Movie Review: The Craft (1991)

The Craft
Columbia Pictures Corporation, Red Wagon Entertainment, USA, 1996.

Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney) and his family are moving to a new house. Sarah has suicidal tendencies and the moving causes her anxiety. That only worsens on the first day when a homeless man shows his snake. In the new high school she meets three witch girls: Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True). Sarah is a natural born witch so the girls want her to be the fourth in their circle. Sarah meets also a handsome boy Chris Hooker (Skeet Ulrich) who is a jerk. Or at least that's what the witches say. 

Sarah

Rochelle, Bonnie and Nancy

Chris

The other girls have problems too. Mean girl Nancy has alcoholic parents, Rochelle suffers from racism and Bonnie has suffered severe burns. So there is a lot of teen angst. The girls go to forest to chant Earth! Fire! Air! Water! But they are not summoning Captain Planet but ancient god Manos, I mean Manon. Everyone casts a wish. They gain magickal powers but the spells have unintentional consequences and the girls become selfish and cruel. Nancy wants to use the powers of Manon for evil purposes and the balance of good and evil is disturbed. Sarah wants to leave the circle but the other witches won't allow it. However the owner of the occult store Lirio (Assumpta Serna) helps Sarah to find her true powers.

Earth! Fire! Air! Water!

Lirio

The 1990s was a decade when a lot of witches, usually young and attractive ladies, appeared in TV-shows or movies. In the wake of this film followed other more comedy or romantic oriented witchery-themed TV-shows, "Charmed" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" being the most obvious examples and also Willow from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fits like a glove in the wave of the teenage witches. "The Craft" is darker and feels like a continuation of the legacy of "Carrie" about bullied teen girls going haywire with their paranormal powers combined with "Clueless" style teen girl high school drama. In the 2000s the witchcraft has been mostly been replaced by superpowers with movies such as "Chronicle" carrying the torch. And rumours say that a remake of "The Craft" is planned.

Fairuza Balk is a evil looking goth witch. Her maniacal role makes one think that she would also have been a great Harley Quinn if DC Comics had made a film about Batman's enemies in those days. Robin Tunney's performance is much blander and feels like watching Kristen Steward in "Twilight." Still she grows to be a powerful witch in the end. The other girls are good actors too but in the end they are mainly sidekicks in the match. Skeet Ulrich plays the role of the hunk with a blank stare on his face but at least there is a good reason for that. Although the story goes a bit overboard with the special effects in the end it is a enjoyable and fun teen horror film.

Rating: Good

Starring: Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Skeet Ulrich, Christine Taylor, Breckin Meyer, Nathaniel Marston, Cliff De Young, Assumpta Serna, Helen Shaver, Jeanine Jackson, Brenda Strong, Elizabeth Guber, Jennifer Greenhut, Arthur Senzy, Endre Hules, Mark Conlon, Christine Louise Mills, William Newman, Erin Tavin, Rod Britt, Brogan Roche, Rebecca McLaughlin, Tony Genaro, Janet Rotblatt, Jason Filardi, Karyn J. Dean, Danielle Koenig, Janet Eilber, Esther Scott, Tory Christopher, Holly Marie Combs, Glory Fioramonti, Christian Greenia, John Kapelos, Darin Mangan, Gloria Koehn Straube
Director: Andrew Fleming