Part clique after school special, part monkey's paw parable, part ode to mall goth. Andrew Fleming's THE CRAFT may be peak MTV-era broad strokes horror, but like the best cult classics, it offers richer material for consideration when tilted in just the right light. What could be sold as a catty coven's exploits (it's not, not that) instead finds focus in the characters wrestling with how they and their peers use the group's bodies to define who they are. The film is not short of scene-munching villains worthy of comeuppance but its joys rest firmly in our rooting for these women to find themselves. They are the weirdos, Mister. -- Andy Helmkamp
Aug 31
The Craft
Dir. Andrew Fleming USA 101 min R
1996
35 mm