The Craft: Sarah Bailey versus Nancy Downs. In 1996 the soon-to-be hit cult classic “The Craft” was released and the world didn’t know what hit it. Much like the 1993 hit “Hocus Pocus” starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Carrie Bradshaw Sarah Jessica Parker, The Craft followed a coven of witches, but this time it took a darker turn, focusing on the lives of four teenage girls and their attempts to balance their newfound power and live ordinary lives. In this dissertation I intend to dissect the relationship of the two main characters, New girl Sarah Bailey and Bad girl Nancy Downs and how their relationship is shaped by the events of the film. The movie opens with Sarah and her family moving to Los Angeles and from the get go we can see …show more content…
She 's a major slut. I don 't know from experience or anything.” (The Craft, 1996) and once Nancy gets wind of this encounter, she reaches out to Sarah and begins to include her in the activities of the coven. Why? Nancy may have felt sorry for Sarah, as her impressionability as the new girl was beginning to drag her down a slut-shaming rabbit hole (Which Sarah still falls down regardless), but more a more likely cause for Nancy’s sudden change of attitude was because she was jealous of Sarah getting the attention of Chris, stating that “He comes on to anything with tits, Sarah” (The Craft, 1996). This idea is reinforced later on in the movie when Nancy taunts Sarah about allegedly having sex with Chris, and once Nancy hears that Chris nearly raped Sarah, she loses it. Here we can see Nancy’s primal instincts coming out, as she acts out of fear and anger and ultimately kills Chris, because according to Nancy’s twisted logic, Sarah has fully cemented the fact that Chris will never love her again and she cannot handle this. Before killing Chris however, the rage and anger that Nancy has repressed about Chris bubbles over and manifests itself in a speech that not only shows Nancy’s ruthless and unforgiving nature, but also helped the movie gain its cult