Lola Karimi ’25
EE Editor-in-Chief
The Craft is pure 90’s gold –lots of dark lipstick, Catholic schoolgirl outfits, moody music, special effects, and of course the somewhat counter-productive inclusion of heavy controversial topics such as female friendship, consent, and mental illness.
The 1996 film by Andrew Fleming stars a group of teenage girls that, when shoved together in the hothouse of high school, turn on each other. The movie’s premise compares to handing four kids a loaded gun, and then judging the three that shot themselves in the head with it.
However, the movie is not only about the power of witchcraft, though it is one of the only times I have seen a horror movie in which the horror is not from the witchcraft itself, but how the characters use it. There are idyllic scenes of them performing ceremonies in a field, asking for what they want from life, most of them giving surprisingly thoughtful and mature answers (except Nancy, who wants the power of Manon and gulps down the whole cup of wine, of course). And then there are the horrific glamours that the girls cast on Sarah to get her to try to kill herself.
The film is really about power in general; how girls are expected to have no power and just accept it as a part of life. It takes place in the backdrop of a Catholic school, where guys like Chris, the jock that sleeps with everyone, can do whatever they want to whoever they like.
I remember feeling empowered the first time I watched it, and relating to Fairuza Balk’s character, Nancy, the most (she’s the one that goes crazy at the end of the movie). The most memorable scene is when she confronts Chris screaming “He’s sorry! He’s sorry!” after sliding across the floor on her tiptoes and calling him a whore. She takes her sexuality into her own hands, though it’s for jealous reasons, and I didn’t realize at the time how deeply I respected that.
It’s also about how easily power can corrupt when you finally get it. Nancy is in the worst place out of all the girls in my opinion (Bonnie, with the burns, had enough money to get experimental therapy; Rochelle didn’t seem too bad off financially even though we never see her house; and Sarah had an enormous house). Nancy is socially considered “white trash”; she is not stable to begin with, but the second she has real power, all hell breaks loose.
In real life, I am definitely more of a Sarah though (the main girl who just moved into town); unsure of herself, scared of her own power, and easily imitated by bullies. Sarah was built with a light within that she’s terrified of. She tried to kill herself because it haunted her so badly. Only when she realizes what she inherited from her dead mother (who I think symbolizes feminine power as an archetype), does she take her life and her feelings into her own control and fight off her demons (in the form of Nancy).
I empathize the most with Bonnie. Her story arc is everything I ever feared about becoming someone I didn’t want by getting what I wanted. To me, the story is structured so that Sarah is the character in which we see her point of view, whilst she undergoes trials and tribulations that help her learn an important lesson and doesn’t fall unto the traps that the others do. Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle are the warnings who fall at the first post.
All of this being said, there was one component that really disappointed me. We know Sarah is a well-off white girl and a chosen one whose demons are primarily internal. She lost her mother, which is very tragic, and is suffering from depression. However, Nancy’s dirt poor and abused, showing signs of PTSD, Rochelle faces systematic racism even though that racism has a specific face in the movie, and Bonnie’s ostracized because her burns prevent her from living up to regular beauty standards. While this is not a competition for who has it worse, Sarah has arguably the most going for her and she is the only one that “makes it”, which is really sad for me.