By Melissa Antoinette Garza
When THE CRAFT came out in 1996, I saw it in the theater with three other people, who loved it. I liked it. It’s silly. It’s fun. I think it was far more influential on THE RAGE: CARRIE 2 (1999) than the original CARRIE (1976) ever was. I never had the same connection with it that some other people did, but it’s still a fun bubblegum film that I break out every couple years.
Sarah (Robin Tunney) is the new girl at a Los Angeles high-school. She’s ostracized and made fun of by the popular girls. She falls for a boy named Chris (Skeet Ulrich) who runs with the cool crowd. Sarah both quiet and alone in school goes to watch him perform at football practice.
It is then that she becomes friends with the other girls who get teased. Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True) make up a small group of witches who worship Manon, a very demanding God that is in everything.
Noticing she has a telekinetic powers, Bonnie wants her in the group. They need four so each can represent the north, south, east and west. When Sarah joins the plan works and the girls are able to use their magic to take revenge on all those who wronged them. That said, like the Monkey’s Paw, there are unforeseen consequences.
The confidence of all of the girls skyrocket as they suddenly own the world. One girl, Laura (Christine Taylor) who was abusive and racist to Rochelle ends up losing all of her hair. Laura is a bitch who got what she deserved.
After Chris lies about having sex with her, Sarah enacts revenge. She puts a love spell on Chris and then he nearly rapes her. Chris is a douche-bag.
When things escalate, Sarah tries to pull back, but the other girls put their heels in. Nancy is the most badass of them all. She wants the powers that she worked years to attain, but come so easily to Sarah. A feud brews between the two culminating in an epic battle of good witch vs bad witch.
This is a movie intended to be silly fun and it works. I love that it’s a female led cast and that the women shown are strong.
Fairuza Balk always comes across as such a sympathetic badass and even when in her full villain mode, she doesn’t lose that here.
Neve Campbell, Rachel True and Robin Tunney all do fantastic in their roles, respectively. They sold the friendship, unity and eventual betrayal.
For every awkward teenage girl, this is a good, tame intro into mainstream weird. It has the reputation of being a cult classic. It’s too pretty a film for me to really look at it that way, but it’s still good.
About a year ago, WISH UPON (2017) came out and had similar themes that made me remember this. It’s definitely been an inspiration to movies that came afterwards.
Still, it’s got the 90s sheen to it that makes some of the horror at the time, unbearable to watch. Thankfully, it escapes being unwatchable with a great cast, good characters and a formulaic plot that is done in an entertaining enough way. Personally, I like raw, dark and twisted with my horror and this is more-so Stephen King-lite.
If you haven’t seen this and come across it, pick it up as an essentially family-friendly horror film to show for those too weak at heart to enjoy the hard stuff.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5.5/10
