The Craft is a 1996 teen horror film about four high-school outcasts who practice witchcraft, and how the use of their powers affects their friendships and relationships. It starred
Fairuza Balk,
Neve Campbell,
Rachel True and
Robin Tunney.
Sarah Bailey, a
troubled teenager from
San Francisco, moves to
Los Angeles with her father and stepmother. Enrolling in a local Catholic school, she inadvertently attracts the attention of three of the school's outcasts: Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle, who also happen to be witches.
Each of the three suffers from a personal problem of some kind: Nancy lives in a trailer with her mother and abusive stepfather, Rochelle suffers racist harassment by the school's
Alpha Bitch, and Bonnie has severe burn scars all over her body.
The four decide to use their powers for personal gain, casting vengeful spells against those that wronged them.
The film is notable for
hiring an actual Wiccan as a script consultant and
another one to play Nancy. But since Wicca is a pretty mundane religion in real life, most of their suggestions were ignored in the name of
Artistic License.
This film contains examples of:
- Above Good and Evil: The god Mannon is is described as such. The girls try to do the same with their magic. It doesn't work.
- Abusive Parents: Heavily implied with Nancy's step-father.
- Alpha Bitch: Laura.
- Artistic License: Unlike most films of this ilk, they actually did the research on Wicca before making the film. Since an accurate portrayal of Wicca wouldn't make for a very good horror movie, though, most of it (apart from some flavoring) got thrown out in favor of a Charmed or Buffy-style approach.
- Asshole Victim: Chris, Laura, Nancy's stepfather.
- Ax Crazy: Nancy, after she gets her powers.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: It's no coincidence that Bonnie's burn scars stop just below her face.
- Averted with Laura. Rochelle causes her hair to fall out as revenge for her racist bullying.
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Break the Cutie: An example where the cutie breaks you in the end.
- Cat Fight: In the climax between Sarah and Nancy. It's a serious fight, though, and it is not played for Fanservice.
- Catholic School Girls Rule: Par for the course.
- Dark Magical Girl: Nancy by the end.
- Darkened Building Fight
- Dawson Casting
- Disproportionate Retribution: The deaths of Chris and Nancy's redneck stepfather.
- Maybe not the latter. At one point he lifts Nancy's skirt, but neither she nor her mother comment on it; at best, Nancy looks angry and annoyed, her mother doesn't notice. And then he and her mother start having sex just outside her bedroom door, while Nancy lies on her bed trying to shut it out.
- Driven to Suicide: Sarah attempted suicide in the past. Bonnie's comments on Sarah's scarred wrists "you even did it the right way" indicate she may have at least considered it. Combined with the events of the film, this makes Nancy's plan to kill Sarah and make it look like suicide pretty plausible.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: All of the girls (except Rochelle obviously), but Nancy the most.
- Fallen Princess: The Alpha Bitch Laura-Lizzie after her hair has fallen out and she has to wear a wig.
- Flat Character: Bonnie and Rochelle have no characterization outside of their "freak" status.
- Four Element Ensemble: Sarah is Earth, Nancy is Fire, Rochelle is Water and Bonnie is Air.
- Four Temperament Ensemble: Sarah is melancholic, Nancy is choleric, Rochelle is phlegmatic and Bonnie is sanguine.
- Four Girl Ensemble: Sarah is The Ingenue.
- Glamour: Using magic to change your appearance is just so much simpler than going to a salon.
- Goth: Nancy. The lone psycho variety.
- Green Eyes: Sarah, and Nancy.
- Hot Witch: All four of the girls have their moments.
- Jerk Jock: Chris.
- Looks Like Cesare: Nancy, towards the end of the movie.
- Mind Rape: What Nancy tries to do to Sarah.
- Missing Mom: Sarah's mother (who was also a witch) died when she was a baby, which leads her to try to find out more about her.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Bonnie and Rochelle bail on Nancy after she threatens to slit the latter's throat if they don't follow her orders.
- Naïve Newcomer: Sarah, both to the school and to magic.
- Narcissist: Bonnie, after her scars vanish.
- Parental Substitute: Sarah receives advice from the owner of the magic shop.
- Plot Hole: Bonnie wears baggy clothes to hide her scars. After she first starts treatment for them she is suddenly wearing less clothes but then in another scene the scars are back and when they finally disappear Bonnie walks into class wearing the same type of clothes she'd been wearing before and everyone is suddenly reacting to that.
- The occasion when she's wearing fewer clothes is when the four go on an outing to the countryside. Her scars are still partly visible, and it seems to be more because she's more comfortable to expose them among the rest of the coven than she is at school.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Sarah to Nancy - "Oh, and he (Mannon) wanted me to give you a message: You're in deep shit."
- Primal Fear: The house full of snakes.
- Rape as Drama: Almost happens to Sarah.
- Reality Subtext: Fairuza Balk, the actress who plays Nancy, is a Wiccan in real life, and used to own an occult shop.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Specifically, Snakes Are Evil.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians: The girls are Mistaken for Gay.
- Shout Out: Chris refers to Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle as "the bitches of Eastwick."
- Shower Scene: The girls showering after swimming class, which leads to...
- Shower of Angst: Laura begins to cry when she realizes her hair is falling out in the shower.
- Stalker with a Crush: Chris when Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Token Minority: Rochelle.
- Took a Level in Badass: Sarah, once she realises her raw magic potential, kicks Nancy's ass and cancels out Bonnie and Rochelle's powers for good.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: As part as the girl's trying to break Sarah, they make her hallucinate snakes, maggots, scorpians, rats, cockroaches...
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: You don't want to end up like Nancy.
- Yandere: Chris becomes one after Sarah puts a spell on him.
- Zettai Ryouiki: All the girls sport this look at various times.
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