Thoughts on The Craft

    On Criterion, I rewatched one of my teenage favorites, 1996's The Craft, directed by Andrew Fleming. I first saw this when I was 13 on video, and just quickly identified with it. I'm sure I connected on some superficial levels of it being a movie about high school outcasts (albeit all played by gorgeous actresses) who harness the power of witchcraft and use it for initially self-improving reasons (love, healing scars, fighting back against racism, economic mobility) that end up becoming destructive, as they abuse their power and it comes back to them times three. But it just felt like a cool movie to be that was a darker teen film, it felt more mature, it was a little weird, it was a mix of a movie about female friendship with some latent queer vibes, and it had a haunting feel to it that I really got into it.

    The film is a well-known teen 90s classic by now, and its success led to the development of Charmed as a popular series about witch sisters, and an unsuccessful sequel/remake that tried to be more inclusive with trans and WOC characters, but ended up being too heavy-ended and using MRAs as the obvious villain of the film. There are some interesting real-life connections with the original actresses and interests in Wiccan culture and paganism, as Fairuza Balk owned a Wiccan store in L.A. for awhile, and Rachel True practices Tarot card readings.

    The plot features Robin Tunney (in a brown wig that she wore on account of having shaved her head for 1995's Empire Records) as Sarah, the new girl in an L.A. Catholic high school, who just moved from San Francisco with her dad and stepmother. Sarah's mother died in childbirth, and her significance would play a part later on. Sarah has a date with Chris (Skeet Ulrich), a popular football jock, and when the date doesn't progress past kissing, he spreads gossip that they had sex. Out of anger, she is drawn towards hanging out with the witchy clique, comprised of Bonnie (Neve Campbell), Rochelle (Rachel True), and Nancy (Fairuza Balk). They quickly bond, cutting school and hanging out, talking about witchcraft, and it turns out that Sarah is the only one who has natural witch powers, as she later finds out she inherited from her mother. The other girls receive their powers through her presence and chanting spells, and all the spells they cast to better their lives and take control end up coming back to harm them for their selfish ways, especially with Nancy, who is the most psychotic of the foursome.

    The film progresses as the friendship dynamics get darker, and when Sarah is having regrets over how they abused their powers and is withdrawing from them, Nancy turns the other girls against her, seeing Sarah as having betrayed their coven, and using Sarah's past self-harm against her, encouraging her to take her own life, and creating illusions, or glamours, to terrify her into killing herself. It's an extreme depiction of how female friendships in school could get very toxic if there is a ringleader that turns others against one person, abusing their relationships and using emotional tormenting to destroy someone psychologically. 

 

  The actresses are all great in this, but Balk easily steals the movie, with the meatiest role, and looking twisted and demented and throwing her whole self into this character. I like that the film let her get ugly and weird with this role, and she ends up being the most memorable and compelling character of the group because of how eccentric and dangerous she is. 

    The film does go into some easy tropes by having the "nice, normal" girl be the reserved conventionally attractive white woman, as opposed to the outlier characters being a Black girl, a girl with burn scars, and a girl with obvious mental health issues. She is supposed to be the audience stand-in, the introduction to this group, but while she is very attractive, Sarah can come off as a little ordinary compared to the rest of the group. Though I do like how Robin Tunney has a scratchy voice and that Sarah could be a little sarcastic, as well as having had her own history of depression and self-harm that she references a little, which Nancy takes advantage of to abuse her.

    Another standout to me in this film is the fashion. The girls go to Catholic school, so they wear the uniforms, but add in a lot of accessories, hairstyles, and a look that feels very 90s alternative and Goth mixed together. It feels more unique and sexy and stylish, and it's a look that could work together in a very Y2K kind of way, and is one of my favorite parts of the film.

    I love how the finale just goes in with horror and violence, between using a lot of real animals like spiders and snakes and rats and insects, and having intense fight scenes between Tunney and Balk that were filmed laying down but presented upright in the film to look more surreal, playing against gravity, and just not being afraid to get rough for a teen girls' film that definitely pushed its PG-13 limits in 1996.

    No matter how many times I've seen this film, I don't get tired of it. I didn't realize until recently that it's one of my favorite teen films of all time. It's a mix of horror, female friendships, witchcraft, cool fashion, a nice soundtrack with Juliana Hatfield and Matthew Sweet, and great lead performances by the actresses. I'm glad that Criterion is highlighting it for its collection on high school horror films.