Throughout the first half of the film the four girls are teased and harassed by the "popular" girls of the school. They are in a position of control and why shouldn't they exert themselves by tormenting the rejects of the school, after all, what else could be expected from women? When the four underdogs of the school suddenly find themselves in a situation where they are in control, the movie teaches us that these women cannot restrain their urges to abuse their new ability. Of course they loose their powers when all their mischief backfires on them, a standard Hollywood lesson. The resolution of the film shows the evil witch, Nancy (Fairuza Balk), forever tortured by hallucinations, while the good witch, Sarah (Robin Tunney), has retained her abilities. When Rochell (Rachel True) and Bonnie (Neve Campbell) show up, powerless and fawning to be friends again with Tunney after betraying her, and wanting to get a taste of their old powers again, Tunney threatens them with her magick. Even after all the "lessons" learned in The Craft, the overall message is that women have never, nor ever will be able to wield their power without holding it over someone's head, especially each other.

Although director Andrew Fleming is said to have employed the consultation of a Wican priestess to ensure the authenticity of various ceremony depictions, it is quite apparent that no one was consulted when considering the themes of the story. The women in The Craft become mean and vengeful when they obtain their magical powers. Perhaps the themes in this movie were not important to the filmmakers because, after all, it's just a movie, or because they felt the target audience was too apathetic to care or even notice. But I think it does make a difference, while it did not reach blockbuster status, it was still quite a popular film. Perhaps Fleming was acutely aware of what would please this audience, putting the old filmmakers excuse to work, "it's what the audience wanted." And this excuse works due to the audience's response at it's release.

What I think it comes down to in the end is that the writers didn't stop to think about what they were saying. Instead they saw an interesting premise and all they could do with it was shove it into a formula. Maybe I'm being hypersensitive to PC issues, which would be an easy way to dismiss my argument, but I think that what I was insulted by in this movie was not so much the sexist stance as the misrepresentation and backward conclusions about how these characters would behave when realizing their inner abilities. Or perhaps it is that audiences have become numb to Hollywood's sexism and do not respond to it anymore. This thought, I don't like to consider.