Queer Moms Love Movies

The Craft: Transgender Legacy

A movie that boils over with queer girl magick

The Craft: Legacy (Blumhouse Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Red Wagon Entertainment, Sony Pictures)

Frankie: “We have superpowers without even trying. We literally house babies in our stomachs. ”

Lourdes: “Well, not all of us can do that.”

Frankie: “Shit. You know, point taken. My bad, Lou.”

Lourdes: “Yeah, it’s all good. You know trans girls got our own magick, anyway.”

—The Craft: Legacy (Blumhouse Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Red Wagon Entertainment, Sony Pictures)

Stage one: basic magick

While several recent stories have played with fantastic premises that unfortunately depend upon an outdated men vs women paradigm, The Craft: Legacy delivers a worthy sequel to a cult classic with queer magick that extends far beyond the gender binary.

But really, how could it not?

The witch who takes her power from the North — spirit of earth and body, spirit of dirt, blessed be — is the transgender teenage witch named Lourdes.

“Writer-director Zoe Lister-Jones wrote the character of Lourdes specifically to expand the young women’s circle of inclusion. She worked with GLAAD on a casting call to which more than 300 trans women responded, according to The Wrap.” — The Craft: Legacy’s LGBTQ-Inclusive Witches Explore Telepathy in Clip, The Advocate

A most magical (and brief) recap

In the first film, a teenage girl moved to LA as the kind of loner that you could describe as the 1996 version of Bella from Twilight (more on that later). Her telekinetic gift appealed to three other girls at the school who needed a fourth to complete their coven’s four corners — East, West, North, and South — so that they could access their own powers.

After a magical conflict in which each girl ultimately faced off first against each other, then against themselves, the film ended with an uneasy truce and the implications of a complex world of witches, warlocks, and old battles yet to faced.

Thank the dark lord that battle demanded a sequel.

The setup for the sequel

Just as many years have passed in the story as the audience has seen since the original movie. The pitch otherwise is exceptionally similar — but the director resurrected this once-cancelled sequel with a vision for a new generation of witches.

That vision was so good it got the support of more than just the studio. She got approval from the original badass witch Nancy herself (played by Fairuza Balk). Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Fairuza said:

“[The director’s] idea was that she wanted to do a take on the same kind of idea, but for a modern generation and one that reinforces women supporting women as opposed to women fighting women.”

And to let Fairuza Balk and all audiences know that women supporting women means supporting gender non-conforming women, too, the coven in The Craft: Legacy would rely on Lourdes — a transgender bruja — as their loremaster.

If this movie failed, it would at least burn out in a magical flame.

Wait…Brujería are real?!

As a Latina transgender witch, Lourdes carries with her a rich lineage of witchcraft passed down in her family from one generation to another.

“Lourdes’ grandmother was a bruja in the film and we did have a version where she was more included in the storyline. I’m just fascinated by brujería and those traditions and that generation of healers that each of these young women would have ancestry that was rooted in these varied cultural backgrounds.” — director Zoe Lister-Jones speaking to Collider’s podcast The Witching Hour

The transgender magick begins in the opening scene

As such, Lourdes plays an essential role in the spell that puts the story in motion by summoning their fourth (the main character with a stunning connection to the original movie).

While her sisters question whether this girl really could be the one they’ve waited for, Lourdes reminds them that not having a fourth (balance) is why they can’t do more than basic magick.

They’ve tried telepathy, but nope.

“So it shall be sealed and done,” Lourdes says. “When all four corners meet as one.”

Basic magick=basic empathy

Did you ever wonder how Stephen King’s Carrie would have turned out if three other witches had been there when that opening tragedy hit her?

It’s hard enough on your first day at a new school, but experiencing that kind of humiliation in the middle of class sends Lily to a bathroom stall in tears.

It’s here that the movie makes clear that modern covens include empathy, compassion, and magick in equal amounts for women of all kinds. The three girls come to find Lily, not yet sure if she’s their fourth but certain that whether you’re a cister or a sister, women are here for other women.

Frankie compliments Lily on her “heavy flow.” For a witch practicing the Craft, it is a sign of great power.

Does that imply that a woman who does not have periods has any less power?

Super Tampon to the rescue

I’d fear that was the movie’s implication, but Lourdes takes no offense.

She smiles, she laughs, she takes as much pride in the source of her sister’s power as the source of her own.

Far from constraining magick to any kind of binary —in this world, there are no easy distinctions of men vs women, good vs evil — brujería is an inclusive, intention-based practice (offsite).

Watch for an early scene when the girls are walking through the cafeteria. They’re complaining about terrible cramps. Each girl says yeah, I’ve been there. But then Lourdes shrugs and says, “Sorry, can’t relate.”

