The Craft (film)
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| The Craft | |
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| Directed by | Andrew Fleming |
| Produced by | Ginny Nugent Lisa Tornell Douglas Wick |
| Written by | Andrew Fleming Peter Filardi |
| Starring | Robin Tunney Fairuza Balk Neve Campbell Rachel True |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 3, 1996 |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $24,819,936 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Craft is a 1996 movie directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell.
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[edit] Overview
The Craft is about a girl, Sarah, who moves to Los Angeles, California from San Francisco, California and meets three friends who teach her about the world of witchcraft. As they become more adept at witchcraft, they experience good fortune, and put curses on their enemies. Sarah, played by Robin Tunney, becomes increasingly separated from the other three girls, and soon finds that her best friends can become her worst enemies. She later discovers that her late mother was a powerful white witch, and unlike the other girls, she has the inherent gift of witchcraft herself.
Tag Line: Welcome to the witching hour.
[edit] Plot synopsis
Sarah Bailey, a young schoolgirl, has just moved from San Francisco to L.A. with her father and step-mother. She enrolls at the local high school, St Benedict's. At first she struggles to fit in as the "new kid". A group of three girls, who dabble in witchcraft believe that somebody will arrive to be their "fourth", as she can complete their circle and make a full coven.
During a French class one of the girls, Bonnie, witnesses Sarah balancing a pencil on its tip and causing it to rotate while standing upright. In the next class she tells her friends that Sarah is their fourth. During recess Sarah is hit-on by a guy called Chris. He tells her to stay away from the three girls and tells her that they are "witches". Chris invites Sarah to watch him play football. As she watches him the girls introduce themselves as Bonnie, Nancy and Rochelle. They befriend Sarah and take her to a witchcraft shop, the other girls steal things but the owner notices that Sarah is not like the other girls. Sarah tells her that she doesn't follow witchcraft. Lirio, the owner says "Maybe you are a natural witch, your power comes from within". Later on the girls tell Sarah about "invoking the Spirit", Manon. Sarah leaves the girls and go to meet Chris. The following day at school, Sarah discovers that Chris has lied and told the whole school that he and Sarah slept together. During diving practice Rochelle is racially abused by another girl, Laura Lizzie, while Bonnie goes to hospital for gene therapy treatment for burn scars which cover her back. The next day at school Nancy tells Sarah they are planning a field trip. They take the bus out to the country and find a quiet place. The four girls call the corners and cast some spells, Rochelle asks for the strength not to hate those who hate her, Sarah performs a love spell on Chris, Bonnie asks for beauty inside and out and Nancy asks for "all the power of Manon".
Shortly after the spells are cast they show signs of having worked as Chris becomes infatuated with Sarah. Later at Bonnie's house the girls play a game and succeed in levitating Rochelle. After Rochelle is bullied by Laura again the girls put a curse on her, and Nancy attempts to heal Bonnie's scars. The next time Laura picks on Rochelle, her hair begins falling out, while Bonnie returns to the hospital to discover that her scars have been miraculously healed. At home, Nancy causes her abusive step-father to have a heart attack, and he dies. Nancy and her mother find out that they have inherited $175,000 from an insurance policy. The girls go to visit Nancy at her new apartment, and experiment with glamouring spells. They go to Lirio's shop again, where Nancy finds a book about "invoking the Spirit", and buys it. Later that night, the girls go to the beach and form a circle, where they call on Manon. At the culmination of the spell Nancy is struck by lightning. The next day the girls witness Nancy walking on the water and find sharks washed up on the shore and Nancy says that "these are my gifts" from Manon.
