The Craft

The film was released in 1996 and was directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell.

The Craft poster



It is is about a girl, Sarah, who moves to Los Angeles, California from San Francisco, California and meets three friends, the leader was Fairuza's character Nancy Downs, 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.


IMPACT OF THE FILM

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.

Fairuza in The Craft

Close shot of Fairuza in The Craft


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".

* 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.

* All of the actresses playing teenagers were far past teenage years at the time.

* 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.