LOL

Lourdes gets her wish — and proves Lily is their fourth

I love The Breakfast Club as much as anyone, but I love it even more when I replay the story, except this time Ally Sheedy has magick. And she’d probably have taken out the principle if a certain redhead hadn’t blown detention to hell and back.

The Breakfast Club (A&M Films, Channel Productions, Universal Pictures)

In The Craft: Legacy, the main character Lily gets stuck in detention with is Timmy, the boy who made fun of her for getting a period in class.

She feels hopeless, alone…until she receives a telepathic message.

The three witches have never been able to do that. And with their powers now manifesting faster than they thought possible, they can use their minds not just to speak. They can move things. Even people.

Timmy just got thrown across the school floor like Flash Thompson fighting Tobey Maguire.

Stage four: shapeshifting

As the quartet walks home, they discuss the different stages of powers that will come to them now.

It takes Lily a second to understand the fourth stage: shapeshifting. It’s Lourdes — a woman with trans experiences — who helps her get it.

Shapeshifting means the ability to change your form. The physical body will morph, but the soul inside will remain the same.

Obviously Frankie’s first thought is to turn herself into Kristen Stewart.

Lourdes: “Don’t judge. She’s a Twilight fan.”

Frankie: “What?! You tell me she’s not giving off Edward Cullen vibes.”

Lily: “You had me at Kristen Stewart.”

Calling the corners

At 25 minutes into the movie, they take the coven for a test drive.

They need to make a salted circle to contain their energies.

Lourdes is the one who sets the boundaries of their coven’s circle by sprinkling salt to bind each corner.

Tabby: “And to keep the bad shit out.”

Lourdes guides them through channeling the power she bound within this circle

Lourdes: Listen to the sound of the trees breathing along with you. Feel yourself rooted into the ground and into this moment. We transcend time.

Frankie: We suspend fate.

Tabby: We bear the three keys. *realizes no one told Lily what to say* *whispers* Open the triple gate…

Lily: …we open the triple gate.

All: The air, the fire, the water, the earth, return, return, return.

With great power comes great Timmeh

Okay, so, if you had the power to change just one person from treating people like human garbage…wouldn’t you cast just a teeny tiny little spell?

Especially if his name was Timmy? That’s the guy who made fun of Lily in detention.

Lourdes: We’re not hexing him. We’re just casting a spell to make him less of a garbage person.

In order to cast the spell, they need an artifact of Timmy’s essence. Skin, hair, saliva…

This movie is raunchier than Euphoria

Tabby finds a used condom by Timmy’s bedside. Hey, at least he’s having safe sex…?

It still has what they describe as the synthesized liquid form of Timmy’s essence. Lourdes regretfully agrees that they couldn’t ask for a more powerful ingredient for their spell.

And then, my god…

A good spell needs a good caldron

But they didn’t bring a caldron. So they MacGyver this shit and use Timmy’s bong.

It’s almost as strange as that one segment in that old film Quentin Tarantino collaboration with a bunch of other directors called Four Rooms.

Just to review

The coven is boiling their enemy’s semen in his own bong in order to cast a spell that will make him less of a garbage person.

Frankie: “In perfect love and perfect trust, may we awaken Timmy to his highest self.”

Lourdes: “Blessed be.”

Frankie: *spreads the boiled goo across Timmy’s pillow*

At least Lourdes taught them how to read Auras

Sup, bitch?

Despite witnessing her family manifest power across the gender spectrum, Lourdes has never had more than the most basic magick.

But things are different now.

She comes down the school hallway and spots a bully trying to take power from a gender non-conforming student.

Bully: What are you gonna do about it?

Lourdes changes that bully’s drab brown clothes into a Pride-colored ensemble.

So it’s okay to be a bully as long as you’re queer?

I hear what you’re saying.

No, it’s not okay. And the movie tackles that question head on.

As the original movie and this one remind us, what you put into the world comes back to you times three.

Bully a bully? Receive the same punishment.

So how bad do you think things get after they forced a boy already traumatized by toxic masculinity to wipe his face on his own goo-covered pillow?

You know, in order to make him a little less garbage of a person.

Queer magick vs toxic masculinity

“So we had one witch on set, who would guide us through the movie… She would make sure we weren’t calling upon things that we shouldn’t be calling upon and that we were all safe.” — Cailee Spaeny speaking to The Hollywood Reporter

The sequel delves not just deeper into the unexplored worldbuilding of witches, but also the warlocks with their own quest for power. It’s like David Duchovny watched the original and said no prob, hold my non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle (I’ll give 50 claps to whoever gets the reference).

It’s this inclusion that makes the climactic finale in The Craft: Legacy so powerful.

