The Craft (1996): Review
The 1990s saw a resurgence of witches in the media. Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Hocus Pocus are some of the more mainstream examples. A slightly darker take on witchcraft is portrayed in what is now definitely a cult classic, The Craft. This movie is one of my all-time personal favourites and today we will be talking about why. Let’s begin!
A brilliant portrayal of toxic female friendships
We start The Craft with Sarah, a troubled teenage girl who just moved to Los Angeles with her family. She’s struggling to find friends until a group of school outcasts take her under their wing. This comes with a small catch: the three girls are looking for the fourth witch to complete their coven. They happen to think Sarah is the perfect fit.
On the surface level, it seems that the girls are best friends for the majority of the movie. However, if one looks deeper, one can see the toxicity and transactional nature of their relationships. After all, the girls only accept Sarah into their group after they spot her Wiccan abilities and think she can be useful to them.
Once Sarah gets back her common sense and stands up to them, the trio shun her. They also don’t hesitate to use Sarah’s deepest fears and insecurities against her in an attempt to kill her. Sure, Bonnie and Rachel back out pretty quickly but if anything, it shows their follower mentality and how far they were willing to go to begin with. Safe to say, they’re not someone you’d want as friends long-term.
Even before Sarah, it was clear Nancy led the other two. It seems a large reason why they stuck together was because no one else would hang out with them. To be fair, it’s pretty accurate grounds for friendship in your teenage years.
Another point worth mentioning is Nancy’s jealousy towards Sarah because of Chris. The viewers find out the two had shared history before Sarah arrived. There are sprinkles of it throughout the movie, culminating in Nancy’s reaction to Chris’s attempt to sexually assault Sarah. What initially seems like revenge for her friend quickly turns out to be a projection of Nancy’s insecurities. Even more nauseating is her jealousy over Chris as she tries to seduce him. She even resorts to glamouring herself to look like Sarah when that doesn’t work. Not exactly a girl’s girl, is she?
‘Be careful what you wish for’ is taken to the next level
A part of The Craft‘s story is once the girls form their coven, they cast spells for wish fulfilment. It’s essentially the end of the first act and throughout the second one, we see each of those wishes backfiring. Bonnie manages to get rid of her scars, which seems like a great thing initially, except it turns her from arguably the nicest one out of the three into a shallow bitch. Rachel wants to get back at her racist bully, causing her hair to fall out. She’s also probably the only one (apart from Sarah) to show a smidge of remorse, even if only momentarily. Not that said bully didn’t deserve reprimanding but it’s a classic case of fighting fire with fire.
The most drastic effects are reserved for Nancy and Sarah as they are ultimately opposing ones of the group. Nancy absorbs the power of Manon and it goes to her head, to the point where she loses all empathy. Sarah casts a love spell on Chris, on some level to get back at him for spreading rumours about her, but also because she still harbours some infatuation towards him. Chris’s actions after she does this have already been touched upon and they result in his death.
I think ultimately, The Craft showcases an interesting message. One cannot wish for something that affects another’s free will/their well-being without consequences, even if they deserve it. It’s also fitting yet sad that Sarah seems to be the only one to have learned this lesson. It’s clear as day when Bonnie and Rachel approach her in the end (the nerve they had was unmatched). Their words strongly imply that Sarah was always the only one with natural magic and the other three leeched on her. Nancy is another case entirely as the powers she asked for quite literally ended up driving her mad. Regrettably, it seems like the only possible conclusion to her character based on her actions.
Overall thoughts
There is a lot to look at when it comes to The Craft. It’s almost as if the magic aspect acts as a backdrop for the exploration of how terrible people can be to each other and how scary being a teenager can be. That being said, the movie’s portrayal of Wicca is quite interesting and worthy of exploring in its own right. It’s no wonder this film has become such a staple of the decade and beyond.
(5 / 5)
House of Dragon S2E2: Coors Lite seems to have sponsored this episode. Remember, this is NOT a spoiler free review. It’s Jim watching the episode and writing random bits down without proof reading. …. much like what the show runners must have done with the season bible.
Without any further ado…our House of Dragon S2E2 Review! (Crap, that rhymes!)
That one prince dude is still dead and like so is the other one. No, not that one!
So apparently, Matt Smith didn’t mean to really have that one baby prince die or something. But you know, it’s easier to kill smaller ones than ones with eye-patches. I guess. I mean, does anyone care who killed a baby prince? It’s not like the rest of Westeros is going to see the dead kid on parade with his grieving…wait…what?
Are you shitting me? I haven’t seen this much of an obvious heart tug attempt since that one time I paid that Russian hooker to give me ‘the full trump’.
So..a populace of people who are very poor and really couldn’t give two shits who is in charge…are going to cry for you if you display a kid’s body? Sure. I guess it worked for (checks notes) Absolutely nobody before.
That other queen and the dude from Doctor Who’s conflict:
With an unforced error that one queen basically puts out the one guy who would literally kill for her. Is this a weird plot point I’m missing? So far the people who didn’t let Matt Smith’s character (man, we need a name for him. I mean one I can spell) do what he needed to do all sorta failed and died. Wonder if that’s foreshadowing or just an extra thing to go through to fill time?
And TWINS!!!:
Remember that one guy who was a twin of the other guy? And like they took opposing sides of the throne struggle? Nope? Well, me neither. Apparently Coors Lite is sponsoring this episode as the ‘you’ll go in and kill someone dressed as your twin’ trope gets used. It almost works. Sorta. Kinda. Okay, it’s not even close.
Not even a beard to tell the evil twin apart, we get rammed right into…a fight that ends in both of their deaths. That’s a missed opportunity, but I think a lot of this show might just be that: A missed opportunity.
