Reading/Watching Log #70

This is the spooky season, so obviously we’re dealing with witches. It was an easy enough theme to pick for the month, and it provided me with a wealth of material to choose from: modern witches, old school witches, monstrous witches, superhero witches – but mostly nineties witches.

It was actually fascinating to watch the progression of how witchcraft has been perceived by humankind across the decades, from the servants of a male devil, to enigmatic (though not unwelcome) seductresses, to glamourous evil-fighters with an empowerment angle. The subject also brought into stark relief the way in which women and power are portrayed across the media landscape, and it’s been fascinating to see how it changes across the years – or in many cases, doesn’t change.

I won’t delve too deeply into it now, though there’s enough content here for me to write a whole other post about the topic and how it’s been received by increasingly feminist-leaning audiences, for good or bad. Stay tuned.

Review: The Craft and The Craft Legacy

SPOILERS FOR BOTH MOVIES

If you were an adolescent girl who came of age in the nineties, then it’s safe to assume you went through a witch phase. I’m not entirely sure what it was about that specific decade that kickstarted such a heightened interest in witchcraft, but it gave us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Practical Magic and The Craft, as well as a range of paperbacks ranging in quality from L.J. Smith’s The Secret Circle to Cate Tiernan’s Sweep, Silver Ravenwolf’s Witches' Chillers to Isobel Bird’s Circle of Three. Even Hocus Pocus.

Okay, so a few of those were technically released in the very early noughts, but nearly all of these properties have had a long shelf-life. Most of them are now considered cult classics, and since then there have been two prequels to Practical Magic, a short-lived television adaptation of The Secret Circle, Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a reboot to Charmed with a race-lifted cast, and again – even Hocus Pocus has a sequel coming out.

Then there’s what we’re here to talk about today: The Craft Legacy, the 2020 sequel to the original Craft film.

Released in 1996, The Craft is one of those rare examples of a cult classic that was reasonably well-received by critics and a box-office success at the time of its release. In fact, you could make a case for it being the source of the nineties witch-craze, particularly when it comes to the subgenre’s modern connotations with sisterhood and girl-power.

Of course, that subtext was always there to some extent, as it’s impossible to extract the subject of witchcraft from that of a. womankind, b. the wielding of power, and c. the societal fear of combining those two things: women with power. From the term “witch” naturally emerges themes of persecution and ostracization from society, particularly the subjugation of women at the hands of the patriarchy across the course of human history.

Links and Updates

It’s the season of the witch, which means that my Tumblr dashboard is filled with photos and images of autumn, despite the fact that here in New Zealand, we’re heading into summer.

The spectre of Covid-19 is still hanging over all of us, and much of the team spirit that defined our first experience with the pandemic last year is on the wane. The anti-vaxxer crowd are making their voices heard, and plenty of selfish assholes are flouting lockdown rules in order to exercise their right to “freedom”, even though their behaviour is only going to limit freedom in the long run.

If there was any justice in the world, they’d be the ones that catch the Delta strain and spend the next few weeks gasping for breath, though they’ll probably just pass it on to others. What I wouldn’t give to see a certain religious leader/nutter hooked up to a ventilator.

But I got my second jab this morning from a walk-in centre so I can tick that off my to-do list. And there’s some interesting stuff coming up...

Standing Tall #31

I haven’t done one of these in a while!

This giraffe, called The Best of Times, was one of the best sculptures on display. It was beautifully located outside Riccarton House, which is a heritage site comprised of two of the earliest buildings constructed by European settlers in Christchurch, and a native bush area containing kahikatea trees up to six hundred years old. It’s also where my uncle and aunt got married, though that’s neither here nor there.

Sponsored by Kidicorp (a childcare organization) the artist is Penny Cameron, herself a preschool teacher. According to my guidebook, it took over 170 hours to create, with thousands of pieces of coloured tile making up the mosaic surface of the giraffe, portraying a variety of places, seasons and activities to be found in Christchurch. I can see depictions of the Chinese lantern festival, the daffodils at the Botanic Gardens, and the Ferrier Fountains outside the Town Hall to identify but three.

I ended up visiting this one twice, as Riccarton House and its weekend markets are one of my favourite places to visit at the best of times (see what I did there?) and it was ultimately one of the most popular giraffes put to auction.

Woman of the Month: Prue Halliwell

Prue Halliwell from Charmed

This month I plan to watch the first season of the original Charmed, a quintessential part of my early adolescence and perfect viewing for the month of October.

Whenever there’s a trio of fictional sisters (or even just a duo), it’s inevitably the eldest one I’ll relate to most since – well, I’m the eldest one. To be the firstborn of the family means being the most responsible, the de facto leader, the homebody, the one with the most expectations placed upon your shoulders – at least, that’s the characterization this type usually gets.

Prue embodies all these attributes, and in many ways her role as the oldest Halliwell sister informs her entire story-arc. She’s the one most reluctant to embrace her witch heritage, the one imbued with the most power, and the one burdened with juggling a full-time job, maintenance of the family home, the awakening of her telekinesis gift, and the arrival of an old flame...

If you could sum the character up with one word, it would be “duality”, as despite her very name (Prudence) implying cautiousness and common sense, the fact that she can move objects with her mind – or throw them, fling them, hurl them – is a reflection of her true inner self. That is, there’s a storm of emotions beneath her brisk, professional exterior, and after a later episode reveals that her power is triggered by anger, a new context is brought to the way the gradual mastery of her abilities is staggered across the course of the season. She’s tapping into her long-suppressed emotions, and her newfound telekinesis is their outlet.

I have pretty much memory-holed everything that came after the first season of Charmed: I recall the plots got dumber, the outfits got uglier, and Prue... died. (Though I read her character page on the wiki, and apparently she eventually gets reincarnated in another witch’s body? Then goes missing? And then gets reunited with Piper and Phoebe before ascending to the afterlife? Man, I missed a lot!)

But as far as I’m concerned, the first season’s twenty-two episodes, with its solid arc and decent characterization, is all I need from this particular franchise. The witches of the nineties – the Charmed Ones, Willow and Tara, Sabrina Spellman, the Owens sisters, and the coven from The Craft – will always be remembered fondly by me, as they are the characters that kept me company as I transitioned from child to teenager. Of course, Prue is possibly the one I most aspired to be: confident, intelligent, level-headed, and able to throw things around with her mind.

Reading/Watching Log #69

This month was ostensibly Part II of the superhero-themed month that I started in August, but aside from finally getting to the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover and finishing up with the first season of Batwoman and the very last season of Arrow, I still don’t feel I’ve made significant headway on the ever-increasing roster of CW superhero shows (Supergirl, The Flash, Black Lightning and Legends of Tomorrow are still waiting patiently for completion – and apparently Stargirl is already on season three! I will never catch up).

Reading-wise I finished Elizabeth Knox’s Dreamhunter duology and the third book in Mary Hoffman’s Stravaganza series, started on Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice trilogy, was introduced to Tony Cliff’s Delilah Dirk (who also provided September’s Woman of the Month) and enjoyed... some miscellaneous stuff.

Movie choices were even more irregular: a black-and-white screwball comedy, an animated cult classic, and the deconstruction of a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance.

At least October will provide me with a much easy theme to adhere to: witches.