
In the 90s, there was a lot of witch-related media; Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Hocus Pocus, The Witches, and Charmed. I saw this in the late 90s on tv one night. I liked it, but I haven’t thought much of it until now, so I recently went back and rewatched it.
The Craft is a 1996 drama horror film directed by Andrew Fleming and the first film in The Craft series. It’s a film that wasn’t initially well received, but later gained a cult following.
The plot follows four girls who use witchcraft to make their lives better. Since nothing’s free, they’re soon caught by their spells’ repercussions.
I will say that this film reminded me of Chronicle, another film about a group of superpowered highschoolers who must deal with the consequences of their actions.
The film begins with Sarah (Robin Tunney) moving to Los Angeles with her dad (Cliff DeYoung) and stepmother. At her new religious school, she’s shunned by three guys and three girls.
At lunch, Sarah is greeted by Chris (Skeet Ulrich), one of the three guys, who apologizes and warns her about the three girls, saying that they’re witches.

Later, when Chris is at football practice, Sarah is greeted by the three girls: Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True). Nancy warns Sarah about Chris and invites her to hang out with them.
The four head to a wiccan shop run by Lirio (Assumpta Serna), who scolds Sarah for looking behind a curtain. However, she does sell Sarah a witchcraft book.
That night, after an incident, the three girls learn that Sarah has powers and decide to make her the fourth member of their group. They also tell her about a neutral deity they worship called Manon, who can grant them powers.
After a bad date with Sarah, Chris spreads sexual rumors about her. Meanwhile, the other girls deal with their own struggles. More on them in the character section.

The four girls later go to the wilderness and perform a ritual, receiving the blessings of Manon and officially become witches.
Sarah casts a love spell on Chris, making him her slave, much to her and Bonnie’s entertainment. During a sleepover, Sarah, Bonnie and Nancy use a spell to make Rochelle levitate.

Later, Sarah and Rochelle cast a spell on Laura (Christine Taylor), a popular bully who constantly torments Rochelle. Bonnie and Nancy cast a spell to heal the burn scars on Bonnie’s back and shoulders.
The spells indeed work, making Laura’s hair fall out, and healing Bonnie’s body. Nancy’s spell for a better social status doesn’t work immediately, but during a fight at home, she uses her power to kill her stepfather and inherit $175,000.

At Nancy’s new apartment, the girls learn a shapeshifting ability. Later, Chris comes over to Sarah’s place at 3:00 a.m., saying how he can’t eat or sleep as he’s always thinking of her.
The girls go back to Lirio’s shop, looking to undo the love spell. However, Lirio warns that spells will always give back whatever the caster sends out. Nancy also buys a spirit book.
That night, they go to a beach: Rochelle carries a clownfish, Bonnie carries a butterfly, Sarah carries a bird, and Nancy carries a snake. They sacrifice the animals for a powerful spell, infusing Nancy with a huge blessing from Manon.
The next day, Sarah, Bonnie and Rochelle watch as Nancy walks across the ocean waves. While amazing at first, they soon find that the spell killed the surrounding sea life, including sharks and dolphins.

Sarah notices how their spells are backfiring, including how Chris is stalking her, and Bonnie’s new snobbish personality. The next day, Rochelle is horrified to see that Laura is broken due to her hair loss.
Chris begs Sarah for a date, which she agrees to. However, it ends with him attempting to rape her. In retribution, Nancy meets with Chris at a party, shapeshifting into Sarah before making out with him.
After the other girls arrive at the party, Sarah finds Nancy and Chris. Once Chris learns that they’re witches and calls Nancy jealous, Nancy loses control and blasts him out a window, killing him.
In the fallout of Chris’ death, Sarah attempts to cast a sealing spell on Nancy and leave the covenant, which the girls don’t take too well, especially Nancy.

Sarah goes to Lirio for support. Lirio takes Sarah past the curtain to a temple (which is more of a shrine) and says that Sarah is very powerful, that she can defeat Nancy and the others if she gives herself to Manon.

Sarah is scared back home, where she sees a news report of a fatal plane crash carrying her dad and stepmother. She also finds the house overrun by rats, bugs, and snakes. They all disappear when Nancy appears.
In the living room, Sarah encounters the three girls, who plan on framing her for Chris’ death, and to kill her while making it look like a suicide.
Fleeing upstairs, Sarah calls upon Manon who grants her a power boost. She uses her new strength to make Rochelle think her hair is falling out like Laura’s and makes Bonnie think that her burn scars are back, now covering her face.

