You know, this is L.A. We should be learning Mexican or something. 

 "Tell me you're from 1996 without telling me you're from 1996."  The Craft is one of those movies where I am constantly being reminded that this take place is the late 1900's. For some cool reason, a lot of American films from the 1990's realllly scream they are from the 1990's.  The fashion, vernacular, music and the budding cinematic obsession with sex.  My guess is that since the target audience for these movies was teenagers, they had to bat them over the head with ideas to remind them that these characters are "just like you."  Unlike today, teenagers in the 90's  were selfish, dumb and liked seeing themselves on screen.  (Rimshot)  Anyway, as someone who grew up in that era, there are times when all these nintety isms stand out more than the actual movie. Just look at the image above, it looks like it was straight out of a grungy music video and I can almost hear Eddie Vedder.  After sifting through a forest of 90's elements, I found this movie's plot to be entertaining.

Right off the "bat" (lol) I've seen this movie marketed as a horror movie because it deals with supernatural witches when in reality it is more of a teen drama coming of age story with some comedy sprinkled in. Since I am not part of the intended target audience for this, my view on this movie is skewed more towards impartialness.  That is to say, I see what the film is about and what it's trying to say and it's fine.  If I was a teenage girl in the 90's, like the main characters and I was having trouble fitting in and wished I could make people like me and punish those who don't, I am sure I would love this movie.  The story itself is about fitting in and betrayal while at times sneaking in some issues like self-mutilation, misogyny and racism.  Talking about all these issues openly in teen movies prior to the 90's was pretty unheard of so for that, this film gets a gold star.  What's also unheard of is affording both a high-rise luxury condo in Los Angeles AND a new car with $175.000. There is a scene in which one of the protagonists and her mother do just that with some life insurance money they stumbled upon.  This is an example where the scene took me out of the movie and I started thinking about today and how $175.000 in 2021 could be a down payment for a two-bedroom house in Rialto, I really miss the 90's.  

All in all, I found this movie to be fine, there is a structured story that does not end in a dumb and predictable cliche.  There is a structured story and characters go through changes, they just happen to be teenage witches.  However, the few horror aspects of the film were more supernatural and spiritual things rather than actual terror. I've now seen this movie categorized as drama and fantasy/horror.  Maybe it was the mom and pop video stores that I used to visit that had this under the horror section.  That was a very 90's thing to say.  Seeing Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich together in this film brings to mind Scream which was  released that same year and in which they worked closer together. Also, Breckin Meyer, friend of my pal Seth Green, is in this movie rocking a JTT mid 90's season Home Improvement style haircut (or lack thereof).  It was strange however that the movie starts off with a cover of The Smith's How Soon is Now and takes place in Los Angeles but there are not any prominent Hispanic characters.  In fact, I don't remember seeing any Hispanic characters at all.  They managed to remedy that in the sequel in 2020 but we don't talk about that movie.