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The Craft (1996) is substantially darker than The Covenant (2006). The clearest dividing line is the rating: The Craft is rated R for terror and violence, while The Covenant is PG-13 for intense action, disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language. More important than the ratings, however, is the harm each story puts on screen. The Craft includes a suicide attempt, an attempted rape, self-harm, a teenager thrown from a window, a death linked to a curse and a finale that places a girl in a psychiatric hospital. The Covenant has dangerous magic, spiders, a dead student, supernatural fights and a father physically ruined by power addiction, but its climactic violence is mostly stylized, effects-driven spectacle. If “darker” means more traumatic, frightening and morally punishing rather than simply more supernatural, The Craft wins by a wide margin.
What is the short answer?
The Craft is the darker movie, and the difference is not close. Both films use teenage characters, witchcraft and revenge, but they aim at different kinds of fear. Andrew Fleming’s 1996 film makes social humiliation, racism, abuse, bodily shame, sexual violence and suicidal despair part of its supernatural horror. Renny Harlin’s 2006 film presents inherited powers as a dangerous addiction inside a glossy prep-school adventure.
There is no published scientific “darkness index” comparing the films. The most defensible comparison uses their MPAA ratings, parent-guide descriptions, on-screen events and contemporary critical language. Every one of those measures points in the same direction: The Craft is an R-rated psychological and body-horror morality tale; The Covenant is a PG-13 fantasy thriller whose grim ideas are softened by teen-soap presentation.
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The Craft (1996) on Wikipedia · The Covenant (2006) on Wikipedia
How do the ratings and parent guides compare?
The R-versus-PG-13 split is the first practical filter for parents and younger viewers. The MPAA rated The Craft R for “some terror and violence, and for brief language.” The Covenant received PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language.” Those summaries describe the films’ priorities: terror and consequences in one, action and sexualized teen imagery in the other.
| Area | The Craft (1996) | The Covenant (2006) |
|---|---|---|
| MPAA rating | R: terror, violence, brief language | PG-13: intense action, disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity, language |
| Movieguide language | Heavy; 31 obscenities and 10 profanities reported | Moderate; 16 obscenities and two light profanities reported |
| Movieguide violence | Heavy | Moderate |
| Kids-in-Mind | No comparable 0–10 triplet was located | 5.6.4 (sex/nudity, violence/gore, language) |
| Common Sense Media guidance | User panels commonly suggest about 15+ for parents and 13+ for children | Staff review recommends 15+ |
The numbers are guides, not substitutes for knowing a child. The Craft’s violence is not constant gore, and some viewers in Common Sense Media’s user reviews argue that its graphic content is limited enough for an older PG-13 audience. Nevertheless, those same discussions flag the attempted rape, wrist-cutting, suicide material and insect-filled finale. The Covenant is not harmless: its spider imagery, dead body, shower scares and burning energy attacks can disturb younger teens. It is simply less severe in subject matter and aftermath.
What happens in The Craft that makes it so dark?
The film’s darkness comes from realistic teenage trauma being amplified by magic. Sarah Bailey moves to Los Angeles and joins Nancy Downs, Bonnie Harper and Rochelle Zimmerman, three students treated as outsiders. Bonnie has extensive burn scars, Nancy lives with an abusive stepfather, Rochelle endures racist bullying, and Sarah has a history of attempting suicide. Their coven’s spells begin as fantasies of control over the people and circumstances hurting them.
The consequences quickly become concrete. A boy spreads a false sexual rumor about Sarah, and the girls retaliate with a love spell, a beauty spell, a revenge spell that causes alopecia and a power ritual. Nancy’s abusive stepfather dies of a heart attack at the same time as a storm and curse, after which the girls collect insurance money. The coincidence turns magical revenge into a death with financial consequences rather than a harmless prank.
Chris Hooker, the student who started the rumor, becomes obsessed with Sarah and attempts to rape her. Nancy later uses a glamour to appear as Sarah and throws Chris from a window, killing him. The scene is not framed as a weightless comic-book victory: the coven has crossed from retaliation into murder, and the film’s moral machinery begins turning against them.
