By: Claudio “Manon” Cortés

Today’s film may or may not have contributed to a lot of people’s obsession with goth culture and witchcraft during adolescence and early twenties. I have a theory that there is a correlation between the release of this movie and an uptick in sales of pentagram necklaces, black clothing, doc martens, and ouija boards at various local goth gear distributors like The Alley, Medusas, and Hot Topic. I will admit, I am among the guilty of adding to those sales figures, albeit about six years after the film was released. Moreover, this film along with many other films and television shows of the era helped warp 9 year old me’s view of what I thought the high school would look like. It turns out that imaginary high schools in California really didn’t correlate with the experience of midwestern single sex education, who would have thought? Let’s just say our libraries were significantly less utilized and had way fewer books and “occult” sections. 

Today’s movie pick is the 1996 spooky high school drama, The Craft. The plot of today’s film takes the new kid at school plot, adds high school clique drama, witchcraft, 90s adults in high school casting( the scream franchise) , and revenge. The main question that it asks of the viewers is , if you were a member of an oppressed class and suddenly had access to unlimited power to exact revenge on everyone who wronged you or even slighted you in the least, would you do it? If so how? This movie is worth a jog down memory lane, if you are my age, a slight hobble will do.  Side note, if this was filmed in 2020 at least one of these witches would have been Latinx.

You can rent The Craft on Amazon Prime and take in a bit of 90s nostalgia while you are there. 

How does one accompany a film with an existing soundtrack that already features The Smiths, Portishead, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Jewel??? Why with another song by Siouxie and the Banshees, specifically Spellbound because duh..witches.

Keep up with the playlist as it builds Here

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