Wait, we know Bonnie And Rochelle’s reason for turning against Sarah: Sarah tried to bind Nancy from using magic. The three original members of the group have been friends for years. They know Nancy’s horrific home life. They probably understand that magic is Nancy’s one lifeline. Granted, there are some “Mean Girls” dynamics going on, too, but Nancy is the leader. She has Rochelle and Bonnie’s loyalty. And, another important factor: Sarah acted directly against one of her “sisters.” Nancy only attacked Chris after he assaulted Sarah. From the girls’ perspectives, Chris had it coming and Nancy was avenging Sarah (and, obviously, herself).
I feel like there might also be an implication that the magic corrupts. As for the guy, that kinda makes sense to me, too. When you really like someone, you can look past all kinds of bullshit. Also, you can feel very bitter toward them while also still liking them. Motivations in those kinds of situations don't follow a linear path.
In addition, the movie brings you hints that something happened in the past between Nancy and the guy, that why the girls warned about the guy. Iam speculating that Nancy started to be jealous from Sara and the guy.
Exactly, but I think Nancy was also feeling jealous about Chris as well. After accidentally killing him, I'm pretty sure she was taking a Chronicle turn though.
The girl seeking out the shitty guy despite the friends' warnings and such, to me, is very real. I've had NUMEROUS friends go through that sort of situation. You know, minus the death or curse part.
Yeah and she had conflicting feelings. She did like him and was mad at him and felt guilty for bewitching him. I totally got where she was coming from with that plot line
I guess you have to have the high school girl experience to understand how the girls got so vicious seemingly out of no where. The subtlety at which they played the turning against Sarah seemed realistic to me. Nancy being their 'queen bee' also goes a long way in explaining their behavior to me. Truly a 'Mean Girls' situation. 😆
I kind of had a feeling that they were going to turn on Sarah when it was made known that Sarah was a natural witch. There was a hint of jealousy from Nancy specifically when Sarah tried her first spell and it worked.
Exactly. Sarah received those abilities generationally. Nancy and the others were just practicioners and recreational witches that have to do spells and rituals to use demonic powers that way. It's sort of an elite thing amongst witches. Everyone isn't bloodborne, but can still get in if you know what I mean.
As a teenage girl, I watched The Craft for the first time. I had no problem following the changes in the female relationships. I wonder if some of that is lost in being a man. Female relationships, especially at that age, can be very different and toxic with weird power plays.
Yes!! When he said that it didn’t make sense when the girls turned on Sarah, I was thinking “uh yeah, it didn’t make sense when Liz and Rachel turned on me in 10th grade either, but it happened”. This is such a true representation of the weird power plays that take place in girl friendships. I think it was genius writing and shows a real understanding of the relationships being portrayed.
Girls learn power hierarchy as young as 8 or 9, and the dynamic between the child and best friend to least "best" friend. As a male outsider witnessing the backstabbing, power plays, gas lighting, and worse in female friendships, I have no idea how all of you don't kill each other. Your malarkey peaks between 15-19, but it's not like it drops any appreciable amount as you age.
Teenage girl friendships can be shaky and toxic. Nancy was the leader of the friend group. When her and Sarah fell out the other girls turned on Sarah. They were followers. It is really that simple. I have loved this movie since the 8th grade. ❤️
Same! I loved this movie as a pre-teen. I thought their motivations were very clear. The two were first followers of Nancy, whether out of loyalty or even fear. The fact that Sarah tried to bind Nancy after Nancy did what she considered a favor for Sarah didn't help, either. They also seemed jealous of Sarah for being a "natural" witch who had a better handle on spells. So sure enough, once Nancy was out of the picture, they go to appease the next strongest witch, which was Sarah. They always seemed kind of cowardly in that way.
Nancy was pretty much jealous of Sarah from the start. Chris liked Sarah; Sarah was naturally better at magic. Bonnie & Rochelle pretty much did what Nancy said. Sarah pushed back. Plus, as Sarah pointed out, Bonnie and Rochelle's personalities changed when their spells worked. None of the 3 wanted to lose their power and they needed their 4th. Did anyone see Jawbreaker? Kind of a similar thing-they kill their friend accidentally, then cover it up, and the 2 become enemies of Rebecca Gayheart because she no longer wants to "follow" what Rose McGowan says.
Annoyingly, there's a deleted scene that you can find on youtube that clears up exactly what you said was missing. Sarah tries to get the other two to agree to help bind Nancy and Nancy basically takes the girls apart emotionally and beats them down into following her, except Sarah. No idea why they didn't keep it in the actress for Nancy does an amazing job in it.
@@bonniehowell9206 Same!! It totally explained the rest of the film it should have been kept in the film - Nancy is scary as hell by then so it's totally plausable that Rochelle and Bonnie don't want to anger her and have her turn on them too
Yah it actually made perfect sense that the girls followed Nancy, they were scared of her and they had been friends with her long before they met Sarah.
I remember Fauriza Balk was also in American History X as the Nazi GF and The Waterboy, great underrated actress. Too bad you don't see her around anymore
WOAH WOAH WOAH!!! Let me get this perfectly straight: You comment something that is completely unrelated to the fact that I have two HAZARDOUSLY HOT girlfriends? Considering that I am the unprettiest TH-camr worldwide, it is really incredible. Yet you did not mention it at all. I am VERY disappointed, dear gfx
@@Luv2Dnce4 You found the wheelers scary eh? What about the headless princess chasing after Dorothy? Btw, that scene with the screaming heads, there’s a theory that the reason they start screaming is because in the moment Mombi screams Dorothy Gale she looses her magical control of the heads, and the decapitated women’s heads wake up on their own accord and realise for the first time that they’ve been decapitated and can’t feel their bodies, so they scream in horror.
YES! I watched this movie more than the original Wizard of Oz as a kid. Growing up, none of my friends had seen it and didn't believe it existed. Chris needs to bring this movie to more people's attention.
Indeed, Balk is so captivating and enthralling as Nancy, that it's easy to forget that she's the antagonist, and is a little more memorable than actual protagonist Sarah! 😉
I think the reason the two friends apologize at the end is to just get their powers back. Their still bad people, and think they need her just to restore their abilities.
@@propogandalf They tried to convince her that her dad had died, used her dead mother against her, tried to drive her insane/kill her, and then didn’t even really apologize, they just said they were kidding around!
"I'm very confused... did she want this guy to be her personal servant, to humiliate him? Or did she actually like him and feel sorry for him?" and "It's hard to know what Sarah did to deserve this turn"............I see you've forgotten High School
Both she liked him and then he lied about her she wanted payback at first but then she started to like him again once he was nice to her teenage toxic relationship lol this movie had a lot going on but I loved it lol 💕
I took the ending as the other girls pretending that they're sorry & just trying to feel out if she still has her powers because they lost theirs. They say something snarky & that's when Sarah let's them know that she still has a powers & not to mess with her. I didn't interpret their apology as sincere. They wanted info from her.
If you search up The Craft deleted scenes, there’s one scene in particular on what sort of made Bonnie and Rochelle turn on Sarah. Honestly, the deleted scenes are genuinely really good scenes
You obviously haver never been around teenagers? They have conflicting and chaotic feelings like that, that storyline is completely plausible in the 90's. Remember this is before social media and the advent of anti-bullying/anti-abusive awareness that swept through schools and public media in the early 2000's.
@sethtenpas3237 I don't remember anyone being upset but this was 20 years ago 🤷♀️ I just know the whole group ended up being alt/ goth/ emo in high school 😅 myself included.
The girls betraying Sarah always scared me the most because it felt like I was experiencing the volatility of someone's rage. Like it didn't make sense why her friends suddenly became sadistic towards her
I have to agree with you on the 3rd act, some of it threw me off too. However, I thought about it like this, they were going mad with power, they were outcasts before but at the moment they gained the power to change their lives, they started to think they were untouchable. Sarah was attempting to get them to realize they were becoming different people but then again she did immediately bond with them. When the other girls turned on Sarah, they thought that they would go back to being outcasts and they didn't want to lose their power.