The supernatural images are designed to linger. An invocation leaves Nancy walking across water among beached sharks. A flashback shows Sarah cutting her wrists, with blood running down her arms. The girls threaten one another with insects, false news that Sarah’s family has died and pressure toward suicide. The last stretch brings cockroaches, snakes, spiders, rats and other vermin into an already violent confrontation.
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That mixture of social injury, bodily harm, sexual threat, guilt and institutional punishment is why contemporary critics described the movie as brutal and nightmare-inducing. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it “cleverly—and brutally” imagined and wrote that it was “likely to give children nightmares.” Stephen Holden of The New York Times observed that the film begins as a celebration of adolescent nonconformity and female independence before making the girls’ spells come back to haunt them.
How frightening is The Covenant by comparison?
The Covenant has grim concepts, but it presents them as supernatural action rather than intimate horror. Its four protagonists are the Sons of Ipswich, boys from wealthy-looking Massachusetts families who inherit magic from colonial witch lineages. Their abilities appear at 13 and intensify at 18. Using power is addictive, and overuse accelerates aging, causes insanity and can lead to death.
The film’s genuinely bleak image is William Danvers, Caleb’s 44-year-old father, whose body has been wrecked by years of magical abuse. A student is found dead, and Chase Collins—heir to a supposedly extinct fifth family—tries to force other ascended witches to transfer their power to him. The final confrontation involves Caleb, William and Chase, with William sacrificing his remaining power so Caleb can overpower Chase.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThose stakes sound severe on paper. On screen, however, much of the movie is prep-school swagger: cheating at pool, flirting, fast driving, a skirt-flip bet, locker-room and shower imagery, cliff-flying vehicles and a barn filled with energy blasts and pitchforks. Parent guides describe a spider entering a nose and ear, dark specters, a motorcycle crash, a dead young man with white eyes and a character consumed by a flaming energy ball. The violence is intense in moments but largely bloodless and effects-driven.
New York Post critic Kyle Smith called it a “Salem light,” while Common Sense Media’s Cynthia Fuchs summarized it as a “bland horror movie” that is “more silly than scary.” The Rotten Tomatoes consensus described a teen soap opera with pretty faces, wooden acting, laughable dialogue and little suspense. Those judgments are about execution as much as content, but they explain why the same frightening ingredients land more lightly.
Is The Covenant a ripoff of The Craft?
It is better described as a gender-flipped studio echo than a remake. The Covenant has its own mythology—hereditary male witches, the Sons of Ipswich, ascension at 18 and magical addiction—but its marketing and imagery clearly followed the commercial path opened by The Craft.
The Wild Hunt’s 2024 retrospective says the trailer presented the film as following The Craft’s success, with tossing hair, fast cars, dancing at a bonfire and witchy visual cues. The same article identifies lifted or closely echoed set pieces, including spiders, school-uniform slow motion and pool magic. A 2026 Dirge Magazine analysis framed the studio substitution bluntly: the earlier film’s mortal outcasts dealing with dysmorphia, racism and abuse became privileged, shirtless boys.
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How do the films differ in the kind of violence they show?
The Craft relies on psychological dread, self-harm and bodily threat; The Covenant relies on supernatural action. In The Craft, a person is thrown from a window, a suicide attempt is shown in flashback, wrists are cut, a man dies during a curse-related heart attack and an attempted rape is central to the plot. The final 16 minutes are especially intense, with attacks, restraint and swarming vermin.
The Covenant includes characters slammed through walls and ceilings, a motorcycle crash, a student’s corpse, a spider infestation and a barn duel with energy balls, fire and a pitchfork. The effects can still frighten a child with a spider phobia, but the film rarely dwells on injury or moral aftermath. The body-horror idea—magic aging its users into wrecks—is mainly represented by William’s appearance rather than a sustained sequence of suffering.
This distinction matters for parents. A viewer who dislikes gore may find The Craft less visually graphic than its R rating suggests, yet still find the subject matter upsetting. A viewer who is comfortable with fantasy fights may tolerate The Covenant, while someone sensitive to spiders, dead bodies or degrading nudity may not.
Which movie has more disturbing sexual content?
The Craft contains the more serious sexual threat; The Covenant contains more casualized nudity and sexualized framing. In The Craft, Chris attempts to sexually assault Sarah, a scene that has no nudity but is narratively central and frightening. The film also includes a spell book showing nude women and visible nipples through clothing.
