Film

The Craft

Four teenage outsiders discover real magic and use it to settle scores, punish bullies, and briefly feel like the most powerful girls in school — before the bill comes due. It's moody, angsty, and genuinely eerie in places, a cult favourite that captures the specific thrill and horror of teenage female friendship curdling into something darker. Best watched at night, ideally remembering exactly what it felt like to be sixteen and powerless.

TMDb rating6.8

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Jennifer's Body2009

Diablo Cody's script turns teen-girl friendship into something monstrous and quotable, with Megan Fox genuinely terrifying as the popular girl gone wrong. Same wicked mix of camp, horror, and real feeling.

But The tonal whiplash between jokes and genuine dread isn't for everyone, and it was misunderstood on release for a reason.

Jennifer's Body poster

Heathers1989

The blueprint for teen cliques with terrifying power and body counts. Pitch-black comedy about high school hierarchy that makes The Craft's coven look almost cosy by comparison.

But No supernatural element at all — this is satire with croquet mallets, not magic, and the humour is savage rather than spooky.

Heathers poster

Ginger Snaps2000

Canadian werewolf horror about two inseparable sisters where puberty itself becomes the monster. Nails the same claustrophobic intensity of girls binding themselves together against the world.

But Lower budget and rougher edges than The Craft's slicker 90s gloss — this one's scrappier and gnarlier.

Ginger Snaps poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raw2017

Same engine as The Craft — a young woman awakening to a dangerous power inside her, seduced by it, changed by it — rebuilt in a completely different genre costume and a far more serious register.

A French veterinary student discovers a hunger inside herself she can't control, and it consumes her friendships and identity exactly the way Nancy's power consumes hers.

But Subtitled, genuinely upsetting body horror with cannibalism — a much more visceral, arthouse register than anything in The Craft.

Raw poster
More like this (8)

Carrie1976

The original outsider-girl-with-powers-gets-revenge story, and still the gold standard. Sissy Spacek's performance is devastating in ways The Craft only gestures toward.

But Slower, more overtly religious, and considerably sadder — this is tragedy first, horror second.

Carrie poster

Practical Magic1998

Witchy sisters, a family curse, and a much warmer, more romantic take on magic as inheritance rather than weapon. Great comfort-watch counterpart to The Craft's darkness.

But Barely qualifies as horror — it's magical realism with a love story, and tonally almost the opposite film.

Practical Magic poster

Mean Girls2004

No spells, but the same anatomy of a clique with rules, rituals, and casualties. Funnier and gentler, but it understands exactly how girl-world power structures work.

But Played entirely for comedy — if you want the horror and dread, this won't scratch that itch at all.

Mean Girls poster

Buffy the Vampire Slayer1997

Teenage girls with real supernatural power, navigating high school and the underworld simultaneously. Willow's arc alone is basically a whole extra season of The Craft's themes.

But Seven seasons is a huge commitment, and the earliest episodes look and feel very dated compared to the film.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer poster

Charmed1998

Three sisters, actual witchcraft, demon-of-the-week plots and genuine sisterly bond — the TV equivalent of settling into the coven for the long haul.

But Broadcast-network gloss and formula plotting mean it's comfort television, not the moody arthouse-adjacent thing The Craft flirts with.

Charmed poster

American Horror Story2011

A literal school for teenage witches, power struggles, and gleeful excess — this is what The Craft would look like with a much bigger budget and zero restraint.

But Ryan Murphy's maximalism means subtlety goes out the window; it's messier, campier, and less interested in real consequence.

American Horror Story poster

Hail Satan?2019

The Craft sells witchcraft as fantasy empowerment for powerless teenage girls; this documentary shows real people using the same aesthetic and outsider identity as actual empowerment and resistance.

A sharp, funny documentary following The Satanic Temple as they use witchcraft-adjacent theatrics as political protest and community for outsiders, especially women.

But It's a documentary with talking heads and courtroom footage, not a horror film — no spells, no revenge fantasy, just real activism.

Hail Satan? poster

Bell, Book and Candle1958

Decades before The Craft, this film used witchcraft as a metaphor for feminine otherness and the price of being different — same idea, filtered through candy-colored studio-era romance instead of teenage rage.

Kim Novak plays a modern witch who gives up her powers for love, in a glossy, glamorous James Stewart romantic comedy that treats witchcraft as chic Greenwich Village secret society.

But Zero horror, zero menace — this is a light 1950s romance, and the pacing and manners are extremely of their era.

Bell, Book and Candle poster

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