I don't know if it's because I was a pagan teen girl when this came out (or at least not long after) but I always thought the "turning on each other" thing was very natural as a side-effect of yielding far too much power for the human ego to bear in a sane way.
& it definitely feels the most genuine, since they actually did research and got in contact with actual practicing wiccan people, and used that information to make the movie as accurate as possible i love it
@@remoryu Really? Some of the stuff in there were made up. Wiccans conjuring dark entities? Yeah. No. Maybe in the olden days, probably. But for the time this movie was made, I doubt any actual wiccans CAN successfully conjure any entities.
When I saw this movie for the first time, I thought the other 3 girls had gravitated to Sarah because she had powers and they didn’t. Sarah is the only one with powers at the end, so I think that theory is pretty solid.
I actually never thought of Sarah having all of the power as a theory, just a dropped plotline. To me it just made sense, they had no powers before her and then when they're separated, they don't have powers again. Sarah even mentions that her powers are always getting things mixed up, which I saw as her not understanding her powers and knowing how to direct it. Lovely review!
Omg Chris u just made my day. I was obsessed with this movie when it came out. I know I wasn't the only one who tried to play light as a feather at a stiff as board at sleepovers.
The turn of the movie is during the car ride through the traffic lights, this is when Nancy starts to win influence over the other two, as Sarah was kinda "pulling them away from her".. this is why it was out of the blue, when she took in the power she used it to influence them, she probably realized the power was from Sarah and was further jealous of her.. this really explains the turn ending as well when they are like "sorry.. ..." the big thing that held this movie back was the pacing and editing choices... they either needed to lose some scenes, or add another 1/2 hour too.. It feels like a sequel to a movie that was adapted from a script not meant to be part of a franchise due to being so fractured in plot and pacing... but it's definitely not a bad movie. I think maybe they thought they had like 9 months to film and then 6 months later the studio called and asked if it would still be ready to premiere in 3 months, so they had to rush every thing to finish up lol
@@dr.decker3623 I felt it was pretty obviously insincere, in the movie. Rochelle lets it slip that they are now powerless, then she and Bonnie walk away laughing under their breath that Sarah is probably powerless, too. Sarah doesn’t accept their lame excuses, and she uses her power to scare them with the falling branch.
@@Luv2Dnce4 yes, they say they never thought it would go that far, and that they were just started out as pranks, they ask her if she wants to hang out and chant, and when she turns them down Roch says "she prolly doesn't have powers anyway"... and they laugh thinking they are safe, because they still don't know it was Nancy that was using Sarah's powers to influence them, they still thought that Nancy had power of her own, and that they did as well, when the fact is they had obviously only seen real magic happen after Sarah arrived, they hadn't even done levitation yet, and even that scared/excited them lol, Sarah is the one that granted Roch and Bonnie's wishes, she is a good witch, a natural witch.. Nancy had convinced herself so much that she was the alpha, when the power left her it made her mad, as she is seen in an asylum at the end as well.
I watched this film because I had a major crush on Neve Campbell back in the day. I’m glad I did watch it, cause it’s great. Also, I miss Fairuza Balk, she should be in more things.
It’s funny to me how the protagonist in The Craft has a dead mom while coincidentally Scream, a movie which came in out the same year as The Craft and also stars Neve Campbell, also features a protagonist with a dead mother
Also, Skeet Ulrich who plays Billy Loomis in Scream plays the guy that Sarah likes in The Craft. I had never noticed it until I rewatched both movies earlier this month, but I thought it was a funny coincidence that he and Neve are in both.
There will always be assholes out there who just want to be negative. Maybe a competitor reviewer, or just someone filled with hate and spite. I honestly never really notice the thumbs up or down, I just enjoy the videos.
"I hope you guys are having a good time with these videos" Chris, my man, of course we are!! We fucking love the annual Halloween specials you do! One of the best holiday themed series that I wait for all year. You get me into the Halloween spirit and give me some great movies to throw on for my gf and roomies. It's always great reviewing these movies with you first before having a watch night with my roommates. Thanks for having such a great time with this!
The Chris thing makes sense to me. She still wanted him to like her, even though he was a douche. It's not uncommon. The girls turning on her makes sense to me too. Very mean girls like. Plus Sarah was powerful and they were jealous.
Teenage girls turning on each other with no actual reason is actually the most realistic thing about these 4 characters. That's just what teenage girls do.
Love that movie. I did know that was a theory I thought that was the point. Her mother was a witch. The store lady said she was a natural witch. They needed her to get magic. In the end Sarah didn't need 3 other ppl so clearly she just needed her powers awakened.
A movie known for getting the X rating of the original cut. And one costar, she was on a certain 1980's primetime sitcom, effectively altering her image.
How do you NOT understand the storyline about Sarah casting the spell on Chris??? She was into him, he turned out to be a jerk. She was like a woman scorned, she wanted revenge, while at the same time she still had feelings. Feelings don't go away instantly. Especially when you're a teenager, they're all over the place. She wanted to have power over him, hence the humiliation, but she's still a good person, so obviously she was upset and full of regret when the spell went too far. Contrary to what you said, this is a brilliant and nuanced storyline. It sucks that it went over your head. Peace xo
I love how everything from the 90s had that Dawson's Creek vibe to it. You had this movie, Halloween H20, I know what you did last summer, Scream films, etc. everybody and their grandma in Hollywood wanted to do the Dawson's Creek thing.
I love The Craft I feel the same about the last half of the movie,I feel like there was more that just didn get filmed or was just left on the cutting room floor
I can see where the problems lie but I think it's more of a perspective issue. The filmmakers saw a completed plot, where everyone else saw the weak points.
Fairuza Balk really reminds me a lot of Judy Garland or her daughter, Liza Minelli. So it's really fitting that she was cast as Dorothy in Return to Oz.
There’s actually a deleted scene where it explains why Bonnie & Rochelle turn on Sarah. 👁👁 I feel like if they kept it in the final cut, it would’ve made sense why on the third act they were against Sarah.
That deleted scene totally explained the rest of the film it should have been kept in the film - Nancy is scary as hell by then so it's totally plausable that Rochelle and Bonnie don't want to anger her and have her turn on them too so they rally behind Nancy and help her try and destroy Sarah
A couple of things: 1) Sarah puts the love spell on Chris out of her desire to get back at him for spreading lies about her at school. The spell she cast went, "I drink of my sisters, and I ask to love myself more and to allow myself to be loved more by others, especially Chris Hooker." You've got to understand teenaged girl thinking, that outright rejection hurts most in any breakup, and even though the two of them never dated, let alone slept together, she trusted that he was a good person, and he showed his true colors the very next day. The public humiliation was the point, but I think she came to have sympathy for Chris the deeper he fell under the spell. He followed her everywhere, called her at all hours, and I think she began to assume that the spell had run its course and Chris had genuinely changed his mind, right up until he assaulted her. Why else would she have given him a chance at redemption when he asked to take her out for dinner? If she had thought he was a danger to her prior to that night, she would have kept her distance and stayed home. 2) Nancy doesn't kill Chris out of jealousy. It was established pretty early on that he had a history of mistreating the girls at his school, including Nancy, spreading rumors about her sexual proclivities and leading to her social isolation with Rochelle and Bonnie. So when Sarah tells the girls about her assault, she sees this as an opportunity to get back at him, especially in front of the rest of the school that had shunned and mocked her. She lures him upstairs, and teases him about their apparent past as partners, to which he shoves her off the bed. That final act of rejection infuriates her, so in order to get close enough to him to really mess with his head, she puts a glamor on herself to look like Sarah, the real object of his desire and the creator of his curse. Even when Chris calls her out for being jealous, Nancy scoffs at him, "you don't even EXIST to me!" She then takes her ultimate revenge and pushes him out the window, landing on the cement curb outside. I don't think there was any doubts about Chris being a manipulative and lying asshole the whole time, but believe me when I say that being young and naive, a high school girl would likely ignore that in favor of the attention she was receiving, even if it was unreciprocated by her. When you finally experience being desired for the first time, it's intoxicating, even if, in this instance, that desire is the result of a spell being cast. To be wanted and powerful at age 16/17? It's a pretty heady exhilaration even without magic. Speaking from personal experience, girls of that age can be petty and vindictive for even casual slights, so there's no doubt in my mind Sarah wanted to get her revenge on Chris. But she came to feel badly for him because he was so hopelessly in love with her, which is why she felt guilty for his death, and why she said she felt that there was good in him despite the horrible ways he treated girls.
