The Craft

The Craft, released in 1996, starred Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and Fairuza Balk as four high school aged witches, who get carried away and power hungry and learn that their are consequences to their actions. The movies starts off with Sarah (Robin Tunney) moving to LA from San Francisco. She is dealing with issues of depression, and personal issues. At school she meets three misfit girls; Bonnie (Neve Campbell), Nancy (Fairuza Balk), and Rochelle (Rachel True). The three are witches, and they are looking for their fourth, so that they complete the four elements and directions needed to perform rituals. They find Sarah to be their fourth, and she has natural abilities, and is a powerful fourth. As the movie progresses, Sarah's power and ability grows stronger, and having her in the coven helps the others to grow in their ability and power as well. However being teenagers they get carried away, and people die and suffer as a result of their playing with powers that they don't fully understand. But as anyone who knows about witchcraft knows, what you put out comes back to you threefold, which is one of the basic rules of Wicca. Sarah, realizing that things are getting out of control tries to cast a binding spell on Nancy to keep her from continuing to harm others. In the end their is a showdown as Sarah is pitted against her friends. This movie honestly handles the subject of witchcraft with respect, and in its depiction of rituals is fairly true. The movie does become a bit of a morality play, with the final act being almost preachy about Karma and the idea of harm being done coming back threefold. I think in addition to this movie being a fun teen horror-drama-dark comedy it is also a bit of a warning, about getting carried away, and about doing harm to others. The movie is well cast, and all of the actors play their characters perfectly. The characters are all relateable and really well written. The movie actually still holds up today and is as good now as it was when it was released in 1996. The special effects, surprisingly still hold up and have aged decently. There is a reason that this movie was huge success in the box office and is still a cult classic even today, and that is because it is a very solid movie. The Craft however sadly has received mixed reviews, some critics criticizing it for getting overly preachy in the last act, and also for relying too heavily on special effects. I mean fair enough, the the reviews are not exactly wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a very solid movie and should be on everyone's must see lists. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely, there is nothing not to love about this great movie, from the great characters, to the compelling story, the great look of the movie in both sets and costumes, as well as great looking special effects. This is in my opinion one of the best of the teen movies that were a big part of the mid to late-90's movie trends. This movie aged much better than most of those movies did, and was a far more intelligent and better made movie than most of them were. I definitely feel like The Craft should be on everyone's must see list, definitely a movie I return to often, as it still has great rewatchability.