Get your Witch on and Revisit The Craft…
We finally made the leap from creepy or funny to scary with last night’s viewing of The Craft. I’ve slowly introduced my barely teen daughter to various horror films because she appreciates the macabre, but still might be too melodramatic to experience cinematic-induced fear.
The Craft (1996, rated R) was my pick from the get-go. I thought it would be perfect— a teen girl magic movie from my generation. I’ve owned the film for so long I don’t even remember why I originally watched it and liked it. It accurately depicted life for my generation during high school. It also has characters that had real problems—a physical deformity, difficult home life and poverty, dealing with racism—so I understood the allure of magic as a cure-all to teenage angst and trying to fix life situations as a powerless teen girl.
So when we first began talking about horror films I thought The Craft would be a wonderful chance for the almost fourteen-year-old to test if an older film still speaks to the young people of today. Some teen problems are universal.
“It’s definitely similar to some of the things I’ve heard on the marching band bus,” she said. “It’s all just as pathetic. All the stupid things people get upset about. It reminds me about the one time a girl on the bus refused to eat because her mom took her phone away.”
My daughter made it through three-quarters of the film clapping and cheering. Until the magic went wrong. Until things got dark. Then she froze. It captivated her to see the high school girls use magic to overcome their teen problems. Make a boy like you. Get revenge on a mean girl… What wouldn’t appeal to a teen girl about those scenarios? But by the end of the film, people got hurt. People went crazy. People died.
Eva remarked about the successful development of the characters. The beginning of The Craft featured a “new girl” plot device where three friends already dabbling in witchcraft thought the main character, Sarah (Robin Tunney), the new girl, might be the missing piece of their magical circle. Over the first act of the film, the viewer learns about all the girls—their home lives, their talents, and their weaknesses—so when magic begins to change them, my daughter said, you really notice.
The teen also said the details compounded her reaction: the house filled with bugs, the dramatic cinematography (Cinematographer Alexander Gruszynski and Director Andrew Fleming) focused on the toes of the enraged witch (Nancy played by Fairuza Balk, a very dark, sexy Goth chick) as her boots hovered over the carpet, magic opening the lock on the bathroom stall. I asked her the theme of the film and she replied, “Everything you do comes back and that’s terrifying because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
What about the other themes? Is it a film about teen angst? Mean girls turning against each other? Peer pressure? Abuse of power? Or more simply: Be careful what you wish for. Eva argues that teen angst and abuse of power are the only other two minor themes, though as her mom I disagree.
I watched as the four witches turned against their high school and family foes, and at first while watching the film, the viewer does cheer as they fix the minor derailments of their teen lives. As the power goes to their heads, the witches get meaner, more vindictive.
Rochelle (Rachel True), the gorgeous African-American swimmer/diver of the witch quartet, casts a spell on the white, blonde popular girl (Laura Lizzie played by Christine Taylor) who makes a snide comment about Rochelle’s hair and jinxes Rochelle’s diving performance. Rochelle intends to impact her beautiful blonde curls and ends up not only making her hair fall out but giving her horrible scalp lesions. After a while, the girls turn their attentions on each other, putting each other (primarily Sarah) in danger.
So the magic of The Craft becomes a tool for the girls to test each other, their friendship, and how far they can go. That is why I have to bring peer pressure in as a theme.
Whatever the interpretation, my daughter said, The Craft offered just the right balance of being terrified and laughing her ass off, her exact quote. Not my words.
The Plot Sickens: If you want more from Angel Ackerman and Eva Parry, check out their review of I am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House!
Crash Palace Support Team
Angel Ackerman and Eva Parry
After a fifteen-year career in print journalism, Angel Ackerman has studied world history, (specifically post-colonial Francophone Africa, Muslim relations, and contemporary Western politics) and traveled several continents. Her recent publications include the poem This Paris in StepAway magazine, an essay on the weather and travel on the Horn of Africa in Rum Punch Press, academic encyclopedia entries on Djibouti, a review in Global Studies South on a book examining famine in Somalia, book reviews from eons ago for Hippocampus Magazine and an upcoming essay on chickens. Follow her on Twitter.
Eva Parry will enter high school this fall but has already spent a season in the low brass section of the marching band carrying a sousaphone. When not irritating her mother by piling as many clothes and candy wrappers as possible on her bedroom floor, she explores various writing forms and antagonizes her cats. She has known Billy Crash most of her life and never stops making noise or talking, which once resulted in her missing a catch and taking a Frisbee in the mouth.
(Promotional photo from The Craft via Dan of Geek.)