The Craft (film)

Sarah Bailey, a troubled beautiful teenage girl with unusual abilities, has just moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother. At her new school, she forms a friendship with a group of girls considered outcasts for one reason or another and rumored to be witches: Bonnie Harper (who bears burn scars from an auto accident), Nancy Downs (whose family lives in a trailer and whose stepfather is abusive), and Rochelle Zimmerman (who is African American and subjected to racist bullying by a group of popular white girls), who all worship a powerful deity they call "Manon". Sarah becomes attracted to the popular Chris Hooker.

When Bonnie observes Sarah levitating a pencil in class, she and the group become convinced that she is the right girl to complete their coven as "the fourth", making them all powerful. When Sarah is harassed by a vagrant with a snake (whom she had encountered before in her new house), he is immediately hit by a car and the girls believe that together they willed it to happen. It is also revealed that Sarah has attempted suicide in the past.

After a date with Chris, Sarah is upset to find that he has spread a false rumor that they had sex and she was terrible in bed. When Sarah confronts him, he treats her disrespectfully in front of his friends. In response, Sarah casts a love spell on him. In turn, Rochelle casts a revenge spell on racist bully Laura Lizzie, Bonnie casts a spell for beauty, and Nancy one for power. It very soon becomes clear that the spells have been successful: Chris becomes infatuated with Sarah, scars that Bonnie has on her back miraculously heal, and Rochelle's bully, Laura, begins to lose her hair. Nancy causes her stepfather to have a heart attack and die, enabling her and her mother to cash in on his life insurance policy and move out of the trailer park they had been living in and into a luxurious high-rise apartment.

Nancy becomes greedy for power and encourages the others to join her in a rite called "Invocation of the Spirit". On completion of the spell, she is struck by lightning. The following morning, the other girls see Nancy walking on water, with beached sharks and other dead animals littering the shore. Nancy starts acting as though devoid of empathy and begins taking risks with her life and those of others.

The spells that the girls have cast soon lead to negative consequences, as Bonnie becomes aggressively narcissistic, Rochelle finds Laura traumatized by her baldness and sobbing hysterically, and the obsessed Chris attempts to rape Sarah when she rejects his continual advances. In supposed retaliation, Nancy uses a glamour spell to make herself look like Sarah and attempts to fool Chris into having sex with her at a party. She is interrupted by the real Sarah, who tells Nancy to leave with her, but it becomes obvious that Nancy has unrequited feelings for Chris. Upset at being fooled, Chris says Nancy must be jealous, angering her, and she uses her power to kill Chris by throwing him out of a window.

Sarah attempts a binding spell to prevent Nancy from doing more harm, but it doesn't work and the coven turns on Sarah. They invade her dreams, torment her with visions of swarms of snakes, rats, and insects, and make her believe that her family has died in a plane crash. They try to induce her to commit suicide, and Nancy cuts Sarah's wrists herself. Although initially terrified, Sarah successfully "invokes the spirit" and is able to heal herself and fight back. She scares off Bonnie and Rochelle by showing them glamours of Bonnie with her face scarred and Rochelle losing her hair like Laura, then defeats Nancy and binds her, preventing her from causing harm forever.

Bonnie and Rochelle, finding their powers gone, visit Sarah to attempt reconciliation, only to find that she wants nothing to do with them and that Manon had taken away their powers after they abused them. They scornfully mutter that Sarah must have lost her powers too; Sarah then makes a tree branch nearly fall on them. She warns them to be careful not to end up like Nancy. In the final scene, Nancy has been committed to a psychiatric hospital, stripped of her powers, and strapped to her bed as she desperately insists she can fly.

The concept for The Craft came from a collaboration between producer Douglas Wick, who wanted to create a film about the high school experience blended with witchcraft, and screenwriter Peter Filardi, who extensively researched the topic and wrote the initial draft.[4] Andrew Fleming was hired to direct and produce the final version of the screenplay.

