Who Thought Witches Could Be Such Bitches?
Witch craft. Everyone nowadays associates this with Harry Potter, but way before Harry Potter was a gleam in J.K Rowling's eye, there was "The Craft", a film that shows what happens when you try to be a witch and you use it to kill people that are more popular then you.
Robin Tunney is Sarah, a girl from San Francisco, who moves to some part of L.A with her dad and her step-mother, whom we never seen once during the entire course of the movie. Maybe she's Maris, Nile's ex-wife from "Frasier". Sarah starts at some private Catholic school where she meets Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle, played by Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True. Rochelle is the token black chick in the movie. Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle are witches and they are searching for a fourth person to finish their circle, square, rectangle, whatever and Bonnie witnesses Sarah moving a pencil with her mind, which proves she MUST be the one. So they ask her to join and at first Sarah is reluctant because they stoplift, go to weird ass occult stores, and walk down a bad neighborhood where poor people beg for money. When a homeless guy bugs Sarah, a car comes out of nowhere and hits him, and they all come to the conclusion that they caused it.
And with that, Sarah joins the group.
Then we get a glimpse into their personal lives. Nancy lives in a trailer park with her mom and this dude name Roy and they fight constantly. Bonnie has some weird horrible burn all over her back and she is getting treatment for it. And Rochelle is fighting racism from this preppy but hot chick named Laura, played by Christine Taylor, who was Marcia Brady in "The Brady Bunch Movies" and is also Mrs. Ben Stiller. Sarah caught the attention of Chris, played by Skeet Ullrich and when she wouldn't go to his place one night, he spread an ugly rumor about her all over school. The rumor is, of course, she looks like Alicia Silverstone, whom I think the film makers wanted orignally. The resemblance is cunning.
They all get together, form their octagon, and then cast one spell each on something they all really want.
The next day, Chris is following Sarah around like a puppy, Bonnie's burn is starting to heal, Laura is starting to go bald, and Nancy, unbeknown to her, kills Roy. Their spells are working. And because Roy died, Nancy and her mom get $175,000, which doesn't seem like a lot, but that doens't stop them from getting a big ass apartment and a jukebox full of Connie Francis songs.
Then the girls mess around with other spells, like Sarah can instantly change her look and other small stuff like that. Nancy, though, wants the big guns and wants to be all powerful, so they have a ceremony at a beach and lighting strikes her and the next day, a bunch of dead whales and sharks are found dead on the beach. Nancy takes this as a sign.
Chris is really falling for Sarah and she agrees to go out with him once, but he tries to force himself onto her, which is a big no-no when you know all powerful witches. Nancy, seeking revenge, finds Chris, and shoves him out of a window.
Sarah is freaked out and wants to leave the pentegon they formed, but she might as well try to build her own spaceship and fly to Pluto because the other three girls aren't having none of that. They haunt her dreams, make her think her dad and step-mom is dead, and cause snakes and bugs to appear out of nowhere. Sarah learns how to become as powerful as Nancy and the big ass showdown begins!!
Sarah jumps out of a mirror, Nancy throws a dresser at her, Sarah tries to put a "nice" spell on Nancy, Nancy tries to stab her, and so on, until Sarah gives on up witch craft and does plain ol' Kung Fu and slams Nancy against the wall.
Nancy ends up in a mental institution, Bonnie and Rochelle lose their powers, and Sarah is now the full powerful one but uses it for good. Woo!
The movie was just a tad bit slow at the beginning but once the witch stuff came, it was pretty interesting. Robin Tunney is ok, but she mumbles a whole hell of alot and really does look like Alicia Silverstone. And I think it's interesting that to stop a racist you make their hair fall out. Not sure what that was about, but I guess it got the job done. Looking at this cast, you probably could do a "Where Are They Now" on them, Skeet vanished, so did Robin, Fairuza is still making movies, but hasn't appeared in anything big, but I really wanna know what Rachel True, who was Rochelle is up to, she was excellet and she was just smokin' hot in this movie. Oh, and what happened to Neve Campbell? She made Scream 3, then disappeared. Odd. Maybe it was...
Witchcraft!!
2 stars.
"The Craft" on IMDb.com:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0115963/