25 Little-Known Facts About “The Craft”

1. The girls used actual Wiccan rituals. The Craft‘s technical advisor was Pat Devin, a Dianic Elder Priestess. She consulted on the elements used in the movie and modeled them after actual rites.

2. Fairuza Balk is Wiccan in real life and eventually purchased the pagan store she frequented to do research for her role as Nancy. Panpipes Magickal Marketplace claims to be the oldest occult store in the U.S.. Unsolved Mysteries, Dream On, and Witchboard II have all used Panpipes as a filming location.

3. They brought in over 3,000 bugs, rats and snakes to film the scene where Sarah is tormented by the girls in her home including a boa constrictor that was more than ten feet long.

4. Light as a feather, stiff as a board doesn’t really require magic. It’s perfectly reasonable that four people could lift a fifth a few inches off the ground with one finger, no witchcraft needed.

5. The glamour scene is even more interesting than you think. Robin Tunney, who played Sarah, had just finished her role as Deb in Empire Records. Since she shaved her head in that film, her hair during the entire filming of The Craft is a wig.

6. None of the girls were high school age. In fact, Rachel True who played Rochelle was actually 30.

7. During the invocation of the spirit scene on the beach a bunch of spooky shit went down. A colony of bats appeared and lingered on set, the waves rose up and extinguished the candles used for the scene and when Nancy was calling for the spirit to “fill her” the set lost power.

8. The Craft is the 8th highest grossing movie about witches since 1980

9. The Smith’s song “How Soon Is Now?” as covered by Love Spit Love plays in The Craft. It was then used as the theme song for a television show about witches, Charmed.

10. Someone didn’t know their French. There is a technical error in the scene where they are in French class. The message on the board is supposed to say “If you would have done your homework you’d understand” but says “Si vous aviez faites vos devoirs, vous comprendriez” instead of the correct form, “Si vous aviez FAIT vos devoirs, vous comprendriez.”

11. There were short-lived plans for a straight-to-DVD sequel focusing on Nancy’s character. Despite opening at #1, massive cult success, and the prayers of goth girls everywhere it ain’t happening.

12. In France, the movie is called Dangereuse Alliance, which is kind of a sucky title.

13. Despite following guidelines for a PG-13 movies, the MPAA gave the movie an R rating. The director, Andrew Fleming, suspects it was just the fact that teen girls are experimenting with witchcraft.

14. Neve Campbell (Bonnie) and Rachel True (Rochelle) became best friends during filming, and are friends to this day.

15. The Craft was Neve Campbell’s first film to get a wide release.

16. Skeet Ulrich and Neve Campbell both followed up The Craft with another horror movie, and Neve’s first leading role, in Scream. Drew Barrymore was initially signed on to play Sidney Prescott but a conflict with another project forced her to change roles to Casey Becker. Neve was initially hesitant to follow up The Craft with another horror film, but Scream would be her first leading role.

17. Fairuza Balk (Nancy) didn’t actually have to get covered in bugs for filming. They used special effects to make it look like they were crawling on her, but they actually shot the bugs crawling over a dummy.

18. You can buy custom made candles in scents like “Wisdom Keeper” from Fairuza’s website—Fairuza.com.

19. The god the girls invoke, Manon, is made up. The technical advisor asked not to use a real deity because she “didn’t want hordes of teenagers running down to the beach or out to the woods invoking anybody real.”

20. Manon later appeared in real books, however. Though she did extensive research before the movie to ensure there was not already a deity named “Manon” in existence, the technical advisor has seen this name appear on lists since the movie came out, because people assumed it was real.

21. However his name resembles an actual Gaelic god, Mananan. Mananan is god of the sea, invoking his spirit would have made actual sense in the movie as afterwards Nancy has the power to walk on water and is offered the gift of sea creatures.

22. There’s a deleted scene where Sarah visits Nancy at the mental hospital and tries to help her get better.

23. There was a drag version. It was made into a drag stage show starring Peaches Christ. The tagline was, “Now is the time. This is the hour. Drag is our magic. Drag is our power!”

24. There will be a musical based on movie. Watch readings from it here.

25. An actual spiritual event happened. Wiccan technical Advisor, Pat Devin, said of filming: “On the last day of shooting at the beach, one of the actresses asked me to Dedicate her to the Path of the Goddess. We walked up the beach in the dark, away from the lights, to a cove where I Dedicated her and presented her to all four quarters. For her name, she took a name that I’d told her I would have named my daughter, had I ever had one.”