This is one of my favorite guilty-pleasure movies. We watched it at almost every slumber party growing up. And of course, we then had to play light as a feather, stiff as a board.
The thing about Sarah being the only one with powers.. that's how I always understood the movie, and why it's always worked for me - even the last part where Sarah shows that -she-, not the others, is the one to be feared.
I always understood it the same way. Right up until the "Invoking the Spirit" ritual, it seemed like Sarah was the only one who had any magic, and it was only her coming into their circle that allowed the other girls' spells to work, almost like she's the battery and the other girls are the conduit for her power. Even when Sarah is performing the glamour spell, I noticed, the other girls ask *her* to change their appearances, something they wouldn't need to do if they could use magic themselves. When Nancy successfully Invokes the Spirit and suddenly *she's* the one who can use magic without Sarah's influence, I always figured that was the reason they all turned on Sarah, because they no longer needed her, and Nancy, blinded by her jealousy and corrupted by her newfound power, wanted to reclaim her queen bee status.
If you think about it, the entity they worship is basically a version / shapeshift version of the Lovecraftian God Yog Sothoth. Manon is both God and Satan and that he created the universe, while Yog Sothoth is everything. Azathoth created the universe but Yog Sothoth is a part of everything and even his grandfather Azathoth. Which makes me believe that Manon is inspired by Yog Sothoth.
This isn't even about just "teenage girls." This happens with grown women AND MEN all of the time! When you are desperate to fit in, and you struggle with loneliness and suicidal tendencies (Sarah has slit her wrists before) you are bound to attach to toxic people in more ways than one. They were a toxic friend group to begin with. This is shit that happens within those kinds of settings. Yes, very "Mean Girls"-like. And that could explain her trying to rationalize Chris' assault of her. Someone struggling with her issues would absolutely want to "protect" her abusers. It had codependency written all over it.
I will always have a big smile on my face knowing during the behind the scenes of the movie, a lot of scenes involving saying spells caused a lot of strife ESPECIALLY the beach scene. All manner of shit went wrong EVERYTIME they spoke incantations, and it’s like “guys are we sure we have professionals on hand in case we open the seven plagues by accident??”
I’m a huge fan of the craft and I have never heard the theory of Sarah having all the power! Thank you so much for your review of this classic yet flawed film !
Sarah genuinely liked him, but she did want some revenge for what he did so that all made sense to me. Even if she didn’t really liked him THAT much it’s still very believable she would feel sad and partly guilty about what happened to him. As for the others turning on Sarah, she stopped talking to them. She was avoiding them and tried to bind Nancy’s powers. So they went after her. I thought that was clear motivation for me. They showed how much having that power changed them and how they wouldn’t want to let that go. I thought it was pretty well done.
I love my Simplisafe system! I set it up myself as you said in under an hour and it is great. I love/hate The Craft. I never got the motivation either, but, after much thought and being a victim of girl bullying as a child, I didn't know what I had done to make a group of girls hate me either. They just turned on me overnight. I asked one of them years later and it turned out that their "leader" was "jealous" of me. I think that is motivation here. I think Balk's character figures out that Tunney has more magical power than she does and that's why she turns on her and convinces the weaker members to do the same. I think Balk's character does the boy that way, because she wants whatever Tunney's character has. Girls sometimes like bad boys and Tunney's character wants to "fix" him I think. I didn't know about the theory that Sarah is the only one who has powers! Cool! That would help things make more sense. Especially as a lesson for Sarah about giving her power away to Nancy, and how badly that can go wrong. I know I have asked before, but please consider doing a review "The Changeling" with George C. Scott. I cannot find it anywhere on your website and I would love to know what you think about it. Thank you. If I am ticking you off by asking repeatedly, just let me know and I will stop. :-)
If I remember correctly, it is hinted that Sarah's mom was a witch. I think that's why she had latent abilities and was this powerful. I remember when I was young, I was wishing they'd make a sequel with Sarah where we see her use her powers.
Actually I think how Sarah feels about Chris makes perfect sense, especially if you realize that she's a teenage girl and the kindest one among the group. She just wanted to get back at Chris for humiliating her, but she felt guilty after realizing that the love spell is not what she thought it was. It's permanent and it made Chris obsess over her (thus becoming a creepy stalker who assaulted her). Sarah was vulnerable enough to admit that she still likes Chris and that he doesn't deserve his "punishment" despite being angry at him, while Nancy, who grew up in a bad family situation, only knew how to express her negative feelings through anger and violence.
I came to say this too. Fairuza balk was my childhood crush I remember this was one of the first movies I watched "on demand" and I would pause it and just look at her lmao
I still find her attractive lol plus she's an actual wiccan, and the store that's in this film she bought and owns. Would love to actually get to meet her one day 😊
I rewatched it recently and to me both moments made perfect sense. Sarah initially puts the spell on that boy to humiliate him but, as she drifts apart from her sisters, she ends up seeing him as someone to confine her feelings to and sees him on a different light. Then the spell starts to get out of control and he gets violent but she never blames him for it. Then her sisters turned against her because Sarah tries to bind Nancy and Nancy has control over the other ones, so she makes sure they follow her. Probably the other 2 are worried that she will take everything away from them as she threats to do to Sarah. Also the whole turning into Sarah to seduce and murder Chris is a way for her to take control and show dominance over Sarah. I see it as a way for her to get revenge of what Chris and her step-father did to her as well.
I'm not super sure why this seems confusing to Chris. Chris (movie) attacked Sarah after he had been under that 'love' spell for a while and it was starting to drive him crazy, Stuckmann even says this. So like, a massive shit of a person, but this escalation was a result of the spell, not him. Also proof magic/power can have weird effects and corrupt over time. That's why Sarah was upset about what happened and her role in it. Sarah liked him, he was a dick, but under the spell initially, he was sweet and dumb and she kinda liked him again. These are teens, I was a teen watching it, complex emotions for a person were kinda on-brand. Nancy was jealous and upset about a lot, and going a bit power crazy (same with Bonnie and Rochelle). Magic was her thing and her outlet and sense of control from a terrible home life before and then Sarah kinda took it over (not really Sarah's intention) but I can understand how that felt shitty for Nancy. Plus, Nancy had a history with Chris and his betrayal and what she saw as Sarah's betrayal pushed her over the edge. Bonnie and Rochelle were best friends with Nancy for years and they all understood each other and their pasts. Then Sarah tries to bind Nancy's power which they all see as a betrayal and unjustified. Also, they are all jealous of how powerful Sarah has become. They were supporting Nancy while also turning power-hungry and jealous themselves. I never felt confused by the motivations. I actually thought that a lot of it was well thought through with good early setups and payoffs. Not like some Oscar-winning writing, but nothing so glaringly plot-holey that I was taken out of the narrative. Real solid movie for what it was. Got so many high school/middle school-aged girls into witchcraft for a while lol myself included
I'm already expecting those same circle jerks to complain about Bride. It sounds amazing from what I hear, I'm also a huge fan of the producer/actress. 355 doesn't look bad, my only concern is Kinnberg.
It was an era where a female-led movie wasn’t weighed down with a script preaching about girl power, or press junkets where women bleated about how amazing you are if you own a vagina.
