Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: Day 27 - The Craft

I have no idea what this film is about so this will be fun.

We start the film with 3 girls sat round a table chanting - I’m going to guess they are witches and some weird stuff is going to happen.

Cavity Colors design by Devon Whitehead

A family have moved into a new house that’s leaking and has a creepy man with a snake that visits - I would be out of there like a shot! Sarah - the new girl - goes to school the next morning and looks very out of place as she doesn’t have a uniform. The trio from the table walk through the corridor and are heckled by a group of typical teenage idiots. In French class, one of the trio - Bonnie - spots Sarah balancing a pencil on its tip without touching it, and Bonnie is convinced she is the fourth to join their group.

Chris - one of the loser guys - tries to flirt with Sarah and he warns them to stay away from the 'Bitches of Eastwick' as they are witches. Chris tells Sarah he has football practice tonight and she can come to watch him. She pretends she isn’t interested but turns up to watch him, and the trio approach her and warn her off Chris and they go shopping together. Nancy spots Sarah’s self harm scars and Bonnie comments that she even did it the right way - they clearly have both been through difficult times.

The group end up in a witch shop where she talks to the owner who tells her she may be a natural witch. While walking down the street, Sarah encounters the creepy man from her house and he tells her she was in her dream but he gets hit by a car. The trio are convinced that Sarah is the fourth and they made it happen - to be fair he was standing in the middle of a busy road not looking so I don’t know what they thought would happen!

The trio tells Sarah about their belief, and tells her they worship Manon who takes all the bad things away and makes things better. Sarah is unnerved and leaves the group but Nancy says she will be back. Sarah goes on a date with Chris who tries to get her to go back to his house as it’s empty but Sarah says no - somehow I don’t think he is going to take rejection well. The following day Chris started a rumour that they had sex and she was rubbish - I knew he wouldn’t be happy!

Rochelle has a run in with bully Laura - so something is going to happen to her! Bonnie undergoes some experimental treatment to remove burn scaring from her back- it looks really well done...and painful! That night Sarah has a flashback to when she tried to commit suicide, and Nancy seems to have spent the night wandering around in the rain - she seems unhinged. You get a glimpse as to why Nancy has turned to magic...her home life sucks! The following day the group go on a road trip where they chant and doing something weird with a knife that I don’t understand but it seems that Sarah is now officially part of the coven. They mix their blood with some wine and drink it while casting spells of revenge, beauty, power and love.

Their spells seem to work as Chris seems infatuated with Sarah and follows her everywhere. That night the group are together and are able to lift Rochelle up off the floor by saying ‘light as a feather, stiff as a board’ - unluckily for Rochelle, Bonnies mum interrupt the girls and she come crashing to the floor. Sarah manages to rip a piece of Laura’s hair out and braids it into Rochelle’s hair, while Bonnie pleads Manon to clear her of her scars.

The following day at five practice, Laura’s hair starts to fall out much to the delight of Rochelle. Bonnie is back at the doctors and much to everyone’s surprise - which is concerning coming from a doctor - her scars have all gone after one treatment. Magic hey! The group believe they have made all of this happen but Nancy is fuming as her spell doesn’t seem to have worked. During an attack on her mother by her step father, Nancy screams at him to stop which leads to a small fire and her step father dying of a heart attack. Nancy and her mum learn that they are being given $175,000 from his life insurance policy which changes their life and they move into a fancy new apartment! Her step father was a bit of a twat so good for them I say. The girls sit round a candle and Sarah shows off her powers by turning her hair grey, then immediately changing her hair back to her normal colour. It's a pretty cool party trick!

Chris turns up at Sarah’s house at 3am and tells her he can’t stop thinking about her - the spell is clearly working although I feel slightly sorry for him! The girls are told by the lady who runs the magic shop that all spells have consequences and you should do to others as you wish thinks to be done to you - I think their spells are going to start to backfire! They go to a beach with each girl carrying a different animal - Bonnie a butterfly, Rochelle a fish, Sarah a bird and Nancy a snake. They sit in-front of a fire on the beach and cast a spell. I don’t know if the thunderstorm is something they have created or just a lucky coincidence? Ooosh Nancy got struck by lightening ... that’s got to hurt! Hey but now she can walk on water! Woah...she has lost the plot, maybe her new found power is too much to handle.

The group start to argue as they have all changed due to their powers. Bonnie becomes narcissistic and annoys the others. Rochelle finds Laura breaking her heart over her hair loss and feels bad. Sarah arranges to meet with Chris however this ends badly as he tries to rape her when she won’t accept his advances. Nancy wants to get back at Chris for Sarah so she goes to a party Chris is at and uses a spell to turn into Sarah after Chris initially rejects her, she tries to fool him into having sex with her. After the real Sarah turns up Chris is angry he has been tricked and tells Nancy she is jealous - this cause her to lose her shit and essentially pushes Chris out of the window killing him.

Sarah casts a spell on Nancy to stop her from doing harm to herself and others. The trio invade Nancy’s dreams and tell her if she wants to leave the circle she needs to leave the school too! Nancy tells her not to cast anymore spells on her and this is when the coven really turn against her. She goes to visit the lady in the shop who finally shows her what’s behind the curtain - turns out it’s a temple. She tells Sarah the only way to beat the trio is to invoke the spirit but she is scared to after what happened to Nancy - I’m not surprised as Nancy went cuckoo! The trio try to trick Sarah into thinking her family died in a plane crash and torment her with snakes, lizards, spenders and rats before trying to get her to kill herself. Nancy even slits her wrists for her. Sarah however manages to invoke the spirit and fights back - showing Bonnie what she would look like with a scarred face and Rochelle what she would look like bald! She manages to defeat Nancy - who is looking more and more unhinged as the film goes on. Sarah successfully casts a binding spell on Nancy stopping her from causing anymore harm to herself or anyone else. I don’t really understand the crazy fight scene - that bit of the film was a bit crazy and disappointing.

Bonnie and Rochelle no longer have powers and so go grovelling to Sarah who wants nothing to do with them. They say she must have lost her powers too but Sarah causes a tree branch to fall nearly hitting them and tells them to be careful they don’t end up like Nancy. Nancy who ends up committed to a psych hospital, with no powers and tied to the bed telling people she can fly!

I really enjoyed this film and would happily watch it again!

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