31 Days Of Horror (Day 6) – The Craft (1996)

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The Craft is, to me one of the essential movies to watch around the Halloween season. Exciting and thrilling Robin Tunney (Empire Records, Prison Break) stars in this magical horror from Sony picture. Sarah (Tunney) moves from San Fransisco to downtown LA, When she befriends three outcasts they form a witch coven and begin to target the people in their school who torment them, however, this curse they put out will come back three times worse.

The Craft is a fantastic and hauntingly brilliant teen horror film from the mid-90s at this point in horror, Wes Craven, the master of horror, unleashed Kevin Williamson‘s slasher blockbuster Scream (released in December 1996 in the USA) and was followed by a load of other slashers from Sony and Miramax. The Craft stands alone with no sequels or no follow-up, and I think that is why I like it so much.

The thing I like the most about it is that it has an underlining message to it of no matter what life throws at you, never stoop to the level of your tormenters as you will find you are just like them. The film has many strong positive messages that are really valuable for young teenagers.

I think this film is without a doubt a classic.Also Starring Fairuza balk (Almost Famous, Return to OZ) Neve Campbell (Scream. The Wild Things) and Rachel True.

There are not too many witchcraft films out there especially not for teenagers. At this time, of course, we did have the Sabrina the Teenage Witch era which kicked off in 1995 with the TV movie starring Melissa Joan Hart and then, of course, the iconic Nickelodeon (in the UK) show which came in 1006. However, as this was family friendly and dealt more with high school life and being silly with magic, it is on a different scale from The Craft.

I think something that really is so awesome about this film is the fact that the director Andrew Flemming, didn’t hold back in the chill factor the tension in this film at times is nail biting.

I love the finally few scenes leading up to the films chilling ending. It is such a testament of good, passion filled filmmaking. It is very clear that the filmmakers and crew loved being a part of this film.

The film was given an R rating in the USA(15 in the UK) although Flemming assumed due to the themes in the film it would only get a PG-13 (UK 12A) as the film was pretty tame for a horror of this era.

It is very odd to think what the film might be like if he knows that it was to get an R rating as that would mean he could kick it up a notch with violence and scares.

Overall I love The Craft and I would love it if you reading this, would make sure that you have this one on your list for the Halloween’s season. It’s one that is a classic and once you have been under the film’s spell, you will love it and watch it again and again.

| Ross Wilcock

Fantasy, Horror | USA, 1996 | 15 | Dir.Andrew Flemming |Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True

31 Days Of Horror: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


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