Nah I saw Charlie’s Angels & Ghostbusters’ box office receipts I’m happy hope there’s no hard feelings on the wokes part but the crying from Elizabeth Banks & Paul Feige suggests otherwise
07:40 - THIS was exactly what I thought, the other girls only found power when Sarah appeared and that added an element of complexity to the story. I always wanted a follow up as to how she handled the next phase of her life. Sidenote, this was a massive coming of age film for me, along with Scream and I Know What you Did Last Summer. I think The Craft was the first mature film I rented by myself aged 15 from Global Video - a UK version of Blockbuster (I miss the 90's). Great analysis, I never clicked so fast 😎
She actually liked him. Then he was a jerk, but she still wanted him to like her.. because she's a teenager. But she put a love spell on him, so technically everything he was doing wasn't him, and he had no idea why he was even doing it, and why he was obsessively thinking about her. So basically.. it was Sarah's fault for putting the spell on him in the first place.. because he wouldnt have done the things he did otherwise. She literally took away his free will, by putting a love spell on him.. thats why putting love spells on specific people is a BIG no no. Shes upset after he dies, because she feels guilty knowing she was the one who caused him to end up dead. He was a jerk yes.. but she didn't want him to die. None of it would've happened, had she just left him alone.. but she didn't. And she knows it.. hence her being upset. Also Nancy became corrupt with power, and didnt like Sarah trying to check her. So she influenced Bonnie and Rochelle to be on her side.. because they didn't need Sarah anymore. Literally every high school everywhere.. IJS lol
I find absurd the notion that because you are a man, you are not able to make compelling women characters/stories and the same for the inverse. I feel that is this kind of mentality that has lead to the decline in quality of storytelling in movies in recent years.
Outliers by definition are not the rule. For every excelent portrayl of women by male writers there are a hundred terrible ones. This is true of most demographics; Writing from a PoV outside your own lived perspective and experience is definitely not impossible- it can be done- but it is bloody hard and its very easy to screw it up.
Have to agree to disagree on that one. Yeah, taken to more extreme examples that becomes a problem - I wouldn’t expect many writers who grew up in Hollywood for instance to write a convincing story about being, say, a child soldier in Africa, but a woman from a similar country, or era, or economic background? Their life experience simply isn’t that mysterious or hard to fathom.
@@troikas3353 for a long time you had authors of both sexes doing great stories with fleshed out characters. The problem nowdays is that you have people seeing chars as just a set of characteristics and being reductive about the human condition and the human nature. If we take out stuff that us specific of culture and socio-economic backgrounds that are specific to countries and eras, most of the humans experiences are universal, and the ways we cope and deal with problems and challenges are in many ways similar. Even if the context changes, you will see that people do similar stuff on similar situations. Is a testament on how you didnt need any of those pandering crap that plagues hollywood those days to have stories that were universal and were appreciated in other countries. I grew up loving a lot of usa and other foreign movies and series here in latin america and never needed or felt that they were missing something because they werent made by a latino, fir example, the same for my sister and mother. This mystifying of each one experiences, pretending that is alien to anyone but an specific group is detrimental for society, since it alienates everyone by segregating on our differences instead of unifying us in what we have in common. Is idiotic.
Frank Herbert created The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. They were always fascinating characters. Their Litany Against Fear was created by Herbert. Herbert didn't shy away from being controversial. He imaged the male dominated Bene Tleilax as a Middle Eastern influenced race that had so little use of their females they reduced their role in their society as nothing more than technologically enhanced, grossly distorted birthing tanks.
Wait, we know Bonnie And Rochelle’s reason for turning against Sarah: Sarah tried to bind Nancy from using magic. The three original members of the group have been friends for years. They know Nancy’s horrific home life. They probably understand that magic is Nancy’s one lifeline. Granted, there are some “Mean Girls” dynamics going on, too, but Nancy is the leader. She has Rochelle and Bonnie’s loyalty. And, another important factor: Sarah acted directly against one of her “sisters.” Nancy only attacked Chris after he assaulted Sarah. From the girls’ perspectives, Chris had it coming and Nancy was avenging Sarah (and, obviously, herself).
Oh yeah, I forgot!
This right here, makes it a B+ movie, thank you VERY much
I feel like there might also be an implication that the magic corrupts.
As for the guy, that kinda makes sense to me, too. When you really like someone, you can look past all kinds of bullshit. Also, you can feel very bitter toward them while also still liking them. Motivations in those kinds of situations don't follow a linear path.
In addition, the movie brings you hints that something happened in the past between Nancy and the guy, that why the girls warned about the guy. Iam speculating that Nancy started to be jealous from Sara and the guy.
Exactly, but I think Nancy was also feeling jealous about Chris as well. After accidentally killing him, I'm pretty sure she was taking a Chronicle turn though.
The girl seeking out the shitty guy despite the friends' warnings and such, to me, is very real. I've had NUMEROUS friends go through that sort of situation. You know, minus the death or curse part.
Yeah and she had conflicting feelings. She did like him and was mad at him and felt guilty for bewitching him. I totally got where she was coming from with that plot line
Yeah it's very common for us to be mistreated and hate the person who did so, yet still crave their approval in some way
I guess you have to have the high school girl experience to understand how the girls got so vicious seemingly out of no where. The subtlety at which they played the turning against Sarah seemed realistic to me. Nancy being their 'queen bee' also goes a long way in explaining their behavior to me. Truly a 'Mean Girls' situation. 😆
I didn’t scroll down to find this comment, before adding my (very similar) two cents, but let me just say... YES!!! 😊
I was scrolling to see who finally say the obvious about motivation issue 😂
Exactly!!! It’s a girl thing. One minute you’re best friends, the next minute you’re mortal enemies. 😂
Exactly!!! It’s a girl thing. One minute you’re best friends, the next minute you’re mortal enemies. 😂
@@arnamajcher9008 so strange really...
I kind of had a feeling that they were going to turn on Sarah when it was made known that Sarah was a natural witch. There was a hint of jealousy from Nancy specifically when Sarah tried her first spell and it worked.
Absolutely Nancy had a real chip on her shoulder.
Exactly. Sarah received those abilities generationally. Nancy and the others were just practicioners and recreational witches that have to do spells and rituals to use demonic powers that way. It's sort of an elite thing amongst witches. Everyone isn't bloodborne, but can still get in if you know what I mean.
As a teenage girl, I watched The Craft for the first time. I had no problem following the changes in the female relationships. I wonder if some of that is lost in being a man. Female relationships, especially at that age, can be very different and toxic with weird power plays.
Yes!! When he said that it didn’t make sense when the girls turned on Sarah, I was thinking “uh yeah, it didn’t make sense when Liz and Rachel turned on me in 10th grade either, but it happened”. This is such a true representation of the weird power plays that take place in girl friendships. I think it was genius writing and shows a real understanding of the relationships being portrayed.
Yes! I commented the same before reading your post. This was actually quite a realistic, subtle turning with a queen bee calling the shots.
Girls learn power hierarchy as young as 8 or 9, and the dynamic between the child and best friend to least "best" friend. As a male outsider witnessing the backstabbing, power plays, gas lighting, and worse in female friendships, I have no idea how all of you don't kill each other.
Your malarkey peaks between 15-19, but it's not like it drops any appreciable amount as you age.
ya beat me to it kim, well said lol couldn't have put it bette rmyself it all comes down to social psychology
I'm a dude. It wasn't lost on me either.
Teenage girl friendships can be shaky and toxic. Nancy was the leader of the friend group. When her and Sarah fell out the other girls turned on Sarah. They were followers. It is really that simple. I have loved this movie since the 8th grade. ❤️
Thats how I saw it as well. They were already friends so they still had some loyalty to each other.
Same! I loved this movie as a pre-teen. I thought their motivations were very clear. The two were first followers of Nancy, whether out of loyalty or even fear. The fact that Sarah tried to bind Nancy after Nancy did what she considered a favor for Sarah didn't help, either. They also seemed jealous of Sarah for being a "natural" witch who had a better handle on spells. So sure enough, once Nancy was out of the picture, they go to appease the next strongest witch, which was Sarah. They always seemed kind of cowardly in that way.
When *she* and Sarah fell out.
Pretty sure 100% of us agree, Chris missed that and the third act is actually very fitting and this movie is an A.
Nancy was pretty much jealous of Sarah from the start. Chris liked Sarah; Sarah was naturally better at magic. Bonnie & Rochelle pretty much did what Nancy said. Sarah pushed back. Plus, as Sarah pointed out, Bonnie and Rochelle's personalities changed when their spells worked. None of the 3 wanted to lose their power and they needed their 4th.
