I had intended to do The Craft along with Practical Magic, but I didn't want to overdo it on length. (In other words, save it up for the next deadline.) This one has probably gotten the most ire from us, so I figure it deserves a little more room.

The Craft (1996)
Director: Andrew Fleming Written by: Peter Filardi, Andrew Fleming	Starring: Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich
Cinematic Rating: A nice low-brain suspense film.	Wiccan Rating: The fuss is WHAT?

This wasn't an incredibly deep movie-- it was a fun teenage suspense film, kind of a John Hughes meets Steven King on the set of an Aaron Spelling show. The story line isn't very deep, but it doesn't have to be. The characters of Sarah and Nancy are given just enough development to keep the story moving, and no more. The special effects were well done, but not as a general rule overdone. Basically, there's just enough substance to this film to let you kick back, suspend your disbelief without too much effort, and enjoy the ride.

Some of the secondary characters, such as the witch in the bookshop or Sarah's father, are cardboard cutouts, which is a shame. Their dialogue gets lost in their pointlessness. These two characters in particular could have changed the tone of the entire movie had they been given more depth and exposure, but I can't decide if that would be a good thing or not. More depth and tone could have made this an entirely different kind of movie... and nothing's worse than a movie that can't make up its mind whether it's going to be mindless entertainment or a serious film. (See "Showgirls." Or better yet, don't.) Nancy's mother, played by Helen Slater, was more two-dimensional and less believable than the average guest on Jerry Springer.

Similarly, Bonnie and Rochelle's characters were a little underdeveloped, in my opinion, but oddly enough, the most believable acting came out of Neve Campbell as Bonnie and Rachel True as Rochelle. Sarah (Robin Tunney) occasionally slipped into the vacuous, although this is in part because she got stuck with the job of asking expository questions so the audience could catch up. Nancy looks like she's mixing some medications and taking cocaine on top of it. It actually works and she doesn't go over the top very often, but when she does it's really bad. Skeet Ulrich does a lot with his underwritten character, especially when he's under the spell.

As far as plot goes, I can't exactly applaud. It's pretty weak. But who cares? This isn't Schindler's List, this is a light-hearted thriller designed to entertain. There are gaping holes in the script that make Star Trek V look airtight, but if that movie had been as entertaining as The Craft, I'd have forgiven it, too.

The special effects surprised me. I was expecting a lot more reliance on them, and more spectacular things to happen, but I was very pleased to see that, with the exception of a couple of flying sequences, they weren't overused. Also, a lot of movies that have CGI effects use them when normal effects would do-- this movie does not fall into that trap. All in all though this was a fun movie, even if it wasn't Oscar material.

Speaking as an actual practitioner of "The Craft," I've got a few things to add. This move has been the subject of much reviling from our community, and I am completely baffled as to why. This is not Wicca. Technically it's Paganism, but it's a fictitious version thereof. Manon is not (despite what I've heard people say) a Pagan god-- the author borrowed it from Manon of the Spring. They never use the term Wicca. It's just not us.

Oh, they make no bones about the fact that they stole from us left and right. The initiation sequence in the park is familiar to us for a reason... it was written by Pat Devin of the Covenant of the Goddess, who worked as a consultant on the film. (Mind you, this was not an endorsement by the Covenant; she was doing so in her capacity as a private person. You might want to check out her thoughts on the subject at http://www.cog.org/nextgen/thecraft.html. Highly enlightening reading.) Arguably, we could claim other movies have stolen from us as well, but movies steal from real life. At least, the good ones do.

Yes, I would have liked to have seen the woman running the witchnook with more of a part. Yes, I would have liked to see a little more Wicca and a little less Hollywood, but it's all just a movie. If I've said it before, I'll say it again-- it's not Hollywood's job to educate. And as far as being untrue, I can't honestly argue the point. With the notable exceptions that I've never heard of Manon and that magic doesn't really work that way, this movie wasn't really that inaccurate.

Quit hyperventilating. I said it wasn't inaccurate, I didn't say it was typical. But most of us have had our dealings with Bonnie the Vain, Rochelle the Vindictive, Nancy the Megalomaniacal, and Sarah the Clueless. Hell, Bonnie and Rochelle are nothing more than the typical teeny-bopper wannabe witches. They were rejected by their community and fell in with Nancy, who used them to further her power. When Sarah comes along, they're eager to bring in someone else to whom they can relate, even though Nancy resists. (Very in character for that sort of person-- someone else could be a threat to her position.)

If you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm about to move into "spoilers"... discussing parts of the movie that might ruin some surprise. Continuing to read may prevent you from enjoying it as much, so if you don't stop it's not my fault.

There were a lot of criticisms about the morality of the girls-- the whole hair thing, the love spell, and just about anything that Nancy did. I agree with the criticisms-- curses, love spells, and acting like you've mixed your cocaine and your Prozac are all bad things, and all against the Rede. But these are not adult Wiccans. These are teenagers playing with fire. They do stupid things, they do wrong things. Hell, I knew non-Pagans in high school who tried love spells. It's human nature.

And for the record, it's not like they get away with it. Sarah almost gets raped, Nancy gets committed, and the other two lose their "powers". (From one perspective, it can be said that Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle are only using Nancy's power by proxy. I refuse to go that far into analysis of what is essentially a teenage suspense flick.)

The ending contained two things that deserve note: first, with their "powers" and Nancy gone, Bonnie and Rochelle go back to Sarah. Not for magic... but for friendship (they think her "powers" are gone, too). If you want to get analytical, they might even be looking for a replacement alpha wolf... but again, it's not deep enough to merit that kind of study. Second was something that always bothered me-- Sarah's reaction. Not only does she go cold shoulder on them, but just to show off and be nasty, she calls a bolt of lightning to drop a tree limb entirely too close to the other two. I was bothered by this, as I felt that maybe Sarah could have been a little more understanding. After all, isn't she the one that put a love spell on a guy that was only lifted by his death? Didn't she also follow Nancy? (My friend Charlene also made an interesting point. What did the tree do to Sarah? A true witch would have respected the tree's life as well. It would have been better if they thought it through.)

I actually enjoyed the movie as both a movie fan and a Pagan. I have actually used this movie when taking on a student; it makes an excellent starting point for a number of discussions on morality, and an excellent "things not to do" list. Oh, naturally, I have to exaggerate a bit and read things into it, but it works.

© 1999 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp