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A post shared by Zoe Lister-Jones (@zoelisterjones) on Oct 26, 2020 at 5:28pm PDT

Before seeing this interview I didn’t know who Zoe Lister-Jones was but now I’m definitely a fan. She wrote and directed the Craft reboot, The Craft: Legacy, which is out today on demand. It’s a $20 rental or you can buy both the original and the reboot for $29.99 on Vudu. I have a lot more hope for it after seeing her, because she’s funny, dramatic and highly watchable. She just might have done this classic from my college years justice, but we’ll see. Zoe was on The Tonight Show and she had the best entrance I’ve seen from a celebrity on Zoom. She played Mr. Jones by Counting Crows (she must have had permission, those sound clips can be expensive) and sauntered out in her little red carpet dress into her perfectly decorated midcentury modern living room. I’m jealous! I keep thinking I need to up my Zoom background for the non-existent media interviews I’m doing.

Anyway Zoe told some scary ass stories about working on the film. She claimed everyone felt this weird presence on set. When filming wrapped she asked the homeowner about the history of the house they rented and she learned some stuff. I got goosebumps!

On The Craft: Legacy
It’s a similar premise. Four teenage witches unite and start stepping into their newfound powers and get into a little bit of trouble.

On the mansion that they shot in
We shot in this beautiful old mansion. It was the set that David Duchovny’s character lives in. When I went to scope it out with my cinematographer she looked real shook. She was like ‘when you walked in did you feel like a heavy energy?’

A couple of weeks later we started shooting in this old mansion and things just immediately started going awry. A number of crew members started complaining of like a weight, feeling a pressure on their chests.

The lead actress in the film, Cailee Spaeny, left her dressing room [with] her phone in there which she locked. She went back to her dressing room and she opened her phone up and there was a photo waiting for her on her phone. It’s what you think of when you think of a ghost. [photo at 3:26]

We had three practicing witches who were consultants on the phone. Our Canadian witch showed up and put salt around the perimeter of the house and she had a little sit down with the ghosts inside [and asked them] to take it down. It did help and the ghosts did calm down for the rest of the shoot.

The history of the house
On the last day of shooting the owner of the house showed up. [She asked him] ‘So what’s the history of this spot?’

‘Oh this was a hospice. Over 300 people died inside.’ Jimmy, we were in like a ghost rave.

[From The Tonight Show on YouTube]

I watched this twice so I could transcribe it and both times I got goosebumps when she revealed the history of the house! That’s super scary. Assuming she’s heavily embellishing this or that there’s a more logical explanation like mold (see: Haunting of Hill House), she’s still an excellent storyteller which gives me hope for this film. I might even shell out $20 for it, because you know I would be driving to see it and buying popcorn (I always snuck in my own water in my purse). This story definitely sold me on it. Plus I love how extra she was for this interview.

Here’s that interview!

Here’s the trailer which Kaiser covered last month. It does look good!

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A post shared by Zoe Lister-Jones (@zoelisterjones) on Oct 26, 2020 at 2:39pm PDT

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A post shared by Zoe Lister-Jones (@zoelisterjones) on Oct 16, 2020 at 11:55am PDT