Did anyone see Jawbreaker? Kind of a similar thing-they kill their friend accidentally, then cover it up, and the 2 become enemies of Rebecca Gayheart because she no longer wants to "follow" what Rose McGowan says.
Hey chris has a sponsor, good for him
H...he's been having sponsors
@@oosa358 I know but it was in the beginning instead of the end which i normally skip, it kinda took me off guard.
@@Jones183 because people don’t watch the sponsors 😂
That‘s what I thought. Really good for him. He deserves every penny! ❤️ For many years now he is one of my favorite creators on yt. Great work!
Yep, good for Chris indeed.
Annoyingly, there's a deleted scene that you can find on youtube that clears up exactly what you said was missing. Sarah tries to get the other two to agree to help bind Nancy and Nancy basically takes the girls apart emotionally and beats them down into following her, except Sarah. No idea why they didn't keep it in the actress for Nancy does an amazing job in it.
I wished they also kept that scene in the movie.
@@bonniehowell9206 Same!! It totally explained the rest of the film it should have been kept in the film - Nancy is scary as hell by then so it's totally plausable that Rochelle and Bonnie don't want to anger her and have her turn on them too
I remember when this came out. Every middle schooler was doing the "light as a feather stiff as a board". It was just that influential!
Wait that came from The Craft?! I remember the older kids trying that but didn't know it came from The Craft
@A Nic Yeah, people have been doing that for decades, if not centuries.
@A Nic oooh OK that's what I thought. It just seems like one of those old school "spooky" type games
LOL!!!!
I never had a problem with the third act. I assumed it was all homones, repressed anger and the corruption of power.
Yah it actually made perfect sense that the girls followed Nancy, they were scared of her and they had been friends with her long before they met Sarah.
@@cable7152 But it derails the pacing of the movie
"We are the weirdos mister"
Best line in the movie
Yeah. Have you ever seen them without those stupid hats on?
My BB m CBC blouu
So iconic
Legendary line.
I remember Fauriza Balk was also in American History X as the Nazi GF and The Waterboy, great underrated actress. Too bad you don't see her around anymore
"Red squiggly lines"
You mean a graph, Chris?
Yeah, that’s the question popping through my head as well! 😂
WOAH WOAH WOAH!!! Let me get this perfectly straight: You comment something that is completely unrelated to the fact that I have two HAZARDOUSLY HOT girlfriends? Considering that I am the unprettiest TH-camr worldwide, it is really incredible. Yet you did not mention it at all. I am VERY disappointed, dear gfx
Look at this graaaaph.....
AxxL penguinz0
To be fair to Chris he’s not from that kind of working background.
Fairuza Balk was also in Return to Oz, one of the scariest children’s movies ever made. Chris should talk about that.
Well, great, now I have Wheelers haunting my mind... 😱
@@Luv2Dnce4 You found the wheelers scary eh? What about the headless princess chasing after Dorothy?
Btw, that scene with the screaming heads, there’s a theory that the reason they start screaming is because in the moment Mombi screams Dorothy Gale she looses her magical control of the heads, and the decapitated women’s heads wake up on their own accord and realise for the first time that they’ve been decapitated and can’t feel their bodies, so they scream in horror.
@@esyphillis101 That is a horrifying theory, and I LOVE IT. Thank you.
YES! I watched this movie more than the original Wizard of Oz as a kid. Growing up, none of my friends had seen it and didn't believe it existed. Chris needs to bring this movie to more people's attention.
Mombi was just as scary!
Fairuza Balk: stole the whole movie by a country mile
I genuinely believe that without Balk's performance as Nancy this film probably would've faded into obscurity.
She stole my heart n I love it! ❤
Indeed, Balk is so captivating and enthralling as Nancy, that it's easy to forget that she's the antagonist, and is a little more memorable than actual protagonist Sarah! 😉
@@mothsforeyes Truth
BC she IS an actual Wiccan. She actually understood things and wanted to keep it authentic
I think the reason the two friends apologize at the end is to just get their powers back. Their still bad people, and think they need her just to restore their abilities.
I don't think they are terrible people, just terrible friends because they never truly cared about Sarah that much.
@@propogandalf They tried to convince her that her dad had died, used her dead mother against her, tried to drive her insane/kill her, and then didn’t even really apologize, they just said they were kidding around!
They were trying to save face and test her to see if she still had any powers, or that's kind of how I remember it
They're the type of friends who like you for what you have, not who you are.
Yes they only showed up to ask if she still had powers and if she wanted to "get together sometime", hoping to get their own magic back
5:28 That morphing FX shot was mindblowing, even with today's standards.
"I'm very confused... did she want this guy to be her personal servant, to humiliate him? Or did she actually like him and feel sorry for him?" and "It's hard to know what Sarah did to deserve this turn"............I see you've forgotten High School
And i see you forgot he is basing off his point of view of the script
Yeah, a lot of the behaviors and motivations can be excused because they are teenagers.
@@chriseaton2730 But it messed up the pacing of the movie
Yeah...I agree with you, maybe he was homeschooled or something. High school is a "war" zone lol!
Both she liked him and then he lied about her she wanted payback at first but then she started to like him again once he was nice to her teenage toxic relationship lol this movie had a lot going on but I loved it lol 💕
The Craft was the Mean Girls of the 90s, CHANGE MY MIND.
100 percent agree.
I concur!
Not going to change your mind.
100% the craft is the goth mean girls lol I love it
No need. You are correct.
you need to do "The Faculty" from 1998. perhaps the best 90's gem of a movie in my opinion. get on it
I love that movie!
One of my faves a forgotten Gem
+
Oh, god! Please!!!! Yes!
Thumbs down on setting it in Ohio, but filming it in Austin Texas.
*[RANT OVER]*
I took the ending as the other girls pretending that they're sorry & just trying to feel out if she still has her powers because they lost theirs. They say something snarky & that's when Sarah let's them know that she still has a powers & not to mess with her. I didn't interpret their apology as sincere. They wanted info from her.
That’s what I was thinking.
The plot where a group turn on one person within the group seems relatable to me.
If you search up The Craft deleted scenes, there’s one scene in particular on what sort of made Bonnie and Rochelle turn on Sarah. Honestly, the deleted scenes are genuinely really good scenes
So tell?
Tell what specifically? You can search it up and watch for yourself
Even without the deleted scene, all it takes is for the leader to hate someone and they follow
@@haus_of_adrian9481 clearly the scene in particular you brought up.
I need to check those out.
You obviously haver never been around teenagers? They have conflicting and chaotic feelings like that, that storyline is completely plausible in the 90's. Remember this is before social media and the advent of anti-bullying/anti-abusive awareness that swept through schools and public media in the early 2000's.
He's basing himself off the script
I was shocked when I realized Billy AND Sydney from scream where in it 💀🔪
Well it is a 90's film
Even crazy, this movie came out the same year as Scream.
Still waiting for a SCREAM review
Youre not a 90s kid huh?
I remember my church youth group showing us this movie to scare us away from the occult.
It didn't work as well as they wish.
That’s hilarious, i imagine some of the parents weren’t too happy about that 😅
@sethtenpas3237 I don't remember anyone being upset but this was 20 years ago 🤷♀️ I just know the whole group ended up being alt/ goth/ emo in high school 😅 myself included.
God the trailer for the 2020 Craft looks awwwwwfulllll
Yeah I’m not excited at all
Probably gonna be woke and that sucks. The original made the girls cool and bad ass without making it about them being girls.
Yes, looks TERRIBLE 😕
I've never seen the original but to be honest the remake looks fucking generic and bland.
I haven’t seen it, but never wanted to see it really. An unnecessary addition!
The girls betraying Sarah always scared me the most because it felt like I was experiencing the volatility of someone's rage. Like it didn't make sense why her friends suddenly became sadistic towards her
I have to agree with you on the 3rd act, some of it threw me off too. However, I thought about it like this, they were going mad with power, they were outcasts before but at the moment they gained the power to change their lives, they started to think they were untouchable. Sarah was attempting to get them to realize they were becoming different people but then again she did immediately bond with them. When the other girls turned on Sarah, they thought that they would go back to being outcasts and they didn't want to lose their power.
