Written by Andreas Babiolakis

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The cult status of The Craft makes sense, especially amongst teenagers. We have a group of schoolgirls who have the capabilities of performing various spells of witchcraft (and having the outlier new girl join a gang of misfit friends helps as well). To me this reads as a fashionable take on youthful debauchery and rebellion, and we’ve all been there (I won’t go into my long list of misdeeds from my teen years). When the discovery of how some spells work takes place, it feels like the conjuring of one’s identity. Naturally, that’s where the stature of this film comes from: the way it inspired many to take on its costumes for Halloween, and its tongue-in-cheek nature for life. I’ve seen this film compared to Heathers, but that’s only true on a low level (technically, Veronica s the misfit amongst the prim and proper Heather girls, and The Craft doesn’t follow that same formula), but the appeal to teenage audiences is still there: here is a celebration of defiance.

Unfortunately, the film ends up defying itself. Another major difference between both films is that Heathers goes the distance and sticks its taboo landing, thus fully realizing its satirical, dangerous tone. The Craft kind of shoots itself in the foot when it matters most, pulling out some half baked attempts at depicting a moral consciousness amidst all of the previous chaos. I understand that there could easily be a statement on changes-of-heart or realizations from within an evil mind, but I feel like The Craft is far too imbalanced to have pulled it off okay. It ventures through its more satirical and fun side for too long, without any real sense of where the film ends up going. It’s almost a story of two halves, which is basically never a good nature for a film to have (unless you’re a Wall-E, of course).

The Craft at least has likeable stars in its lopsided tonal delivery. — *The Craft* at least has likeable stars in its lopsided tonal delivery.

Of course, these are stickler things that only a stick-in-the-mud like a critic would care about. I get that that doesn’t matter when the characters are so cool (and memorably performed by some rising stars, particularly a magnetic Fairuza Balk). I see a fantastic film here (The Craft: Legacy would not be that film), but this opportunity is marred. I do appreciate that The Craft doesn’t delve too deeply by trying to appeal to younger audiences, but maybe that’s what its wonky delivery of lessons late into its duration was meant to do: be a good influence. Who knows. The milieu of The Craft is much stronger than the film itself, but sometimes that’s what movie magic is all about, I suppose. I can only see the missed opportunities that really stymie a work that could have been more than hip; it could have been great.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.