After transferring to a Los Angeles high school, Sarah finds the telekinetic powers that she possesses attracting the attention of a trio of misfit outcasts Bonnie, Rochelle, and Nancy who practice witchcraft. As with Sarah each of them comes from troubled backgrounds. When she joins their coven, they set out to get revenge on the more popular kids at school who have tormented them. However, things rapidly spiral out of control with the power they have now harnessed going to their heads. Leading to some very dark consequences.
Essentially a contemporary take on Witchcraft, The Craft was an attempt to do for it what The Lost Boys had done for Vampires back in 1987. With a bit of the black comedy, Heather's as well as a touch of The Witches of Eastwick thrown in for good measure. The movie sees Robin Tunney's impressionable lead protagonist moving to Los Angeles from San Fransico. Starting at her new high school, she finds herself raising the attention of a group of girls, who are wayward outcasts and practice witchcraft. When they learn that Sarah possesses supernatural powers, they persuade her to become the fourth member of their coven, completing an air-water-earth-fire circle and making them all-powerful.
It's of course not long before they start to abuse their powers, mainly at the behest of Fairuza Balk's unbalanced goth, Nancy. Seeking their pound of flesh from the more popular kids at school who have ridiculed and demeaned them. Early on Fleming paints a sympathetic portrait of the troubled trio, with Neve Campbells carrying scars she received from an automobile accident, Rochelle is a black student who is constantly on the receiving end of racist bullying from a gang of white girls. While Nancy lives in a trailer park with her mother and her abusive stepfather. There is indeed a tragic element to the movie, but as would be predicted, when Sarah enters the fold, those who have wronged them begin to suffer the consequences and events eventually begin to take a deadly turn.
Initially, It's relatively harmless acts of retribution that the quartet inflicts upon their unsuspecting victims. From Christine Taylor's high school princess suffering from alopecia to Sarah, casting a love spell on Skeet Ulrich's obnoxious popular Jock, Chris who callously spread a rumour that he had slept with her. Things then soon begin to get well out of hand.
It's safe to say that The Craft had a premise that had plenty of promise. However, any potential it has is pretty much squandered due to its fairly abysmal execution. First and foremost what it suffers from is the majority of the performances, with Robin Tunney delivering her lines with all the conviction of a block of wood, lacking any real presence. Balk who is in fine cynical, nasty form, exudes some cool menace and looks darkly viscous under some black make-up eventually descends into schlocky over-the-top histrionics in its final reel. It's only Neve Campbell who gives a convincingly solid turn and comes out of the whole debacle with any dignity intact. It doesn't help either that it lacks the inspired, black humour of The Lost Boys and Heathers, taking itself perhaps a little more seriously than was necessary.
The subplot involving Sarah having cast a love spell on Chris also proves rather problematic. As it becomes rather ambiguous as to how fully in control he is of his own actions when he attempts to rape her. While it seems, we're eventually expected to feel sympathy for him, when he has proven himself already to be an arrogant unpleasant jerk.
As the movie lurches into its final act, and with the inevitable showdown which sees Fleming dial things right up to eleven, and relying too heavily on some ropey looking CGI. It descends into far-fetched, over-the-top nonsense, topped off by an incomprehensible climax. What The Craft boils down to in the end is something of a missed opportunity, that could have benefited from a tighter script, stronger acting, and more of a fun sense of the absurd.
Essentially a contemporary take on Witchcraft, The Craft was an attempt to do for it what The Lost Boys had done for Vampires back in 1987. With a bit of the black comedy, Heather's as well as a touch of The Witches of Eastwick thrown in for good measure. The movie sees Robin Tunney's impressionable lead protagonist moving to Los Angeles from San Fransico. Starting at her new high school, she finds herself raising the attention of a group of girls, who are wayward outcasts and practice witchcraft. When they learn that Sarah possesses supernatural powers, they persuade her to become the fourth member of their coven, completing an air-water-earth-fire circle and making them all-powerful.
It's of course not long before they start to abuse their powers, mainly at the behest of Fairuza Balk's unbalanced goth, Nancy. Seeking their pound of flesh from the more popular kids at school who have ridiculed and demeaned them. Early on Fleming paints a sympathetic portrait of the troubled trio, with Neve Campbells carrying scars she received from an automobile accident, Rochelle is a black student who is constantly on the receiving end of racist bullying from a gang of white girls. While Nancy lives in a trailer park with her mother and her abusive stepfather. There is indeed a tragic element to the movie, but as would be predicted, when Sarah enters the fold, those who have wronged them begin to suffer the consequences and events eventually begin to take a deadly turn.
Initially, It's relatively harmless acts of retribution that the quartet inflicts upon their unsuspecting victims. From Christine Taylor's high school princess suffering from alopecia to Sarah, casting a love spell on Skeet Ulrich's obnoxious popular Jock, Chris who callously spread a rumour that he had slept with her. Things then soon begin to get well out of hand.
It's safe to say that The Craft had a premise that had plenty of promise. However, any potential it has is pretty much squandered due to its fairly abysmal execution. First and foremost what it suffers from is the majority of the performances, with Robin Tunney delivering her lines with all the conviction of a block of wood, lacking any real presence. Balk who is in fine cynical, nasty form, exudes some cool menace and looks darkly viscous under some black make-up eventually descends into schlocky over-the-top histrionics in its final reel. It's only Neve Campbell who gives a convincingly solid turn and comes out of the whole debacle with any dignity intact. It doesn't help either that it lacks the inspired, black humour of The Lost Boys and Heathers, taking itself perhaps a little more seriously than was necessary.
The subplot involving Sarah having cast a love spell on Chris also proves rather problematic. As it becomes rather ambiguous as to how fully in control he is of his own actions when he attempts to rape her. While it seems, we're eventually expected to feel sympathy for him, when he has proven himself already to be an arrogant unpleasant jerk.
As the movie lurches into its final act, and with the inevitable showdown which sees Fleming dial things right up to eleven, and relying too heavily on some ropey looking CGI. It descends into far-fetched, over-the-top nonsense, topped off by an incomprehensible climax. What The Craft boils down to in the end is something of a missed opportunity, that could have benefited from a tighter script, stronger acting, and more of a fun sense of the absurd.