I don't know if it's because I was a pagan teen girl when this came out (or at least not long after) but I always thought the "turning on each other" thing was very natural as a side-effect of yielding far too much power for the human ego to bear in a sane way.
The Craft is the most Underrated witchcraft movie
Lol no 😂
JAJAJA no.
& it definitely feels the most genuine, since they actually did research and got in contact with actual practicing wiccan people, and used that information to make the movie as accurate as possible
i love it
100% agreed!
@@remoryu Really? Some of the stuff in there were made up. Wiccans conjuring dark entities? Yeah. No. Maybe in the olden days, probably. But for the time this movie was made, I doubt any actual wiccans CAN successfully conjure any entities.
I really like this movie when I was younger it gave me lost boys vibes
When I saw this movie for the first time, I thought the other 3 girls had gravitated to Sarah because she had powers and they didn’t. Sarah is the only one with powers at the end, so I think that theory is pretty solid.
I actually never thought of Sarah having all of the power as a theory, just a dropped plotline. To me it just made sense, they had no powers before her and then when they're separated, they don't have powers again. Sarah even mentions that her powers are always getting things mixed up, which I saw as her not understanding her powers and knowing how to direct it. Lovely review!
Omg Chris u just made my day. I was obsessed with this movie when it came out. I know I wasn't the only one who tried to play light as a feather at a stiff as board at sleepovers.
The turn of the movie is during the car ride through the traffic lights, this is when Nancy starts to win influence over the other two, as Sarah was kinda "pulling them away from her".. this is why it was out of the blue, when she took in the power she used it to influence them, she probably realized the power was from Sarah and was further jealous of her.. this really explains the turn ending as well when they are like "sorry.. ..." the big thing that held this movie back was the pacing and editing choices... they either needed to lose some scenes, or add another 1/2 hour too.. It feels like a sequel to a movie that was adapted from a script not meant to be part of a franchise due to being so fractured in plot and pacing... but it's definitely not a bad movie. I think maybe they thought they had like 9 months to film and then 6 months later the studio called and asked if it would still be ready to premiere in 3 months, so they had to rush every thing to finish up lol
I loved the insincere apology. Great script choice. Not everyone deserves a redemption arc.
@@Luv2Dnce4 or was it insincere? script drafts tend to lean towards my interpretations,.. (i used to read a lot of scripts in the 90s and 2000s lol)
@@dr.decker3623 I felt it was pretty obviously insincere, in the movie. Rochelle lets it slip that they are now powerless, then she and Bonnie walk away laughing under their breath that Sarah is probably powerless, too. Sarah doesn’t accept their lame excuses, and she uses her power to scare them with the falling branch.
@@Luv2Dnce4 yes, they say they never thought it would go that far, and that they were just started out as pranks, they ask her if she wants to hang out and chant, and when she turns them down Roch says "she prolly doesn't have powers anyway"... and they laugh thinking they are safe, because they still don't know it was Nancy that was using Sarah's powers to influence them, they still thought that Nancy had power of her own, and that they did as well, when the fact is they had obviously only seen real magic happen after Sarah arrived, they hadn't even done levitation yet, and even that scared/excited them lol, Sarah is the one that granted Roch and Bonnie's wishes, she is a good witch, a natural witch.. Nancy had convinced herself so much that she was the alpha, when the power left her it made her mad, as she is seen in an asylum at the end as well.
The craft made me gay AND a witch.
Same haha 😂
Haha then it worked on ya!
And some people say Hollywood doesn't have that type of influence on young people.
Lol 😂
What? Lol
Her brother,the covenant, is a hilariocity Chris.
Oh my gord, yes
holy crap i forgot that movie existed lol
And a great intro to Sebastian Stan.
Lowkey
Like lowkey
Low low lowkey
I love that movie.
Feels like some CW stuff which I have a soft spot for.
@@MajinLordVegeta I liked it. 🥰 I’m not ashamed 😂😂
I watched this film because I had a major crush on Neve Campbell back in the day. I’m glad I did watch it, cause it’s great. Also, I miss Fairuza Balk, she should be in more things.
It’s funny to me how the protagonist in The Craft has a dead mom while coincidentally Scream, a movie which came in out the same year as The Craft and also stars Neve Campbell, also features a protagonist with a dead mother
Also, Skeet Ulrich who plays Billy Loomis in Scream plays the guy that Sarah likes in The Craft. I had never noticed it until I rewatched both movies earlier this month, but I thought it was a funny coincidence that he and Neve are in both.
@@Sam_foster really? Holy shit, I never caught that 😂
I like how, within 1 minute of it being uploaded, someone disliked this 10 minute video. Whoever you are, you're a tool.
There will always be assholes out there who just want to be negative. Maybe a competitor reviewer, or just someone filled with hate and spite. I honestly never really notice the thumbs up or down, I just enjoy the videos.
Fairuza Balk was my first crush as a kid. I was fascinated /attracted to her weirdness.
How many movie reviews will you do this week?
Chris: Yess
Chris, I always got the impression all the power came from Sarah in the first place. The circle just shares the power between them all.
"I hope you guys are having a good time with these videos" Chris, my man, of course we are!! We fucking love the annual Halloween specials you do! One of the best holiday themed series that I wait for all year. You get me into the Halloween spirit and give me some great movies to throw on for my gf and roomies. It's always great reviewing these movies with you first before having a watch night with my roommates. Thanks for having such a great time with this!
ah, nostalgia. Fairuza was wonderfully dark. The main character's wig terribly distracting.
😅😅😅😅 it was so bad!!!!!
Terribly
I didn't notice the wig until the color switch and then it was very obvious and distracting for me
Man the Halloween special has been damn good this year.
The Chris thing makes sense to me. She still wanted him to like her, even though he was a douche. It's not uncommon. The girls turning on her makes sense to me too. Very mean girls like. Plus Sarah was powerful and they were jealous.
Teenage girls turning on each other with no actual reason is actually the most realistic thing about these 4 characters. That's just what teenage girls do.
Love that movie. I did know that was a theory I thought that was the point. Her mother was a witch. The store lady said she was a natural witch. They needed her to get magic. In the end Sarah didn't need 3 other ppl so clearly she just needed her powers awakened.
Have you heard of angel heart 1987. It’s a pretty underrated horror movie.
Good recommendation.
Sadly this foo doesn'treply to our comments. He doesn't care i guess
That movie is good.
A movie known for getting the X rating of the original cut. And one costar, she was on a certain 1980's primetime sitcom, effectively altering her image.
@@fromthehaven94 It’s a slow burner from Alan Parker featuring Deniro, Micky Rourke and an exceptionally beautiful Lisa Bonet.
It must have had some magic because you just conjured some serious 90's flashbacks.
We need a versus film. The Craft vs The Covenant
Yesssssssssss
The old craft vs.2020 craft lol
How do you NOT understand the storyline about Sarah casting the spell on Chris??? She was into him, he turned out to be a jerk. She was like a woman scorned, she wanted revenge, while at the same time she still had feelings. Feelings don't go away instantly. Especially when you're a teenager, they're all over the place. She wanted to have power over him, hence the humiliation, but she's still a good person, so obviously she was upset and full of regret when the spell went too far.
Contrary to what you said, this is a brilliant and nuanced storyline. It sucks that it went over your head. Peace xo
I don't understand why the reviewer can't understand why Sarah wouldn't want a popular boy to fancy her?!
The title card reveal is so 90’s it mailed me a free cd rom for
AOL.
Hahahaha
I love how everything from the 90s had that Dawson's Creek vibe to it. You had this movie, Halloween H20, I know what you did last summer, Scream films, etc. everybody and
their grandma in Hollywood wanted to do the Dawson's Creek thing.
I love The Craft I feel the same about the last half of the movie,I feel like there was more that just didn get filmed or was just left on the cutting room floor
I can see where the problems lie but I think it's more of a perspective issue. The filmmakers saw a completed plot, where everyone else saw the weak points.
Fairuza Balk really reminds me a lot of Judy Garland or her daughter, Liza Minelli. So it's really fitting that she was cast as Dorothy in Return to Oz.
