What a beautiful movie!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

A newcomer to a Catholic prep high school falls in with a trio of outcast teenage girls who practice witchcraft and they all soon conjure up various spells and curses against those who even slightly anger them. The Craft is a 1996 Fantasy, Horror Film starring Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell. This is a film that caught my attention for sometime now and after finishing it i gotta say it was good but at the same time i was expecting a bit more and let me start with the stuff that i liked, Robin Tunney was really good as Sarah Bailey and she was interesting as a character plus she was the strongest of the 4 girls, Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs also gave a good performance as the evil and crazy witch and she fit the part perfectly as for Neve Campbell and Rachel True they were alright. The storyline reminded me a lot of Charmed and even a bit of Sabrina The Teenage Witch but it was a way darker version of course the Charmed Theme Song also played in one of the scenes so that was cool plus the cgi were good for the time that the film was released. Where the movie kinda lost me was with the plot which was the witches being total jerks to people that even slightly anger them and the ending was a bit flat as well because unlike Charmed where the sisters are a Team or a Family on that case in here they turn on each other with Sarah being the black sheep and the other 3 the saints so i was disappointed on that because i found it a bit weak as a storyline and even a 3rd act because clearly nothing happened they could have used their powers for good instead of being total douchebags but anyways it won't appeal to everyone it certainly has those 90's vibes and it's more of a Teenager Flick also so it won't please everyone. Overall i did enjoy the movie the characters, the actors and the effects were good but the storyline and the 3rd act mostly were weak and flat plus the wig that Tunney wore in certain scenes and especially the ending could be easily spot on and that was a bit of a disappointment as well. (7.5/10)

I watched this simply because I read negative reviews on another film that claimed to rip this one off? Well I quite liked this film too. This is an American movie bunch of sexual teenage girls who discover they have special powers and turn into witches. 'The Coven' is a British film about a bunch of terrified young tweenies sneaking into the woods for a sleepover and is not in any way shape or form similar to 'The Craft'! Go figure! I digress, The Craft is entertaining and obviously had some money on the spfx. It's fun, even though it's a bit dated now. This is more like Sabrina the teenage witch with a bit more oomph.

This movie was freaking tight. I liked the girls who were acting and the story. It was cool to see the girls be nice to the new girl by telling her that who wanted to get with her was a jerk, then when he told the whole school she slept with him despite her innocence, she realizes, hey these girls be alright I shoulda done trusted dem in the first place.So that was cool but then later in the film the same girls betray her and try to kill her over some trivialness. I'm not really sure why they try to kill her actually, like, it wasn't made clear why. The viewer can imagine it's because she wants to stop them. I mean she does put a binding spell on the evil girl but the spell doesn't even work so she's rather harmless so why kill the witch, ay?It's understandable too I read another review saying the evil witch steals the show. She does kind of, stealing it is a good way to call what she does, but she also expresses some emotions that are almost out of place. For some reason I still freaking loved this movie. The girls are really cute and do a good job acting and it's about witchcraft so I guess that's all I really need. The plot is kind of neat too with the new girl trying to fit in and stuff.

A couple of things were popular in the late nineties. The sudden success of "Scream" made horror movies not only popular again but hip for the first time in years. Suddenly, the genre that had been masked madmen hacking up teens for a decade had to have sharp scripts and realistic, in-the-know protagonists. Around the same time, a rising awareness of new age pagan religions made "witch" a hot buzzword. Witches weren't green-skinned, cackling hags anymore. They could be normal people. These two interests intersected with "The Craft," a poppy teen and femme-oriented horror flick that attempted to bring the witch concept into the present day.Set at a catholic school in fashionable California, the film follows Sarah, a girl with a history of mental problems, who has just moved into town. She's quickly dubbed an outcast and befriends a trio of other strange girls: The gothy Nancy, the shy Bonnie, and teased Rochelle. The three girls fancy themselves witches, in the neo-pagan sense of the word, and think Sarah might be the fourth corner of their circle. The fourth girls quickly excel at magic, using their abilities to better their high school lives. However, things quickly get out of hand, especially thanks to the unbalanced Nancy, and the girls start to turn on each other."The Craft" is notable for focusing on female characters, a rare feat in any genre but horror especially. The girls aren't your typical horror film victims. Instead, the script makes the effort to get inside each one's head. Nancy and the others are at the bottom of the high social ladder. Nancy's Gothic fashion seems to be in response to her home life, with a trashy mother and an abusive stepfather. Boys tell lies about her at school and her interest in witchcraft steams from a rather literal desire to take back control of her life. Bonnie's body is covered in burns, leading to her shyness. Rochelle's ethnicity makes her a target for bullying from the school's resident queen bee. When their power grows, they naturally use their abilities to improve their lives. Who can blame them? "The Craft" tries to frame itself as a story about responsibilities, how power corrupts etcetera, but the film is far more successful in its early half when the premise is played for wish-fulfillment.That's mostly due to the mostly strong cast. The movie made Fairuza Balk, who previously had experiences with witches in "Return to Oz" and "The Worst Witch," something of a cult icon. She's the center of the film and gives a powerhouse performance. Nancy is burning with fear and pain, all of it exploding out as righteous anger. While the script isn't beyond playing her outburst as typical teenage angst, Balk deepens the role, making Nancy a real human being. Neve Campbell develops some honest anguish over her condition and, when she heals herself, has fun tramping it up. Rachel True works well as the first of the girls to notice they might have gone too far.The three are strong enough that they completely overshadow Robin Tunney as lead character Sarah. Tunney isn't bad but she's also playing the least interesting character in the film. While Nancy is speeding a car through red lights, magically changing them to green, Sarah is chastising them, like a real fuddy-duddy. Clearly, the other girls go too far, especially once they become murderous, but you can't deny they're having more fun. Making the hero so comparatively uninteresting is "The Craft's" biggest problem.The style of "The Craft" immediately marks it as a product of the late nineties. The soundtrack is filled out with quasi-pop punk that was quasi-popular at the time, like Sponge, Heather Nova, Letters to Cleo, and Love Spit Love, whose cover of "How Soon is Now" would later be used as the theme song for witch-centric TV show "Charmed." Andrew Fleming directs with rock-video smoothness, only occasionally overdoing it, like during Fairuza's murderous freak-out or a flying nightmare. The film's digital effects, which include morphing a girl's fingers into snakes, got a lot of press at the time. They come off as very dated today. The intensity the final witches duel produces has more to do with Fairuza's crazed acting then the melodramatic direction or cheesy effects."The Craft" became a sleeper hit upon release, meaning that its story and themes resonated with an audience. The film, no doubt, led to a rise in interest in witchcraft and neo-paganism. It also, probably, led to hip witch characters being a common character on supernatural soaps like "Buffy" and "Charmed." The film holds up astonishingly well, mostly thanks to its excellent cast and decently structured screenplay.