THE CRAFT (1996)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003
In good old days Hollywood knew how to make magic out of the
most banal material. These days Hollywood can turn even the magic
into something quite banal. At least this is the impression given by
THE CRAFT, 1996 supernatural thriller directed by Andrew Fleming.
The plot begins when Sarah Bailey (played by Robin Tunney),
teenage girl deeply traumatised by her mother's death and burdened
with suicidal tendencies, arrives from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
There she is enrolled into Catholic high school where she finds little
in common with most of her peers. Their only friends are three girls
who are outcasts, just like her - trailer trash slut Nancy Downs
(played by Fairuza Balk), disfigured introvert Bonnie (played by
Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True), black girl who suffers
from racism. All three of them have found solace in the occult, but
when Sarah proves to be natural talent, they form coven of witches
and begin using their newly acquired powers to solve problems -
becoming pretty, rich or simply getting even with their cruel peers.
Along the way Nancy becomes intoxicated with power Sarah doesn't
like it and decides to quit. Her friends don't like that which would
lead to spectacular conflict.
THE CRAFT has few very talented young actresses showing their
skills in superb fashion, especially Fairuza Balk, who turns into one
of the most frightening villains in recent memory. Special effects in
the film are also good. But those who miss THE CRAFT won't have
many reasons to feel particularly bad about it. The plot is full of usual
holes, characters are textbook examples of Hollywood cliches, the
ending, despite all the special effects and mayhem, is predictable and
boring. Even more disappointing is the way screenwriters failed to
use potentials of the story about teenage witches in Catholic high
school. Only a year later BUFFY would use similar concept to re-
write television history and make the impression of THE CRAFT
even worse.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Review written on May 8th 2003
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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