Rumors and innuendo of a reboot of 1990s high school witchcraft classic The Craft have been simmering in Hollywood’s cauldron for a few years now, but it appears this spell is about ready to come to fruition. According to Bloody Disgusting, it is indeed Blumhouse Productions producing The Craft remake/reboot/sequel. And all of those slashes should tell you that we still don’t know much about this project just yet.
A few years ago, director Leigh Janiak of the disturbing Honeymoon was set to take a crack at The Craft, with a script that was described as an actual sequel to the original 1996 film, set some 20 years later, albeit with new characters. This version of The Craft at Blumhouse has long since left Janiak’s version behind, however. A new filmmaker is apparently in talks, but no one has been announced.
Blumhouse has certainly had success in making sequels to long-dormant franchises such as Halloween, but when it comes to The Craft we can’t help but think that a true reboot is probably the more obvious route to go. It would allow the studio to start fresh and not need to seek out the original cast members, aside from some possible cameos. Considering that things still seem to be on the tense side between actress Rachel True and her former castmates after she was excluded from The Craft reunions, we wouldn’t be surprised if Blumhouse chooses to veer away from the original cast entirely.
As for the prospects of a reboot of The Craft at the box office … yeah, we can actually see that working. As long as the film can accurately channel the high school experience of 2019-2020 as beautifully as 1996’s The Craft captures a perfect cultural slice of the MTV Generation, there’s no reason it couldn’t be a big hit. If Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel have shown us anything, it’s that female-fronted films can make bank, just like their male-fronted peers. The same can be true for The Craft.
With that said, good luck replacing the scenery chewing insanity that is Fairuza Balk’s performance in the first film. It’s not going to happen, but it will be fun to watch them try.