Ahhh, The Craft! We love a 90s cult classic here at Simon Teen. The soundtrack is perfect and the film provides infinite style inspiration during spooky season (or every season if you wear all black, tbh). If you haven’t seen it yet, please do yourself a favor and add it your ever-growing list of “movies-to-watch.” And if you’ve already seen it, you know that a remake, The Craft: Legacy, is available for streaming by the end of the month.
I have so many questions after seeing the trailer—how did they get that picture of Nancy? Are any of the original witches going to make a surprise appearance in the film? And how has the magic changed (other than totally being way more Instagram friendly than the original)? What’s with the magic sparkles?
Looks like we have to wait and see. But in preparation for this witchy event, fine-tune your senses and surround yourself with these spooky reads:
Books to Read if You Love The Craft
1. Light as a Feather by Zoe Aarsen
Yessss, light as a feather, stiff as a board! What an iconic scene and befitting title to this series (also adapted for Hulu). McKenna is welcomed into her high school’s most elite clique. During a sleepover, a new girl in town, named Violet, suggests that everyone plays a super creepy game in which she creates elaborate death scenarios. A week later, the first slumber party attendee goes—exactly like how Violet predicted. Throw in a haunted house and you have all the ingredients for a bewitching read.
2. When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
This tale about a coven gone wrong has not four—but six witches whose powers begin to go astray. Love, lust, jealousy and insecurity plague their circle and things really start to get out of hand when a boy winds up dead. Sounds familiar? I thought so!
3. Book of Shadows by M. Verano
A good grimoire is a must. In The Craft, we watch the coven work their way up to the more powerful and dangerous incantations in their spell book. In Book of Shadows, Melanie finds the perfect journal to jot her ideas in, but is too tempted to do so. The book clearly looks like a grimoire and her friends start writing their own spells in it. Lo and behold, a spell in unrecognizable handwriting pops up. Soon, they discover that all the written spells do work—but not without serious consequences. Also sounds pretty familiar, hm?
4. Slayer by Kiersten White
This New York Times bestseller takes a few cues from not only The Craft, but also another 90s cult classic: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Like The Craft: Legacy, it’s the same world but a new generation grappling with the same issues as their occult-inclined predecessors. Throw in some slayers, witches, demons, dark magic, spells…and high school. Yikes! It’s not easy being gifted.
5. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
One of the enduring themes in The Craft is its focus on society’s fears of those who are different (and in many respects, those who are fearful of feminine power). Only here, all three witches are sentenced to death but return each summer to possess the bodies of young women and lure young men to their deaths. Flash forward two centuries later, and we have a witchy prodigy who needs to either save herself or…the new guy in town. Trust me, this creepy bestseller has plenty of tricks up its sleeve.
6. Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Our last book rec features plenty of witchy women with a deep and powerful connection to the woods surrounding their town. These woods also happen to be haunted. A boy who mysteriously vanishes there during the heart of winter reappears weeks later. It’s up to Nora, our bewitching heroine, to discover what truly happened in those dark, dark woods. Creepy, but with a hint of romance.
7. The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith
The Last Magician meets The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy in this thrilling and atmospheric historical fantasy following a young woman who discovers she has magical powers and is thrust into a battle between witches and wizards.
Any of these reads will perfectly compliment a night leading up to Hollow’s Eve and the premiere of The Craft: Legacy. I personally recommend smudging your room beforehand and reading by candlelight to really set the mood. After all, it is spooky season.