Sarah (Robin Tunney from Empire Records as well as the TV shows The Mentalist and Prison Break) and her family have just moved to L.A. and she finds herself in a new school with no friends, having issues making new ones. In fact, the only people that seem to be interested in her are the school's head-jock Chris (Skeet Ulrich now known for his role inJericho), who throws her to the wind when she doesn't sleep with him and a band of strange girls known as the Bitches of Eastwick. This trio of goth girls (not emo ... goth ... this was before that sad subculture appeared) are Nancy (Fairuza Balk who played Dorothy in Return to Oz), Bonnie (Neve Campbell, Party of Five) and Rochelle (Rachel True). Only these girls are more than goth, they are actually witches and they have been looking for a fourth to join their group and complete their coven. Based on Sarah's apparent natural abilities, she might just be the one.
It isn't long before Sarah's addition to the team allows the group's powers to grow exponentially. First, they each make a wish. Sarah wants Chris to fall in love with her, Bonnie asks that her burn scars be taken away and to be truly beautiful, Rochelle seeks revenge on a classmate, Laura (Christine Taylor, Zoolander and Dodgeball), who teases and picks on her constantly, while Nancy wishes to get out of her white-trash living arrangement and actually calls upon the powers of their god, Manon.
At first everything seems to be going right, but it isn't long before they realize the spells can grow out of control. Chris not only falls for Sarah, but he becomes obsessed with her and, like most stories of love spells, it becomes much more than Sarah ever wanted. Meanwhile, Laura's hair starts falling out and Rochelle's initial amusement over the fact quickly turns into guilt. Bonnie's scars do heal up, but as Sarah points out, she starts becoming incredibly vain and self-centered. But worst of all is Nancy. As a local spell shop owner tells the girls, magic isn't good or evil; what comes out of it comes from the user's heart, and Nancy's heart is apparently very dark as she starts to go a little crazy. Eventually Sarah tries to stop her three "sisters," but the growing tension between them (especially Sarah and Nancy) will eventually lead to a magical showdown like none other.
As far as the story and dialogue, The Craft holds up fairly well to the test of time. In fact, the only thing that really dates the film is the music and fashion ... but boy, does that date it. Well, actually there is one other thing, the special effects. I don't know if the special effects were actually this fake looking at the time, or if it is as apparent on the DVD as it is on Blu-ray, but scenes where Sarah uses magic to change her hair color just seem like some odd green screen or color-tinting tricks that don't upscale all that well. Similarly, a scene on the beach where the girls call for the power of Manon has some pretty nice looking lighting effects, but the lightning and stormy skies that are supposed to go along with the effect just don't sell it well enough. I don't remember these issues being quite so prominent the past times I watched the movie, but then again (as I stated above) I have grown more aware of faults like this over the years and on the other hand, it could just be more obvious in high definition.
As far as the movie's special features, The Craft has two making-of features, the original one and the one made in 2000 for the film's DVD release. Besides that, there are a couple of deleted scenes, so all in all, not really a whole lot to go gaga over. In fact, when it comes down to it, this film is good for a viewing or two (maybe around Halloween every year), but it really isn't worth the purchase, especially with the paltry number of special features it comes with.