85 other actresses screen-tested for the four main roles, including Angelina Jolie and Alicia Silverstone.[4] Rachel True and Fairuza Balk were the first to be cast in their respective roles. The character of Rochelle was re-written when True was cast to be black, incorporating racism subplot as the character's major conflict. Robin Tunney was initially cast in the role of Bonnie, but the producers decided she would be better in the starring role of Sarah, which she was persuaded to accept despite preferring the former. Neve Campbell, the most well-known of the four actresses for her role on Party of Five, was then cast as Bonnie. Tunney had shaved her head for her role in Empire Records and had to wear a wig throughout filming.[4]

Production enlisted a real-life Wiccan named Pat Devin to act as an on-set advisor for the film. She wrote the incantations used and ensured that the treatment of the Wiccan subject-matter was as accurate and respectful as possible.[4]

The shooting took place throughout Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles International Airport, Sunset Boulevard, and Broadway. Verdugo Hills High School was the setting for the fictional Catholic school, St. Benedict's Academy; production designer Marek Dobrowolski added different religious statues throughout the building and the grounds. Sarah's home in the film was a 2-story Spanish mansion and the interiors were built on a soundstage at Culver City Studios. The occult bookstore was shot at the El Adobe Marketplace in Hollywood Boulevard. The room was repainted and enhanced and occult icons such as candles, stigmas, religious statues, masks, and tribal dolls were added for effect. Jensen's Recreation Center in Echo Park was chosen to avoid overuse of frequently seen Los Angeles locations. During filming, an unrelated accident occurred in which a child was injured; the production's medic saw this and called paramedics. The makeshift altar was set in Wood Ranch, a location that Dobrowolski called the hardest to find. Dobrowolski wanted to avoid manicured parks like Griffith Park. The beach summoning took place at Leo Carrillo State Park, which was chosen because its crest made it seem less visually boring.[6]

The makeup effects were designed and created by Tony Gardner and his special effects company Alterian, Inc., which also created the beached sharks for the film.[7]

The Craft: Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released	April 30, 1996 (1996-04-30)
Genre	Rock alternative rock indie rock pop rock
Length	54:17
Label	Columbia

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]

The Craft: Music from the Motion Picture was released on April 30, 1996, by Columbia Records on CD and cassette, one month before the film's official theatrical release in the United States. The soundtrack contains a collection of songs, to suit the theme of the movie, from various artists including Heather Nova, Letters to Cleo, and Spacehog. Nova's version of "I Have the Touch", originally performed by Peter Gabriel, which featured during the end credits of the film, was exclusively included on the soundtrack, and is not available as a single, or on any of Nova's albums, nor does she perform the song in concert. The tracks in film, titled "Sick Child", "Fallin'" and "Scorn" performed by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Connie Francis and Portishead respectively, were omitted from the soundtrack due to copyright issues from their record labels. However, they were only included in the film as part of an arrangement with PolyGram Film & Television Licensing. An uncredited bonus track, "Bells, Books, and Candles", composed by Graeme Revell for the film's score, was included on the soundtrack. A follow-up soundtrack, The Original Motion Picture Score, was released on June 18, 1996 from Varèse Sarabande, and contained the film's score which was entirely composed and produced by Graeme Revell.[9]

The film is often labeled a "cult classic" and has acquired a loyal fan base and social media presence.[20][17] The Huffington Post, writing in 2016, praised The Craft for departing from clichés of the teen movie genre and incorporating darker themes, saying it became "part of the 90's teen canon and a cult classic of its own merit."[4] Complex magazine praised the relevance of the film 20 years later, saying it "feels much more progressive than many of the movies that come out today" and calling the viewing of the film "a rite of passage" for young women.[17]

In 2013, three of the main actresses, with the exception of Fairuza Balk, reunited for a special Halloween screening of the film at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.[21]

The Craft served as an inspiration for the 2013 song "Dark Horse" by Katy Perry.[22]

A straight-to-DVD sequel was in the works,[23] but was terminated.[24] In May 2016, Sony Pictures announced that a sequel of The Craft currently in development and would be written and directed by Leigh Janiak. The announcement of the sequel spawned negative reactions from fans of the original.[25][26][27]

In March 2019, it was announced that development of the sequel had been overtaken by Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions company, with the film to be distributed by Columbia Pictures. Zoe Lister-Jones has signed on to write and direct with filming scheduled to begin in July 2019.[28] Daniel Casey later joined the production as screenwriter.[29] In June 2019, Cailee Spaeny was cast as one of the leads.[30] In September 2019, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone and Zoey Luna were cast for the remaining three lead roles.[31] In October 2019, David Duchovny joined the cast in an undisclosed role. Later, Michelle Monaghan joined the film in an undisclosed role. Two more casting announcements were made in October 2019, also in undisclosed roles, Nicholas Galitzine[32] and Julian Grey.[33] Filming began on October 22, 2019.[34]

In late September 2020, Sony released an official trailer and announced that instead of a theatrical release the film would release On Demand everywhere on October 28, 2020.[35]

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