R, 1 hr. 40 min. Directed by: Andrew Fleming. Release Date: May 3, 1996. DVD Release Date: July 2, 1997.
I was obsessed with this movie back in college. It was hip and helped further my short-lived, post-Scream obsession over Neve Campbell. It had a bunch of hot chicks and Fairuza Balk in it... so it was pretty much everything I looked for in a movie back in the day. It was also one of those movies that seemed to take my fraternity house by storm, mostly likely because of the aspects I've mentioned. Today, I was still enthusiastic, in no small part due to the fact that I haven't watched this for a few years, but my passion for this flick has waned a bit.
The Craft is still worth watching, although folks out there seem to think that this was an attempt at teen horror. I suspect that comes from the presence of Fairuza Balk, who scares the absolute becheebus out of me and has done so since I first noticed her in Return to Oz way back in the 80s. I'd say teen movie yes, but horror, not so much. Teen occult? That sounds a little bit better, but not much.
There are some cool effects, a few decent performances despite the fantastical situations involved. The evolution of these girls felt pretty natural. I knew a couple of people back in the day who chose an occult lifestyle or converted to paganism because they felt like they didn't fit in with their peers. I'm also pretty sure that at least three of those girls would have had problems associating with their peer groups in just about any high school you wanted to place them in. Which is a nice change from the teen film where both the setting and characters feel so contrived that you just can't stand to watch them.
What surprises me about the story is that there's actually a moral to the story. Even walking in to this, I expected something empty and devoid of life, something more style than substance. While that latter part is true, it isn't true by much. While the movie isn't complicated, I really appreciate the effort to make this be about something other than emotionally scarred young women in short skirts and a few special effects.
What surprises me about the story is that there's actually a moral to the story. Even walking in to this, I expected something empty and devoid of life, something more style than substance. While that latter part is true, it isn't true by much. While the movie isn't complicated, I really appreciate the effort to make this be about something other than emotionally scarred young women in short skirts and a few special effects.
This movie's a bit of mindless entertainment and really doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't. The dialogue is pretty snappy, even though the subject is a bit silly. Unlike a lot of teen flicks from the 90s, they didn't seem to be making up any "slang" for the cool kids by which I mean "cooks rich trash." Do I love it like I used to? No, but I'll have to watch this again soon.
