Creepy behind-the-scenes stories from the classic horror film The Craft have surfaced online again, sparking outrage among fans.
The 1996 film about a group of teenage witches was completely fictional, but the showrunners hired a real Wiccan consultant to ensure that all the spells and incantations were as accurate as possible.
But behind the scenes, strange happenings on set soon surfaced, which were later made public in a series of interviews with the cast and crew.
In one instance, during the film’s most famous scene, “Calling of the Corners,” in which the girls gather on the beach to invoke a fictional deity, the tide kept rolling in every time the cameras rolled.
Reportedly, the producers had chosen a fictional deity to avoid angering the pagan gods, but it later transpired that they ignored a warning from a local witch who said the beach was a “bad place for rituals.”
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During the filming of the scene “Calling of the Corners,” in which the girls gather on a beach to invoke a fictional deity, the tides kept rolling in as the cameras rolled
Actress Robin Tunney, who played Sarah Bailey, said of LA-based Dianic Elder Priestess Pat Devin, “She had heard that they didn’t like pagan ceremonies on that beach because she had heard from some witch friends that it was a bad place for pagan rituals.”
“And, uh, she got sick, so we had to wrap up and go back the next week,” she continued in the resurfaced interview, conducted shortly after the film’s premiere.
“All the lights went out and the tide came in and washed our altar ashore. One thing after another happened,” she continued.
She added that the waves came so close when the cameras were rolling that they put out the fire on set. And when they turned off the cameras, the tides went back, the Mentalist star, now 52, said.
Tunney continued: ‘When the water came up and washed the set away, it should have happened. [been] nice, creepy.
“If it had been the four of us on the beach and we had done it ourselves, without a whole camera crew,” she continued, “it would have been terrifying.”
‘But the fact that you have these lights with the camera crew makes it a little less mysterious.
Actress Robin Tunney, who played Sarah Bailey in the film, describes some of the strange happenings on set in an interview shortly after the film’s premiere.
Showrunners hired a real-life Wiccan consultant, Pat Devin, seen here surrounded by the lead actors, to ensure all spells and incantations were as accurate as possible
She added: ‘You know, there were some scary things that happened that day, but it’s like, ‘ooh, the tide came in – guess what? It’s the ocean. The tide comes in.
“Oh! The power outage!” she added, pointing to the portable generator that was powering the scene, which also failed at one point during the chaos.
You know the djinn [generator]it wasn’t big enough for what we had to do.
“It was like, ‘We’re making a witchcraft movie, it had to be witchcraft,’” she joked.
The interview clip was recently posted to TikTok, with the caption: ‘You won’t believe what happened when the cast of The Craft invoked the spirit on the beach! The tides changed and everything went wrong. It was like reality and magic collided!’
Other fans were quick to respond. One said, “This makes me want to watch this tonight!”
A crew member recounted the same scene in a separate interview: “When we did the invocation on the beach, it was strange.
‘[W]e would end up in the invocation [and] The waves rose and fell again when we stopped.’
To mark the film’s 20th anniversary, director Andrew Fleming also addressed the seemingly supernatural circumstances during this scene.
“It was just a strange phenomenon: As soon as the girls started casting spells, the waves would come up,” he said of the scene, which was filmed at Leo Carrillo Beach along Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway.
“At one point there was a wave that wiped out the whole set,” he added.
Tunney, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell are seen reenacting a scene on the beach in Malibu
Devin also made himself heard and spoke to fellow Wiccan John Britshadow Yohalelm about the scene in 1998.
“The beach scene originally took place during the winter solstice, in a circle of black candles where the girls planned to sacrifice the small animals they had with them. However, all the animals emerged unharmed,” the woman recalled at the time.
‘I realize that sacrifices are a traditional part of religious practices – pagan and non-pagan – but I assure you I would have thrown a tantrum if any of the animals in this scene had been injured.
‘I actually objected to Sarah [Tunney] “Pick up a goldfish that falls on the sand and release it into the sea, because goldfish are freshwater fish!” she exclaimed.
‘[Fleming]Somewhat bewildered, I asked if I really thought anyone would notice.’
She also told how she had baptized the goddess Manon. She had invented this name so as not to offend any spirits.
“As far as I know, in the very early drafts of the script, each girl had her own name for the Ultimate Deity,” she said.
“Light as a feather, stiff as a board” has probably been said countless times at sleepovers since the film’s release in 1996, thanks to this memorable scene
From left to right: Campbell, Balk, Tunney and Rachel True in artwork for the film
‘In the first draft of the script I read, Rochelle still called the Ultimate Deity “Noah.”
“I told Andy to drop ‘Noah’ and, after going through lists of names of Gods/Goddesses/Demons/Angels/Spirits, to use Manon, because I couldn’t find that name anywhere,” she continued.
‘I didn’t want hordes of teenagers running to the beach or the woods and pretending to be someone who really exists.
‘I was told later that Manon could be a little water spirit. Well, I looked and other people looked, but we couldn’t find her anywhere, so we used her.’
There were also a number of other bizarre events captured on set, involving actress Fairuza Balk, who played Nancy. According to the book Religions of the Stars: What Hollywood Believes and How It Affects You by Richard Abanes, she is said to practice Wicca.
One of these was the presence of a mysterious white owl that seemed to follow the actors during filming.
In an interview, Half Baked star Rachel True, who played Rochelle Zimmerman in the film, told Talent Develop, “There was definitely a strange energy in the film and we were being followed to different locations by a white owl.”
