You all might not like this review.
The Craft is looked upon as a classic, a horror movie the girlies love that is, according to fandom, all about girl power, sisterhood, and witchcraft. And I think it would be — the first half of this movie is so much fun. New girl in town Sarah (Robin Tunney) finds herself befriending three outcasts from school – Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Rochelle (Rachel True) and Bonnie (Neve Campbell). Together, they form a coven and use magic to give themselves makeovers, get revenge on bullies, and feel powerful in a world that has treated them like shit. Which, hell yeah, that’s what a movie about teenage witches should be about. Frequently one of the most shit on and bullied demographics, teenage girls should have a movie where it’s essentially them taking the power back: everything that made them weird now makes them powerful and something to be feared. Nancy is by far one of the best characters in this movie and in cinema, a young girl who is alternative, a good friend, and someone who wants to just feel powerful — most people love Nancy, especially with Fairuza Balk giving an amazing performance. Most people love Bonnie and Rochelle too, Bonnie who is a sweet girl with scarring on her back who simply wants to be beautiful on the inside and outside, while Rochelle is a talented diver, smart, and beautiful — all she wants to do is get revenge on her racist bully whom no one but her friends seems to care about. These three girls are wonderful characters and I know lots of people in the horror community that resonate with them. And had the movie just focused on these three, I think we would have one of my favourite movies.
Instead, our main protagonist is Sarah, who is such a hindrance to the overall girl power theme, she actively ruins the movie and derails the fun of it all.
Firstly, unlike her sister witches, Sarah’s spell is about a boy. She wants a boy Chris, who STARTED A RUMOR ABOUT HER SEX LIFE, to be in love with her. While I love Skeet Ulrich too, I can’t help but to feel that if a boy started a nasty rumor about me for no reason, I wouldn’t want to cast a love spell on him if I had the potential to have magical powers. But sure, she’s a teenage girl, a love spell is plausible enough. Yet when the love spell goes awry, as they always do, Sarah starts to feel bad, as she should. Yet instead of dealing with the shit she started, she starts saying all the girls are abusing their powers (fucking what), thereby completely derailing the sisterhood. This is the portion of the movie where it becomes clear this was written and directed by a man who doesn’t give a shit about how women actually behave. Sarah acting like the other women are evil while seemingly being the only one interested in boys and dating is telling, and in the worst way. Rochelle’s “evil” is getting revenge on an open racist, which…I certainly wouldn’t feel bad about that if I were her. Bonnie is beautiful on the outside, but is now vain…despite HER SPELL saying she would also be beautiful on the inside. But fuck consistency, Bonnie is more invested in her friend group than boys, so she’s evil too now apparently. And then Nancy — Nancy has used magic to become rich, kill her abusive father, and to get revenge on Chris AFTER HE TRIES TO RAPE SARAH. But no, they have all gone too far according to Sarah, because they…care about her? Sarah decides to leave the coven because the other girls aren’t big pick mes like her, and so then their characters are assassinated and just immediately start tormenting and hurting her. These women were all about sisterhood up until five minutes ago, literally killing Chris after he attacked Sarah, but this movie needs a protagonist and an antagonist. And since these girls are defying the “teenage girl norm” by being more into friendship than boys, they have to be the villains.
There is a big final battle after Sarah tries and fails to bind the other girls’ magic. While Bonnie and Rochelle are just left without powers, Nancy is driven insane by Sarah and locked away. The whole ultimate fight is between Sarah and Nancy, where Nancy even apologizes at one point and it seems sincere, but the narrative makes her attack Sarah out of the blue just so she can lose her abilities all over again, and her mind in the process. Sarah, the guys’ girl, is left with limitless magic, making her the scariest and most powerful baddie in the world which — yuck. Why? WHY?! Rochelle is supposed to feel bad about hurting a racist? And what, since Sarah is the only one with magic who hates her sister witches, is she going to go help the racist? Am I supposed to be rooting for her?
The only reason the magic went bad was because of Sarah — Chris is the only somewhat “innocent” person impacted by the magic, yet he’s still not a good person. And he’s only even influenced BECAUSE of Sarah, so who is misusing magic here?
This movie loses the sisterhood and girl power vibes after the first 45 minutes, and instead all we are left with is the “good” witch turning on her “bad” witch sisters because she messed up. I hadn’t ever finished The Craft until recently, and social media convinced me it was a witchy good time. Instead what I got was a good first half followed by the most predictable, sexist, and pick me finale I have ever seen.
If ever there was a reboot, I pray it ends up in the hands of Diablo Cody, so we can give Nancy the proper ending she and her sisters deserve.