There’s actually a deleted scene where it explains why Bonnie & Rochelle turn on Sarah. 👁👁 I feel like if they kept it in the final cut, it would’ve made sense why on the third act they were against Sarah.
That deleted scene totally explained the rest of the film it should have been kept in the film - Nancy is scary as hell by then so it's totally plausable that Rochelle and Bonnie don't want to anger her and have her turn on them too so they rally behind Nancy and help her try and destroy Sarah
A couple of things: 1) Sarah puts the love spell on Chris out of her desire to get back at him for spreading lies about her at school. The spell she cast went, "I drink of my sisters, and I ask to love myself more and to allow myself to be loved more by others, especially Chris Hooker." You've got to understand teenaged girl thinking, that outright rejection hurts most in any breakup, and even though the two of them never dated, let alone slept together, she trusted that he was a good person, and he showed his true colors the very next day. The public humiliation was the point, but I think she came to have sympathy for Chris the deeper he fell under the spell. He followed her everywhere, called her at all hours, and I think she began to assume that the spell had run its course and Chris had genuinely changed his mind, right up until he assaulted her. Why else would she have given him a chance at redemption when he asked to take her out for dinner? If she had thought he was a danger to her prior to that night, she would have kept her distance and stayed home.
2) Nancy doesn't kill Chris out of jealousy. It was established pretty early on that he had a history of mistreating the girls at his school, including Nancy, spreading rumors about her sexual proclivities and leading to her social isolation with Rochelle and Bonnie. So when Sarah tells the girls about her assault, she sees this as an opportunity to get back at him, especially in front of the rest of the school that had shunned and mocked her. She lures him upstairs, and teases him about their apparent past as partners, to which he shoves her off the bed. That final act of rejection infuriates her, so in order to get close enough to him to really mess with his head, she puts a glamor on herself to look like Sarah, the real object of his desire and the creator of his curse. Even when Chris calls her out for being jealous, Nancy scoffs at him, "you don't even EXIST to me!" She then takes her ultimate revenge and pushes him out the window, landing on the cement curb outside.
I don't think there was any doubts about Chris being a manipulative and lying asshole the whole time, but believe me when I say that being young and naive, a high school girl would likely ignore that in favor of the attention she was receiving, even if it was unreciprocated by her. When you finally experience being desired for the first time, it's intoxicating, even if, in this instance, that desire is the result of a spell being cast. To be wanted and powerful at age 16/17? It's a pretty heady exhilaration even without magic. Speaking from personal experience, girls of that age can be petty and vindictive for even casual slights, so there's no doubt in my mind Sarah wanted to get her revenge on Chris. But she came to feel badly for him because he was so hopelessly in love with her, which is why she felt guilty for his death, and why she said she felt that there was good in him despite the horrible ways he treated girls.
This review lets me know that you don't understand teenage girls.
And not even rape can convince a girl otherwise?
@@leonardofarias8843 What?
100%
Teenage girls don't understand Teenage girls 🙄😒
@@blackdragon6 I came here to say this.
This is one of my favorite guilty-pleasure movies. We watched it at almost every slumber party growing up. And of course, we then had to play light as a feather, stiff as a board.
SUCH a fantastic movie! Just rewatched it and it’s still a thrilling and entertaining ride up to this day. Thank you for reviewing this cult classic!!
Can you believe that the actor playing Sarah was wearing a wig the whole time. That’s an awesome wig.
Most underrated holloween film ever
Agreed, it was Mean Girls years before it even existed! 😉
Doubtful
This is actually a Martin Luther King day classic.. *eyeroll
Nah, this film is pretty shit.
*Batman forever
The thing about Sarah being the only one with powers.. that's how I always understood the movie, and why it's always worked for me - even the last part where Sarah shows that -she-, not the others, is the one to be feared.
I always understood it the same way. Right up until the "Invoking the Spirit" ritual, it seemed like Sarah was the only one who had any magic, and it was only her coming into their circle that allowed the other girls' spells to work, almost like she's the battery and the other girls are the conduit for her power. Even when Sarah is performing the glamour spell, I noticed, the other girls ask *her* to change their appearances, something they wouldn't need to do if they could use magic themselves. When Nancy successfully Invokes the Spirit and suddenly *she's* the one who can use magic without Sarah's influence, I always figured that was the reason they all turned on Sarah, because they no longer needed her, and Nancy, blinded by her jealousy and corrupted by her newfound power, wanted to reclaim her queen bee status.
Movie trailer voice overs. Takes me back!
If you think about it, the entity they worship is basically a version / shapeshift version of the Lovecraftian God Yog Sothoth.
Manon is both God and Satan and that he created the universe, while Yog Sothoth is everything. Azathoth created the universe but Yog Sothoth is a part of everything and even his grandfather Azathoth. Which makes me believe that Manon is inspired by Yog Sothoth.
This isn't even about just "teenage girls." This happens with grown women AND MEN all of the time! When you are desperate to fit in, and you struggle with loneliness and suicidal tendencies (Sarah has slit her wrists before) you are bound to attach to toxic people in more ways than one. They were a toxic friend group to begin with. This is shit that happens within those kinds of settings. Yes, very "Mean Girls"-like. And that could explain her trying to rationalize Chris' assault of her. Someone struggling with her issues would absolutely want to "protect" her abusers. It had codependency written all over it.
I will always have a big smile on my face knowing during the behind the scenes of the movie, a lot of scenes involving saying spells caused a lot of strife ESPECIALLY the beach scene. All manner of shit went wrong EVERYTIME they spoke incantations, and it’s like “guys are we sure we have professionals on hand in case we open the seven plagues by accident??”
When Chris said "every character is very unique" I couldn't avoid thinking 'they are the dark spice girls'.
I’m a huge fan of the craft and I have never heard the theory of Sarah having all the power! Thank you so much for your review of this classic yet flawed film !
Perfect timing, saw this movies yesterday for the first time
Sarah genuinely liked him, but she did want some revenge for what he did so that all made sense to me. Even if she didn’t really liked him THAT much it’s still very believable she would feel sad and partly guilty about what happened to him.
As for the others turning on Sarah, she stopped talking to them. She was avoiding them and tried to bind Nancy’s powers. So they went after her. I thought that was clear motivation for me. They showed how much having that power changed them and how they wouldn’t want to let that go. I thought it was pretty well done.
Please review “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” Chris, really curious to hear your thoughts on it!
I love my Simplisafe system! I set it up myself as you said in under an hour and it is great. I love/hate The Craft. I never got the motivation either, but, after much thought and being a victim of girl bullying as a child, I didn't know what I had done to make a group of girls hate me either. They just turned on me overnight. I asked one of them years later and it turned out that their "leader" was "jealous" of me. I think that is motivation here. I think Balk's character figures out that Tunney has more magical power than she does and that's why she turns on her and convinces the weaker members to do the same. I think Balk's character does the boy that way, because she wants whatever Tunney's character has. Girls sometimes like bad boys and Tunney's character wants to "fix" him I think. I didn't know about the theory that Sarah is the only one who has powers! Cool! That would help things make more sense. Especially as a lesson for Sarah about giving her power away to Nancy, and how badly that can go wrong.
I know I have asked before, but please consider doing a review "The Changeling" with George C. Scott. I cannot find it anywhere on your website and I would love to know what you think about it. Thank you. If I am ticking you off by asking repeatedly, just let me know and I will stop. :-)
If Mean Girls was in Hogwarts..... kind of.
I just realized this is why all my friends tried to play light as a feather stiff as a board at sleepovers. It was like a deep recessed memory.
This movie is a nostalgic *must* for anyone interested in "the path" or practicing witchcraft ♡
My sister was OBSESSED with The Craft back when it was out on VCR. Also, SimpliSafe is really great.
When you realize Billy Loomis and Sydney Prescott are in this...
If I remember correctly, it is hinted that Sarah's mom was a witch. I think that's why she had latent abilities and was this powerful. I remember when I was young, I was wishing they'd make a sequel with Sarah where we see her use her powers.
