Witches and witchcraft are the focus of the 1995 Hollywood movie The Craft. In the movie there is a group of three teenage girls, Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle, who are outcasts of their private school. A new student, Sarah, comes to town and the girls immediately latch to each other. Sarah posses witch abilities. The three girls had been searching for a fourth so they could complete the "four corners." Sarah is the girl they choose to bring into their secret circle and create what they believe to be a powerful, magical force. The girls could never before perform real spells, but with Sarah's help they can now carry out the spells that had failed before. The girls use these powers and the spells that learn to create the worlds they desire. Eventually the "magic" gets out of control and begins to destroy their lives, emotionally and physically.
I find that The Craft depicts members of the neo-pagan religion in an unreal way. The girls in the movie, aside from Sarah, are depicted as outcasts or freaks. They are depicted as having to use magic to fit in. They use magic to fulfill their whims. However, after listening to the guest lecturers in class it seems to me that Pagan followers are normal people who chose to practice a different kind of religion. They are not outcasts or scary, they are perfectly normal people. They live among society and operate just like everyone else. The film depicted the girls as strange and unable to fit into society. True witches do not appear this way at all. Hollywood makes it easy for us to pick out who the witches are in the films, but in real life it is much harder. Pagan followers are just regular people.
In the film the girls end up dressed in all black with chaotic hair and makeup once they become powerful. Though some pagan followers do dress like this, the film made it appear as though all of them had to. The Craft, however, does take into consideration the fact that Sarah does in fact possess powers and she is not dressed in a stereotypical way.
