The Peripeteias of Cultural Politics in “The Craft” (1996)

The paper is a detailed analysis of Miranda Corcoran's monograph on the 1996 horror film “The Craft”, published in the “Devil's Advocates” series. Corcoran specializes in the representation of young witches in popular culture. The author of the paper presents the book's contents, accompanied by critical remarks. For example, Miranda Corcoran writes in detail about the contexts of the 1980s and 1990s—the “Satanic Panic,” the “Riot Grrrl” movement, the policies of Reagan and Clinton, and so on. It is noted that while these contexts are interesting in themselves and help understand the film's significance in a broader cultural context, these descriptions are often verbose and sometimes not entirely helpful. Corcoran writes at length about the film's social politics (race, class, feminism), presenting it not so much as a horror film as a film about teenage girl problems. In this, she follows many other authors, but this does not help understand “The Craft” as a work of horror. Ultimately, the film's social analysis is thorough and comprehensive, while its analysis of “The Craft” as a horror film raises questions. Not only does Corcoran write little about this, but she also calls “The Craft” a slasher film, which the film is not. The author of paper concludes that, despite this significant flaw, the book deserves attention.