Crafty Characters
A coven of bewitching teenage girls takes possession of a supernatural thriller
By Helen Lee
This article appeared
in the May 1996 issue
of Cinescape magazine.
Adolescence is a busy time for girls, what with the demands of family, school,
dating and social competition. But the four young women depicted in the upcoming
Columbia/TriStar release The Craft have found an unusual hobby to help them get
through those angst-filled years--witchcraft.
In The Craft, a supernatural thriller directed by Andrew Fleming, Robin
Tunney plays Sarah, a troubled 17-year-old who transfers to St. Benedict's Academy
in Los Angeles and becomes involved with a black-lipstick-wearing clique of would-be
witches."Ever since she can remember, she's been able to make things happen
by just thinking about them, wishing them," Tunney says. "She starts
at this new school and meets these three girls [who have] a witchcraft circle...basically,
they make things happen together."
Do they ever---ranging from love spells to cockroach invasions. But the film's
supernatural shenanigans aren't just played for their entertainment value. "It's
a story about female empowerment and young woman coming into their sexuality and
suddenly realizing there's this inner territory that they're exploiting that seems
kind of vast and powerful and dangerous, says the film's producer, Doug Wick (Working
Girl, Wolf).
To make the film's spooky story truly powerful, emphasis was placed on making
the characters believable: "We were terrified of [making just another] witch
movie," Wick says. "I really wanted to feel that it was about the emotional
life of the girls, even when we got into genuine supernatural activity."
No tale of cackling, broomstick-riding hags, The Craft actually aims to
chance opinions about Wicca, the ancient religion from which witchcraft stems.
The filmmakers even went so far as to have a real-life witch on the set to ensure
accuracy in the depiction of Wiccan practices.
Fleming stresses that what happens to the girls is not only the result of magic,
but also stems from their developing personalities. "Witchcraft/earth worship
is very benign for the most part, and it's gotten a bad rap over the years--mostly
because Christians on the whole like to demonize things that aren't Christianity,
especially if they're run by women. Basically, that's all witchcraft is--women
worshipping goddesses. I think ultimately the movie plays like a 100-minute commercial
for witchcraft in a way. It makes it look like fun."
Having the powers of witchcraft at your disposal can definitely improve those
awkward high school years. The young witches, with Sarah's help, are able to change
test scores, eye colors, even cast love spells. But then things get out of hand,
and that's when special effects take center stage. For this film, taht meant everything
from a cast of thousands of cockroaches to making a character walk on water.
At times it almost seemed as if dark forces were at work on the film set, the
director notes. "There are two pivotal scenes in the movie that take place
outside--one of them is at the beach and the other one is in a forest. Every time
we tried to shoot either of them, something would happen to prevent it,"
i.e., it rained or the set got washed out by waves. Then a child fell out of a
third-story window in a building where the crew was filming.
Were these spooky occurrences a case of life imitating art--the dark arts? "Maybe everyone in the crew was just looking for things like that [to happen]," Fleming said.
But the director admits he has a healthy respect for the Wiccan goddess' powers these days.