After Bonnie and Rochelle flee, Nancy faces Sarah alone. Sarah says that Manon blessed her to stop Nancy after she abused the blessings he gave her. After a fight, Sarah defeats Nancy and successfully casts the sealing spell.
Sometime later, Bonnie and Rochelle visit Sarah, revealing that they also lost their powers, and that the newscast was just an illusion as her father’s still alive. They attempt to make up with Sarah, but she wants nothing more to do with them.

The film’s ending reveals that Nancy was placed in a psychiatric hospital, still talking about her powers.

I recently found out that this film was an inspiration for the original Charmed. Both the show and this film deal with consequences of using magic for personal gain. The film has four main characters who deal with this in different ways.
Sarah is the protagonist. Her element is earth due to her being level-headed compared to the others. Her backstory reveals that her mother died in childbirth and that she attempted to kill herself by slitting her wrists.

Despite this, she’s pretty kind to everyone, except those who attempt to harm her. After joining the sisterhood, she begins dressing in black just like them. She also uses her powers for personal gain, such as getting Chris to love her.
It’s later revealed that she’s a natural born witch on her mother’s side, having powers before the ritual. Due to the dark ways she defeats her former sisters in the end, it’s somewhat implied that she also made a face-heel turn.
Nancy becomes the main antagonist. Her element is wind, especially of how wild and unpredictable she can be. She comes from a literal broken home which rains on her head. Her mother’s an alcoholic, and her stepfather is a pervert.

Her main thing is the need to feel special, wanting a better social status and to have powers like Sarah, which is why she turned on her later. Nancy was just selfish, wanting more power and lashing out at anyone challenging her authority.
Bonnie was the nicest of the group. Her element is fire which fits with her backstory. While it’s never revealed how she got them, her back and shoulders are covered in burn scars. Despite several medical procedures, nothing helped them, which is why she turned to healing spells.

Due to her scars, she’s very insecure, feeling like a monster, hiding herself under several clothing layers, and being extremely shy. She’s also the first to witness Sarah’s powers.
After her scars are healed, she becomes the most attractive of the four and dresses in revealing clothing. Unfortunately, she also becomes vain and loses her kindness. It was also implied that she bonded with Sarah after seeing her own wrist scars.
Rochelle was also initially kind. Her element is water, which makes sense, seeing as she takes diving lessons at school. She was severely bullied for being the school’s only African American student, especially by Laura.

She is the least developed of the girls, as her home life is never revealed. However, she is the least antagonistic, being cautious about haunting Sarah near the end and she shows genuine horror after seeing Laura in the shower.
Before the beach ritual, the four girls seemed close, having a sisterly bond with each other. Once their spells backfire, they all become evil to varying degrees, except for Sarah, and even she’s implied to be turning to the dark side once Manon empowers her in the end.

In the end, only Rochelle and Bonnie remain friends. Sarah is basically on her own, and spoiler warning for later events, but this isn’t quite the end of Nancy’s story.
Lirio is the wisdom character with exposition. She’s aware that the first three girls were stealing from her shop, but never said anything. Like Sarah, she’s also a natural born witch, and even shows Sarah her true calling.

Chris is the second main antagonist. He’s a popular football jock who was actually once in a relationship with Nancy, which is why she warned Sarah about him. After his antagonism, Sarah forces him to love her, which starts off funny, though he later turns into a stalker.

Laura is the third main antagonist and one of the most popular people in school. She’s racist, making it clear that being black is the main thing she hates about Rochelle.

Another notable character was a strange homeless man (Arthur Senzy) who really wanted to give Sarah a snake. He apparently had prophetic dreams about her and attempted to warn her, but he just creeped her out, making her use a car to kill him.
Manon could be considered a character, though he never appears onscreen. He’s a neutral deity who watches over nature, later granting both Nancy and Sarah tremendous power. It’s also implied that he was the one who took Bonnie and Rochelle’s powers.
The music was fitting, but one song in particular stood out. If you’re a fan of Charmed, maybe it will sound familiar.
The film had a good first half, having the girls with backstories explaining why they became friends and witches. However, the second half felt like a forced way to explain karma and having villains for a climatic battle.
Eventually the film did get a sequel in 2020, The Craft: Legacy.

Overall, I can recommend The Craft, or at least the first half. Personally, I wished the story was more about sisterhood, having the four empower each other, which would’ve been more consistent instead of the forced villainy in the last third. It also could’ve done either more or less with the karma plot. Maybe the girls could’ve worked through their issues without the need for magic, such as Bonnie learning inner beauty, Sarah learning to love without a boyfriend, Rochelle making peace with those who hate her, and Nancy learning power and status aren’t everything. Check out the film if you want a 90s gothic witch story.