Toxic masculinity is not the newest word for “man.” The phrase describes a culturally masculine pattern of behavior rooted in vice and compulsive self-validation. It describes a person’s compulsive need to validate their perception and experience of themselves — even when it’s clear those actions have a harmful impact to themselves or others.

This is a problem that plagues people across all corners of the gender spectrum.

It hits this coven hard, too.

Malicious magick comes back to you times three

The coven hoped to change Timmy into less garbage of a person. Instead they hurt him.

But when Lily adds a love spell, she traumatizes him beyond repair.

It’s like the Big Book says: Manon, all-knowing and all-powerful creator of the Universe, please grant me the serenity to accept the people I can’t change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know that one is me.

She’s just going through some ****

Still reeling from how much she hurt Timmy, Lily reacts like a lot of us do when we’re hurting. Hurt people hurt people.

She lashes out with her telekinesis and hurts her mom.

The three other witches meet on their own. Lourdes suggests that Lily isn’t a bad person. She isn’t a bad witch. She’s just going through some shit.

As a transgender witch, Lourdes knows what it’s like to hate yourself to your core. She’s experienced how that level of self loathing manifests.

She believes her sister needs compassion.

She believes they all need compassion. They contributed just as much to Timmy’s harm as Lily.

You shouldn’t run from your power

Believing they cannot be trusted with their powers, either, the group binds Lily and themselves from using magick. The binding can always be removed, but only if they can trust themselves. That time is not now.

Lourdes: We are bound to each other and bound from magick.

Tabby: We prevent ourselves from doing harm.

Frankie: We relinquish our powers from this day forth.

All: So mote it be.

But this movie isn’t about wallowing in doubt. It’s about confronting those dark demons and finding a path forward.

Or, as is the case with David Duchovny, it’s about those demons forcing you to find a path forward or just die lol.

There’s no “I” in S-I-S-T-E-R-H-O-O-D

Tabby: …there’s definitely an “I” in that word.

Lourdes: What we were saying was…we’re sorry.

After a series of twists that would make even Shyamalan mutter WTF, the coven unbinds their powers and rejoins in order to take down the leader of the warlocks.

You see, the harm that befell Timmy wasn’t all their fault. It owed a significant debt to Agent Mulder himself. When he comes to take Lily’s power for his own — that’s toxic masculinity, even if it’s done by a woman — the coven brings forward the full might of queer girl magick.

Agent Mulder doesn’t stand a chance against queer girl magick

Not even if he’s played by David Duchovny?

Especially if he’s played by David Duchovny.

The four witches keep close. They gather their power. They strike.

As the keeper of the North — spirit of earth and body, spirit of dirt, blessed be — Lourdes breaks the earth underneath his feet.

Mulder reacts by scattering each witch to the four corners…which proves to be his undoing.

The witches no longer need close physical proximity. Their full power comes from embracing their unique corner of womanhood: East, West, North, South, and all the places that exist beyond and in-between.

Will there be a third movie?

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight (video below), the director said she’d love to make a third film with an intergenerational storyline. My hope is that it would bring together the cast of both films for an epic battle between witches and warlocks.

PS. David Duchovny’s resurrection is not optional.

Other witchy stuff to watch

Amazing: The Twilight Zone season 2 “Among the Untrodden”

With Jordan Peele’s newest movie N-O-P-E coming out soon, it’s the perfect opportunity for you to check out an episode from his take on the Twilight Zone and what it’d be like if that loner girl in The Craft never found any friends.

The Twilight Zone (CBS Production Studios, Monkey Productions)

In the season 2 episode “Among the Untrodden,” an awkward teenage girl named Irene transfers to Saint Mary’s Boarding School in the middle of the school year.

When she is unable to ignore the magick manifesting around her, she accepts that she needs a coven of her own.

The Twilight Zone is happy to provide.

Sadly dead: Motherland: Fort Salem

In this world, the Salem witch trials ended with an agreement known as the Salem Accord. Women and witchcraft now dominate the world. Our main characters are teenagers conscripted into the magical military to fight against a terrorist organization known as the Spree.

Just okay: Witch Hunt

More high concept than compelling (imo), check out Gideon Adlon as another witch in Witch Hunt, a new movie that may as well be The Craft, but if the rest of the world found out about the witches and immediately outlawed witchcraft.

The opening scene sent my jaw to the floor.

The End (damn girl, that’s dark)

Dear ones, there are gender hacks for everyone. Not just people who like queer girl magick.

If magick isn’t right for you, here are a few others that might help bring you home:

Gender Hacks: The Transition Toolkit (Transgender Soapbox)
Gender Hacks: How To FEEL Your Transition (Queerly Trans)
Gender Hacks: the Cookbook Method (Transgender Soapbox)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope something good happens for you today.