Welcome to Gaia! ::

What do you think about the movie? Do you think a majority of the things they were saying and doing in the movie were accurate or not accurate? How so? surprised

Admittedly, "The Craft" is one of my guilty pleasures. I really do like the movie.

As a movie.

A movie with a lot of special effects.

So keep that in mind.

Yet, there is a bit of truth to it. The trouble is that it's hard to find, especially for those not knowledgeable in neo-pagan practices. It's easy to take everything in the movie and assume that because there are similar aspects that it must be identical in all aspects.

For example, all of the chants and spells were written by a Wiccan, Pat Devin of Covenant of the Goddess. The quarter calling is much like neo-paganism.

Yet constantly overshadowing the little truths is Hollywood special effects and eye candy. I think there were more candles in the first scene of the movie than there are at the local new age/occult store in town, and believe me it's a big store. Glamour spells are real, but don't expect them to come close to how they were in the movie. You can't go from brunette to blonde, or go from Nancy to Sarah's identical twin. It's much more subtle in reality. You won't fly. You won't float in midair. You can't say a few words and have everything bad in your life be fixed. You won't get hit by lightning and live to be able to walk on water the next morning.

But you knew that. I hope.

Still, what I like about the movie is Liria, the shopkeeper. Probably the most accurate representation. And essentially, the bottom line is the Law of Return, which for the most part was very well done, and worked as a very good "moral". What you send out will come back to you. You work negatively, then you will attract negativity. And despite what the movie may lead you to believe, Nancy, Rochelle, and Bonnie are not typical of witches, with Sarah being the exception. Rather Sarah is more representative of real Witchcraft, and the other three are the exception.

Also, despite the similarities and how many people may cry fowl, the movie never claimed to be representative of Wicca. The girls are not Wiccan. The word Wicca is never mentioned. There is no Goddess. The God Manon is not a real deity. This was done on purpose. As Devin states. "We intentionally decided to stay away from what I would call a 'real' deity like Kali, or Hecate, because I did not feel it was appropriate to invoke a potentially living deity for the amusement of the masses." (see here: http://talentdevelop.com/pdevin.html )

For good or bad, the movie has sparked a lot of interest in the occult. It is not a documentory, not an instruction or educational movie. It's a HOLLYWOOD movie. So long as you recognize that, I think it works as a good stepping stone into further discussion or research into the many facets of Neo-Paganism.

Another good review:
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/4885/mrcraft.html

Also, if you have the "Special Edition" DVD, there's something of a Making Of or other behind-the-scenes special that I remember as being pretty good. It's been awhile since I've seen it.

yes but there is also a diference form wicca and witchcraft.... (sorry if it is off the subject or anything like that)

Love the movie , not as an imformant but as a....movie?

I love that movie, I think those girls did a wonderful job in it. I love thier clothes too. Some of it can be true to Wicca, but the closest I would have to say was Liria..

Whenever that movie comes on, I own the Tv.. lol

I havn't even heard of the movie..... and yet, I WILL see it. really, I will. It sounds realy good.

And of COURSE it holywood-ized. its like, DUUUR!! lol. There are a lot of similarities in a lot of wicca-based media. it doesn't mean its all true. Movies, books, TV shows, they are ment to entertain the masses, not be a true educating experiance.... ESPECIALY not with wicca.. the closest thing I'f seen to paganism is a documentary on voodooism... wich I only saw part of, lol

I first saw that movie when I was 12 it had been out for a while. I really liked it but I always knew it wasn't realistic. It is a good movie though I love to watch it when it comes on TV.

Sad thing is...once that movie did come out, there were people that did get reality mixed up with hollywood's magic.

Notice, when it did come out, around here every girl was like 'Oh! I wanna be a witch!' and went around acting like they were going to make someone fly through the air if they ticked them off. When they failed, they got frustraited, and ended up bad mouthing everything wicca and so like. People didn't even take time into looking into things and LEARNING about it all first, see what was true with the movie or and what was not. stressed

I agree, yea they did go good with the Threefold Law, yea they did show good magic is better then negitive, but there was alot of speical effects that made like magic had a flash bang effect.

...even though...I am guilty of loving the movie as well sweatdrop 3nodding