As movie theaters continue to struggle because of the coronavirus—Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, the biggest release thus, stumbled to a weak $3.4 million over the weekend on its slow lurch toward $50 million in North America—another notable release has bolted to the safer confines of premium video-on-demand. Announced officially on Tuesday, Columbia and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions will release what’s being dubbed as a “continuation” of the 1996 cult favorite The Craft to home audiences on October 28.
“We’re thrilled that our partners at Sony Pictures are looking at the landscape opportunistically this Halloween, for audiences to watch at home in the U.S.,” Blum said in a statement.
Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones—previously best known for indie films such as Breaking Upwards and Band Aid as well as starring roles on New Girl and Life in Pieces—this new take on The Craft looks a lot like the original, at least judging by a moody trailer released on Tuesday. A teen girl (Bad Times at the El Royale star Cailee Spaeny) arrives at a new school and teams up with a coven of witches (Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna) as a way to combat bullying and abuse from her fellow students. But soon, as a downcast cover of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” plays over the action, things begin to spiral out of control.
“It’s spooky but also really timely and relevant, you know in terms of what it’s about and how she reimagined it,” costar Michelle Monaghan, who plays Spaeny’s onscreen mom, said in an interview about the film last year.
Released in 1996, the original The Craft was a small-scale success at the box office—it led all releases on its debut weekend in May of that year and grossed more than $55 million worldwide on a reported $15 million budget—and starred Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk, Rachel True, and Robin Tunney as the coven of witches. Of the original cast, only Balk is confirmed to appear in the new version thus far—albeit via a still photographer held by one of the characters. The actress’s famous line—“We are the weirdos, mister”—is also repeated in the Blumhouse take.
“I still get tweets about it,” Balk said in 2017. “What an honor to have been part of something that people love so much.”
The Craft: Legacy is out on October 28 and priced at $19.99 for a 48-hour rental, joining other 2020 releases like Bill & Ted Face the Music, The King of Staten Island, and Trolls World Tour, as theatrical movies that have given the PVOD market a try.
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