★★★★★

It’s more than just a cool witch movie. It’s about the pain of being a teenage girl and what happens when you finally fight back.

Allie D.

Louisiana

Released in 1996, The Craft may have entered the pop culture lexicon as a stylish, witchy teen drama, but there’s a lot more simmering beneath its black lipstick and Catholic school uniforms. It’s a film about power, insecurity, friendship, and what happens when trauma finds an outlet it can’t control.

At BoxReview.com, we like to revisit cult classics with a fresh perspective, especially those that meant something very specific to a generation. The Craft wasn’t just a horror movie for teen girls; it was a mirror, a warning, and, for many, a kind of liberation.

Plot (Spoiler-Free):

The film follows Sarah (Robin Tunney), a newcomer to a Los Angeles Catholic school, who discovers she has a natural affinity for magic. She’s quickly drawn into a friendship with three outcasts, Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell), and Rochelle (Rachel True), who dabble in witchcraft.

Together, they form a coven and begin casting spells to right the wrongs in their lives: physical scars, bullying, heartbreak, and abuse. At first, it feels empowering. But when power begins to tip into obsession, jealousy, and vengeance, things spiral quickly.

What starts as a supernatural coming-of-age story turns into a cautionary tale about the consequences of unchecked desire and unresolved pain.

What Most Reviews Don’t Talk About: This Isn’t Just About Magic, It’s About Trauma

Most people focus on the witchcraft, the ‘90s aesthetic, and Fairuza Balk’s iconic performance, and yes, those things deserve all the praise they get. But what The Craft truly excels at is representing how pain and trauma can bond people together... and also tear them apart.

Each girl in the coven is fighting a deeply personal demon:

• Bonnie lives with intense body shame from burn scars.

• Rochelle is quietly subjected to racial discrimination.

• Nancy comes from poverty and an abusive home life.

• Sarah has a history of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

These are real issues, and for much of the film, their shared experience of being “othered” is what makes their friendship powerful. Witchcraft is not the problem; it’s the outlet. It’s how their inner damage is externalized, and for some, weaponized.

It’s easy to frame The Craft as “mean girls with spells,” but that misses the point. This is a story about trauma empowerment and its limits.

Fairuza Balk: The Dark Heart of the Film

Let’s be real, Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs is the reason this film became a cultural touchstone. There’s a chaotic energy to her performance that’s simultaneously magnetic and terrifying. She doesn’t play Nancy as “evil,” she plays her as desperate.

Nancy’s hunger for power doesn’t come from cruelty. It comes from a lifetime of feeling powerless, unloved, and unseen. And while her descent into villainy is intense, it’s also tragic.

Her final scenes, manic, broken, and confused, hit harder than most reviews give credit for. This is a girl who finally had something and lost it all because she never learned how to cope with what came before.

Style, Music, and That Iconic ‘90s Energy

You can’t talk about The Craft without mentioning the style. The film’s wardrobe chokers, leather jackets, Catholic uniforms with combat boots helped define 1990s goth chic, influencing fashion and pop culture for years.

The soundtrack is equally memorable, blending alternative rock with ethereal tones to mirror the highs and lows of the coven’s journey. Songs like “How Soon Is Now?” and “Dark Secret” don’t just support the mood; they are the mood.

The film’s aesthetic has made it a go-to for Halloween costumes, TikTok edits, and fan art, but it’s not just skin-deep. The look is tied directly to the girls’ identities, armor against a world that hurts them.

Witchcraft as Metaphor: Agency and Consequence

In many ways, The Craft uses witchcraft as a metaphor for female agency in a world that punishes girls for taking control. The spells the girls cast to make themselves beautiful, to punish racist bullies, to escape their trauma are all efforts to rewrite the rules they were given.

But Coppola (and writer Peter Filardi) don’t let them off the hook. Every action has a consequence, and that moral thread runs strong through the film’s third act. Power, in the hands of the wounded, doesn’t heal. It inflames.

This nuance is what sets The Craft apart from the many witchy teen dramas that followed in its wake.

Legacy and Relevance Today

Nearly 30 years later, The Craft still speaks to young audiences, especially women, who are told to “be good” even when the world is cruel. In an era of internet witchcraft, trauma awareness, and social justice movements, the film feels weirdly modern.

It’s also one of the few horror films from its era that centered on young women, gave them real emotional depth, and didn’t kill them off for being “too much.” That alone is worth celebrating.

Final Thoughts from Box Review

The Craft isn’t perfect, some effects are dated, and a few subplots feel rushed, but it’s emotionally authentic, thematically bold, and deeply personal. It’s not about witchcraft. It’s about what we do when no one’s listening, when no one believes us, when we finally realize we have power and aren’t sure how to use it.

At BoxReview.com, we love movies that stay with you. The Craft might wear eyeliner and play with candles, but it’s really a film about identity, friendship, and the messy process of growing up with scars and all.

Box Score: 8.7/10

A beautifully witchy, emotionally charged cult classic that still resonates with anyone who’s ever felt powerless, angry, or alone.

Watch Now on Amazon!