New Hand aka OK Boomer
Looks like they tried a Boomer thing with HoD. The other other king kid (does this guy even have a name? Let’s call him Spanky Z). Spanky Z is all like I does what I want so I’ll kill every rat catcher and like hang them up and stuff. You know, things that Joffery would say was ‘a weak show’. Apparently, the populace doesn’t like being gutted and having their sons/fathers hung up dead on public display. Who knew?
The Hand knew, that’s who!!! Oh boy, is he ever going to take it to his grandson/nephew/niece (incest, amirite?)! Orr…..not. What I meant to say is, Oh boy! Won’t he ever just show how apparently weak a Hand he is and just resign after being replaced by some white cloak “definitely a virgin and not fuckin your mom’.
I think we’d care more if…we remembered anything from Season 1 about anyone here except this:
- 1. White Cloak dude fucked his mom
- 2. King dude is like not really the king but a pretender
- 3. Hand dude sold his 7 year old daughter to fuck the old king so she would be queen.
This episode was stronger than the last. I think they can still turn the ship around. I’d give this one a 4/5
I think that sums it up for our House of Dragon S2E2 Review. Now, back to that Coors Lite…
(4 / 5)
Season four of Amazon Prime’s The Boys launched on June 13th of this year. Having now watched the first episode, I believe I can safely say that this season is going to be bonkers.
Let’s discuss.
The story
When this episode begins, things aren’t going great for Homelander. He’s irritated at everyone around him for constantly agreeing with everything he says. He found a gray hair and is finally facing his own mortality. Oh, and he’s on trial for murdering a man last season.
Homelander decides he needs someone around him who will tell him the truth. Someone who can help him build a legacy. So he seeks out a sup named Sage, whose superpower is being the smartest person in the world. And what does he want with Sage? He wants her to help him destroy America.
Meanwhile, The Boys aren’t doing so well. They’ve been tasked with assassinating Neuman because she is the presumptive VP. But Neuman manages to avoid their assassination attempt by being literally bulletproof.
Unfortunately, The Boys aren’t bulletproof. And as we find out in this episode, one might not last much longer.
What worked
In fiction as in life, it is the little things that matter. It’s the small details that make the difference between a fine show and an exceptional one. This episode was full of such little details. One such detail was Homelander finding gray pubic hairs.
The reason why this distinction is important is because later in the episode we find out that his stylist has been dying his hair. She’s been intentionally hiding the fact that he’s going gray. This is important because it’s just one more person in Homelander’s life who is being dishonest with him. And I think that is what’s going to finally crack him.
The timing of this season is something I’d like to shed some light on. It is so fitting that this came out during an election year. Because of course, The Boys is mimicking the very real infighting we’re experiencing in America. We’ve all seen protests break out into violence. We’ve all seen important trials spark controversy. This is just so much like our real experience, except that in The Boys, the megalomaniac blond man baby is competent and good at things.
Finally, I was amused and impressed with the evolution of Neuman’s character. She is a politician, through and through. The way she can smile at someone while threatening them, and then make a pithy quip at their expense is fantastic. She made me laugh almost every time she was on screen.
What didn’t work
If I have one complaint about this episode, it’s that a lot happened in this episode. We have a whole bunch of plotlines going on here. Like, so many things. Butcher’s health, Homelander’s aging, Ryan’s future, Frenchie’s new boyfriend, Annie’s charity, Sage’s plotting, Butcher’s old friend, A-Train and The Deep growing discontent. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. This is just a lot to keep track of. And I just hope they have enough time and space to do them all justice.
Overall, I have high hopes for this season. And Amazon must too, because it appears that season five is already in the works. But for now, we’ll be back very soon to discuss episode two of The Boys.
(4 / 5)
By the way, if you like my writing you can get my short story, Man In The Woods, on Smashwords and Amazon.
Computers are all the rage. Of course, you already knew that. But did you know that scientists, those denizens of deep throaty maniacal laughter and storms brewing over dark brooding castles, are building tiny brain computers now? So apparently this is what all the zombies are being used for… They’re the lackeys getting the goods. No surprise there, though, zombies do make good lackeys.
16 Mini Brains
It’s catchy. Like a jingle. And those sixteen mini brains are getting all sorts of attention nowadays. Apparently they’re all over social media. We don’t know what truths they think they’ll find there, but it has been said they do like to play Pong, so maybe some of those other kind of mindless clicker games will have similar appeal. Anyway, we’ve caught a rare glimpse of these little items of incidental intellect, through our prompting of the NightCafe AI art generator. And they’re kinda cute. See these renditions of the tiny brain computers for yourself.
Mushrooming Mayhem
It’s not just tiny brain computers though. Those sneaky scientists have also been experimenting with mycelium, harnessing the fungal power of mushrooms to make mental machine magic. Or create computer craft as it were. So what happens when the tiny brain computers and the mushroom computers start talking? Well, we aren’t sure, but we suspect the manifesting motherboard mushroom man would know. You’ll have to ask him. We hear he’s a fun guy.
So What Do the Ethicists Think About All This?
I have to admit, I don’t know any ethicists to ask about the topic, but that career path sure beats archaeology. All we know is that the scientists are at it again, and they haven’t had the best track record for working with ethicists, though morality has been a kind of touch and go subject through the course of human history anyway.
And the whole idea has been a big influence on AI generated art, with all sorts of people prompting all kinds of crazy combinations of computer creatures crawling with creepiness into the realms of dystopian nightmare. In fact, more of these stories seem to be illustrated using AI art generation than including actual images of the real life results, perhaps because the reality is that petri dishes of cells and fungal fragments really aren’t that interesting visually, just kind of snotty looking kin to the Blob…
