I just wanted to make sure they were in the ether to show that witchcraft means so many things to so many different communities. Also, that it’s still stigmatized in so many communities,” says Lister-Jones.
To ensure the film’s portrayal of witchcraft was authentic, Lister-Jones enlisted help. Starting with Waking the Witch author and “The Witch Wave” podcaster Pam Grossman. “Pam Grossman has been my consultant throughout the screenwriting process because I wanted to make sure that I was getting everything right. And that witchcraft practitioners watching the film wouldn’t say that it doesn’t feel authentic to my experience or the practice. To make sure that I was honoring all traditions. She’s been incredibly helpful. I’ve been working with Bri Luna, more commonly known as the Hoodwitch, and comes from the brujeria and hoodoo/voodoo traditions in her lineage. Then Erin Fogel is our local Canadian witch. She’s been amazing to have on set to make sure in scenes where we’re practicing rituals that we’re practicing them authentically. She’s been helpful in opening and closing circles because magic is real, and it makes everyone feel safe even though we are just making a movie. Those women have been incredible in helping me navigate this world.”
Fogel proved especially helpful as the on-set witch consultant. She explains what precisely that means, “My role here with the film is to make sure that anything that pertains to something that might be occult, that it’s accurate. So, any of the spaces where the girls are practicing magic, or where they’re experimenting with ritual and starting to open up their power a little bit. Those are all things that I’ve been consulting on to make sure that they’re accurate to the way that someone who practices ritual, who has an interest in the occult, who works in the esoteric realm, that it’s authentic to the way that we would practice in our day to day lives. As well as making sure that things are cared for energetically with the film as well. Because if we’re doing spells and rituals and all kinds of practices that are part of the film, magic doesn’t know you’re acting. I’ve also been doing some work with some of the cast and crew to make sure they feel supported; that any energetic spaces opened through the practice in the film are also closed at the end of it.
“I think that there’s a pretty huge misconception of witchcraft that still exists predominantly in western culture. I don’t think that’s the case in some other places in the world, although, in other places in the world, I think sometimes there’s even more prejudice than there is in North America. I also think that a lot of that mentality is like a hangover from colonial culture, which has often failed to respect older, more indigenous practices connected with the earth and with nature and with the natural rhythms and cycles around us. Ultimately, being in a relationship with the natural world and with the rhythms and cycles of life is at the heart of witchcraft.”
Lister-Jones takes great care in the authenticity of both the women’s struggles and the witchcraft they dabble in, but she also pays her respects to the original film. Gurtler, perhaps an even bigger fan of the 1996 film, dove even deeper into the homages. “There’s visual Easter eggs and different types of set design that reflect the circumstances of characters and foreshadowing things to come.” Of those Easter eggs, Gurtler teases some of them will be deep cuts for the die-hard fans, “It’s some stuff that I’m thinking no one’s ever going to find. But we’re all of that generation, so we’ve all seen the movie dozens of times. Some things are just for fun.”
Perhaps most interesting of all is that The Craft: Legacy is considered a continuation of the first film, rather than the reboot it appears to be. It makes sense, though, as the concept of legacy is apparent in this film already.
The Craft: Legacy will be available widely on PVOD on October 28.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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