The Craft is actually a fun little teen-witch drama from the mid-90s and even though it’s hardly perfect, the film was entertaining and featured good performances from its core cast.
The Craft
— Collector’s Edition —
(1996)
Genre(s): Supernatural Horror, Thriller
Shout Factory | PG13 – 101 min. – $29.99 | March 12, 2019
Date Published: 03/06/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Shout Factory provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: After transferring to a Los Angeles high school, Sarah (ROBIN TUNNEY) finds that her telekinetic gift appeals to a group of three wannabe witches, who happen to be seeking a fourth member for their rituals. Bonnie (NEVE CAMPBELL), Rochelle (RACHEL TRUE) and Nancy (FAIRUZA BALK), like Sarah herself, all have troubled backgrounds, which combined with their nascent powers lead to dangerous consequences.
Review: It’s been a long while since I last watched The Craft, a sort of typical mid-90s era teen film with the occult-horror spin on it. However, unlike Scream, which was released the same year (and shared two actors in Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich), this one wasn’t quite the box office hit making less than $25 million ($50.7 million adjusted for ticket inflation). But it would seem over the years it has garnered a bit of a cult, so to speak, following and arguably helped created the television series, Charmed (that series theme song “How Soon is Now” was featured here). As for the movie itself, I enjoyed the hell out of it. As I said, it’s been a good long while (10 years at least), this second viewing son many years later was a lot of fun, riding the line of cheese and seriousness quite well and features a wonderful quad of lead actresses, the best of which was Fairuza Balk who was an utter blast going over-the-top in some scenes, though still keeping it deliciously and wickedly entertaining; kind of wonder why she, or even Rachel True, never quite caught on compared with Neve Campbell (though Scream certainly helped) or Robin Tunney, though to be fair, both of them weren’t bad either.
The Craft was co-scripted and directed by Andrew Fleming (Bad Dreams, Dick) and at least when you compare this with the likes of Urban Legend or Valentine (not to pick on Jamie Blanks), doesn’t look as dated, even with a soundtrack of its era. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover and the interior cover is reversible revealing the film’s original poster artwork. Audio Commentary – This is an older track with director Andrew Flemming and despite being solo, does keep the flow going fairly well breaking down certain scenes as well as the general production. Interviews (TRT 50:26):
Each of these are new interviews with the filmmakers as they discuss how they became involved with the project, their memories of the production and on-set stories. None were exactly mind-blowing but still worth the time investment in watching them all. Conjuring The Craft (24:35) is an older featurette from 2000 with interviews by the cast and crew. The Making of The Craft (5:59) is a short EPK-like featurette with an annoying narrator. Deleted Scenes (6:36) – There are three scenes that didn’t make the final cut. Also includes an optional commentary track. Theatrical Trailer (1:50) |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| The Craft conjures itself onto Blu-ray through Shout Factory in the studios latest in the “Collector’s Edition” line. There’s no mention of any sort of restoration so presumably this 1080p high-definition transfer of the film’s original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio was given by Sony and no restoration was done. Even so, the picture does look decent enough and while not exactly sharp, as even some close-ups weren’t entirely well defined (almost splotchy for a lack of a better word), the natural noise wasn’t half bad. Colors meanwhile aren’t half bad though it is a dark looking movie in keeping with the witchcraft elements. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| Per the norm, this disc comes with 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks, the former being the default option and how I watched the movie. As such, it is a nice sounding lossless track and although this is not the kind of movie that will test your surround sound system and speakers, still sounds good providing for clear dialogue coming via the center channel. The front and rear channels do get some modest usage for ambient noises (such as when the girls conjure up the spirits) as well as the score and soundtrack. |
OVERALL – 3.75/5 |
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The Craft is actually a fun little teen-witch drama from the mid-90s and even though it’s hardly perfect, the film was entertaining and featured good performances from its core cast, especially Fairuza Balk in all of her bat-s insanity of a character. This Blu-ray release from Shout Factory has good video and audio transfers and a respectable selection of bonus material. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.