Sarah begins to question their magic. At school Rochelle finds Laura in the showers with all of her hair fallen out. Rochelle is shocked that her magic has caused such damage. Chris, still infatuated with Sarah persuades her to go on a date with him. After he tries to have sex with her she leaves, but he chases after her and attempts to rape her. She manages to get away and runs and tells the other girls. Nancy says he has to pay and goes looking for him. She finds him at a party, and after being rejected by Chris, she glamours into Sarah and they start making out. Sarah arrives and tells Nancy to stop and that they should leave. Nancy gets angry at Chris and in a rage causes him to fall out of a second story window, killing him. Shocked at Nancy's abuse of her magic, Sarah tries to bind her powers, but Nancy warns her not to try it again. After school, and at a loss at what to do, Sarah goes to the only person she can think of who can help her: Lirio. Lirio tells her that to fight the other girls she must invoke the spirit herself. While invoking the spirit, Nancy causes an illusion of the shop being set on fire and hears Nancy's manic laughter, which scares Sarah and makes her run away back home. Nancy and the others torment her saying that her father and step-mother had been killed in a plane crash and cause her to see rats, snakes and insects all over the house. Nancy and the other two girls confront Sarah. Nancy tells Sarah, "You're going to kill yourself tonight, my dear." and slashes her wrists. She then causes Sarah to see a suicidal note at her feet, dripping with blood from her wrists. Nancy taunts Sarah about all the deaths that had taken place, supposedly, because of her, all the while reminding her that she has every reason to commit suicide. She then runs upstairs to her room in horror. As she lies bleeding in her room she tries to invoke Manon, but is weak. She hears her mother's voice whispering to her, telling her, "Don't be afraid, reach inside yourself". With new strength, Sarah is able to invoke Manon and her wounds are healed. Nancy comes looking for Sarah, who is now imbued with the power of Manon. Nancy and Sarah have a showdown and Nancy is ultimately defeated by Sarah, who binds Nancy's power to prevent her from doing any more harm.
The following day Rochelle and Bonnie come to apologize to Sarah for things getting out of hand, and ask her if she still has any powers. When she doesn't answer, and turns away, the girls walk away as Rochelle snidely adds, "She probably doesn't have any powers, anyway". Sarah turns back. A wind picks up, and clouds rumble overhead. A tree is struck by lightning, causing a branch to nearly hit the two girls. Sarah adds with biting wit, "Be careful. You don't want to end up like Nancy...". The next scene shows Nancy strapped to a bed in a psychiatric hospital, telling the nurse that she has "his powers", that she can do whatever she wants and that she can fly. The nurse tells Nancy, "He gave you something else, but it ain't the power". She leaves the room, while Nancy crazily repeats while laughing and screaming, "I'm flying!".
[edit] Main Cast
- Robin Tunney — Sarah Bailey
- Fairuza Balk — Nancy Downs
- Neve Campbell — Bonnie
- Rachel True — Rochelle
- Skeet Ulrich — Chris Hooker
- Christine Taylor — Laura Lizzie
- Assumpta Serna — Lirio
[edit] Impact on Pop Culture
The film employed state-of-the-art special effects, presenting "gothic fashion" and pagan behavior to the MTV Generation in an attractive package. Through this exposure, many teenage viewers gained an interest in witchcraft/paganism, and especially Wicca. Though some of the interest waned, the movie helped lesser known religions come into the spotlight for a time. Although The Craft is fictional, some of its background details are based on actual neo-pagan beliefs and practices.[citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
- The musical group Love Spit Love recorded the song "How Soon Is Now?" which was originally sung by 80's music group The Smiths, for the film. Two years later, the WB television series Charmed was created, also centered on young witches, and used the same song for its theme song. On the DVD commentary, the director wryly comments on this, stating of Aaron Spelling, producer of Charmed, that "you've got to give the man credit for originality".
- Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich would again work side by side in Scream, which was released later that year. They would also work with Charmed star Rose McGowan.
- During the climax of the movie, over 3,000 live snakes were used, including: pythons, boa constrictors, water snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes, a 10-foot (3.0 m) Amazon constrictor, and even rare albino snakes.
- Domestic Total Gross: $24,819,936
- According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, The Craft is the 7th highest grossing movie since 1980 dealing with the genre of witches.[1]
- All of the actresses playing teenagers were far past teenage years at the time. Rachel True was almost 30 years old.
- In order to illustrate nature's intrusion on life, the director tried to incorporate nature into every shot with random branches, trees and vines.
- The surnames of the two main characters (Sarah and Nancy) are combined to create the fictional location of the film Ginger Snaps ("Bailey Downs").
- A straight-to-DVD sequel is currently in the works. [2]