My thing when I was a teenager was Practical Magic, I love that movie
Actually I think how Sarah feels about Chris makes perfect sense, especially if you realize that she's a teenage girl and the kindest one among the group. She just wanted to get back at Chris for humiliating her, but she felt guilty after realizing that the love spell is not what she thought it was. It's permanent and it made Chris obsess over her (thus becoming a creepy stalker who assaulted her). Sarah was vulnerable enough to admit that she still likes Chris and that he doesn't deserve his "punishment" despite being angry at him, while Nancy, who grew up in a bad family situation, only knew how to express her negative feelings through anger and violence.
I had a hugggeee crush on Fairuza Balk when I was young after seeing this movie and waterboy. Thats where my attraction for goth chicks started.
true.. then came christina ricci and selma blair, but balk def takes the cake as most goth
I came to say this too. Fairuza balk was my childhood crush I remember this was one of the first movies I watched "on demand" and I would pause it and just look at her lmao
I still find her attractive lol plus she's an actual wiccan, and the store that's in this film she bought and owns. Would love to actually get to meet her one day 😊
I rewatched it recently and to me both moments made perfect sense.
Sarah initially puts the spell on that boy to humiliate him but, as she drifts apart from her sisters, she ends up seeing him as someone to confine her feelings to and sees him on a different light. Then the spell starts to get out of control and he gets violent but she never blames him for it.
Then her sisters turned against her because Sarah tries to bind Nancy and Nancy has control over the other ones, so she makes sure they follow her. Probably the other 2 are worried that she will take everything away from them as she threats to do to Sarah.
Also the whole turning into Sarah to seduce and murder Chris is a way for her to take control and show dominance over Sarah. I see it as a way for her to get revenge of what Chris and her step-father did to her as well.
Fairuza Balk the best character and actress in the movie on my opinion of course💀🤘one of the first goths I really loved
I'm not super sure why this seems confusing to Chris. Chris (movie) attacked Sarah after he had been under that 'love' spell for a while and it was starting to drive him crazy, Stuckmann even says this. So like, a massive shit of a person, but this escalation was a result of the spell, not him. Also proof magic/power can have weird effects and corrupt over time. That's why Sarah was upset about what happened and her role in it. Sarah liked him, he was a dick, but under the spell initially, he was sweet and dumb and she kinda liked him again. These are teens, I was a teen watching it, complex emotions for a person were kinda on-brand. Nancy was jealous and upset about a lot, and going a bit power crazy (same with Bonnie and Rochelle). Magic was her thing and her outlet and sense of control from a terrible home life before and then Sarah kinda took it over (not really Sarah's intention) but I can understand how that felt shitty for Nancy. Plus, Nancy had a history with Chris and his betrayal and what she saw as Sarah's betrayal pushed her over the edge. Bonnie and Rochelle were best friends with Nancy for years and they all understood each other and their pasts. Then Sarah tries to bind Nancy's power which they all see as a betrayal and unjustified. Also, they are all jealous of how powerful Sarah has become. They were supporting Nancy while also turning power-hungry and jealous themselves. I never felt confused by the motivations. I actually thought that a lot of it was well thought through with good early setups and payoffs. Not like some Oscar-winning writing, but nothing so glaringly plot-holey that I was taken out of the narrative. Real solid movie for what it was. Got so many high school/middle school-aged girls into witchcraft for a while lol myself included
For some reason I owned a VHS copy of this movie when I was in 4th grade. I lent it to a friend and his mom was PISSED. Great movie though
Just watched this for the first time. Chris is always spot on with his recommendations for underrated gems
Loved this movie. I don't even think the 3rd act is all that bad either.
Hoping the remake isn't lazy
Admittedly, I love this movie. Nancy is ICONIC.
The 90's, when you could have a all cast of badass females and noone got bent out of shape over it
According to Chris, it was very rare...
I'm already expecting those same circle jerks to complain about Bride. It sounds amazing from what I hear, I'm also a huge fan of the producer/actress. 355 doesn't look bad, my only concern is Kinnberg.
It was an era where a female-led movie wasn’t weighed down with a script preaching about girl power, or press junkets where women bleated about how amazing you are if you own a vagina.
@@ddc2957 I see someone bent out of shape.
Nah I saw Charlie’s Angels & Ghostbusters’ box office receipts I’m happy hope there’s no hard feelings on the wokes part but the crying from Elizabeth Banks & Paul Feige suggests otherwise
07:40 - THIS was exactly what I thought, the other girls only found power when Sarah appeared and that added an element of complexity to the story. I always wanted a follow up as to how she handled the next phase of her life.
Sidenote, this was a massive coming of age film for me, along with Scream and I Know What you Did Last Summer. I think The Craft was the first mature film I rented by myself aged 15 from Global Video - a UK version of Blockbuster (I miss the 90's).
Great analysis, I never clicked so fast 😎
Witches of eastwick had strong woman characters which was released 11 years prior
Oh man the craft is one of my all time favorites! Watched it when I was like 9 and fell in love forever!
Hey Chris, any chance we'll see reviews for Ghostbusters 1 and 2, or the Barry Sonnenfield Addams Family movies, for the month of Halloween?
She actually liked him. Then he was a jerk, but she still wanted him to like her.. because she's a teenager. But she put a love spell on him, so technically everything he was doing wasn't him, and he had no idea why he was even doing it, and why he was obsessively thinking about her. So basically.. it was Sarah's fault for putting the spell on him in the first place.. because he wouldnt have done the things he did otherwise. She literally took away his free will, by putting a love spell on him.. thats why putting love spells on specific people is a BIG no no.
Shes upset after he dies, because she feels guilty knowing she was the one who caused him to end up dead. He was a jerk yes.. but she didn't want him to die. None of it would've happened, had she just left him alone.. but she didn't. And she knows it.. hence her being upset.
Also Nancy became corrupt with power, and didnt like Sarah trying to check her. So she influenced Bonnie and Rochelle to be on her side.. because they didn't need Sarah anymore. Literally every high school everywhere.. IJS lol
“Despite being written by a man...” is Chris aware the greatest female-centric movie of all-time, A League of their Own, was written by two guys?
I find absurd the notion that because you are a man, you are not able to make compelling women characters/stories and the same for the inverse.
I feel that is this kind of mentality that has lead to the decline in quality of storytelling in movies in recent years.
Outliers by definition are not the rule. For every excelent portrayl of women by male writers there are a hundred terrible ones. This is true of most demographics; Writing from a PoV outside your own lived perspective and experience is definitely not impossible- it can be done- but it is bloody hard and its very easy to screw it up.
Have to agree to disagree on that one. Yeah, taken to more extreme examples that becomes a problem - I wouldn’t expect many writers who grew up in Hollywood for instance to write a convincing story about being, say, a child soldier in Africa, but a woman from a similar country, or era, or economic background? Their life experience simply isn’t that mysterious or hard to fathom.
@@troikas3353 for a long time you had authors of both sexes doing great stories with fleshed out characters.
The problem nowdays is that you have people seeing chars as just a set of characteristics and being reductive about the human condition and the human nature.
If we take out stuff that us specific of culture and socio-economic backgrounds that are specific to countries and eras, most of the humans experiences are universal, and the ways we cope and deal with problems and challenges are in many ways similar.
Even if the context changes, you will see that people do similar stuff on similar situations.
Is a testament on how you didnt need any of those pandering crap that plagues hollywood those days to have stories that were universal and were appreciated in other countries.
I grew up loving a lot of usa and other foreign movies and series here in latin america and never needed or felt that they were missing something because they werent made by a latino, fir example, the same for my sister and mother.
This mystifying of each one experiences, pretending that is alien to anyone but an specific group is detrimental for society, since it alienates everyone by segregating on our differences instead of unifying us in what we have in common.
Is idiotic.
Frank Herbert created The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. They were always fascinating characters. Their Litany Against Fear was created by Herbert.
Herbert didn't shy away from being controversial. He imaged the male dominated Bene Tleilax as a Middle Eastern influenced race that had so little use of their females they reduced their role in their society as nothing more than technologically enhanced, grossly distorted birthing tanks.
honestly I always thought that's what the movie implied, that Sarah was the only true witch with real power.