The Covenant includes kissing, male buttocks in locker-room showers, a female shower silhouette and a prank that blows up a girl’s skirt to reveal her underwear for a panty-color bet. Kids-in-Mind rates the film’s sex/nudity component 5 on its 0–10 scale. The content is less violent than The Craft’s attempted rape, but its presentation is more casually voyeuristic and tied to the movie’s “shirtless witch boys” appeal.
One Christian Spotlight reviewer argued that the PG-13 rating underestimated the crude language and bare buttocks and would not allow a 13-year-old to watch. That is a stricter family judgment than the MPAA’s, but it illustrates why a PG-13 label should not be read as “mild in every category.”
Are the witches and magic treated differently?
The Craft engages with Wiccan imagery more deliberately, while The Covenant uses a fictional hereditary-warlock mythology. Production on The Craft consulted practicing Wiccan Pat Devin, who wrote incantations and advised the filmmakers. The film invents Manon rather than presenting a standard Wiccan deity, but it includes a clear ethical warning: “whatever you send out, you get back times three.” Its occult framework supports the story’s argument that power reflects the user’s intentions.
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The Covenant uses colonial family legends, Salem associations, a Book of Damnation and the language of “witches,” although its protagonists are generally called warlocks or the Sons of Ipswich. The Wild Hunt’s assessment that the film has “not a whiff of Wicca” is a useful description of its fictional distance from contemporary pagan practice. Its central metaphor is addiction: magical power feels pleasurable and useful, then consumes the user.
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Movieguide labels both films objectionable for their occult worldview. That is a religious evaluation, not an objective darkness scale, and it should be kept separate from the films’ ratings or horror intensity.
What did critics and audiences think of each film?
Critical reception reinforces the tonal difference, although neither film was universally praised. As reported on Wikipedia, The Craft received 57% positive reviews from 60 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 5.5/10 average, and scored 55/100 on Metacritic from 20 critics. Roger Ebert’s frequently quoted summary—“Here are four girls who could out-gross David Copperfield in Vegas, and they limit their amazing powers to getting even”—captures the film’s mix of camp, anger and excess.
The Covenant received 4% positive reviews from 75 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, averaging 2.90/10, and 19/100 on Metacritic from 16 critics. It is listed 89th on Rotten Tomatoes’ 100 Worst Movies of All Time. CinemaScore reported a B−. Those figures do not prove that a film is darker, but they show how often reviewers experienced The Covenant as silly, flat or unintentionally comic rather than frightening.
Which film was more successful and influential?
The Craft had the stronger theatrical result and the longer cultural afterlife. It cost about $15 million and earned $55.6 million worldwide, including a $6.7 million opening weekend. It was nominated for Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film and Best Supporting Actress for Fairuza Balk, and Balk and Robin Tunney won the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight.
The Covenant cost about $20 million. Its worldwide total is reported inconsistently in its Wikipedia entry: the infobox gives $37.6 million, while the body lists roughly $23.3 million in the United States and $13.9 million elsewhere. Those figures do not reconcile perfectly, so a precise total should not be overstated. The film opened to $8.9 million and later sold 1,618,891 DVD units, generating $26,578,576 in home-video revenue according to The Numbers data cited by Wikipedia.
The Craft developed a durable cult following, influenced 1990s goth fashion and received the 2020 sequel The Craft: Legacy. A 30th-anniversary Bratz collaboration was announced for 2026. The Covenant survives more as a so-bad-it-is-watchable curiosity, remembered for its cast, shirtless presentation and queer-coded readings, and it also received a Top Cow Comics graphic-novel prequel.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which movie should a parent choose for a teenager?
Choose based on specific triggers, not just the age label. An older teen who can handle sexual-assault themes, suicide imagery, self-harm, abuse and intense insects may find The Craft a powerful but upsetting horror film. It is not a light introduction to witchcraft, even if the gore is less continuous than some R-rated movies.
The Covenant is the less traumatic choice for most teens because its violence is fantasy action and its darkest idea is an aging-and-addiction curse. It still includes crude language, partial nudity, shower imagery, a skirt-flip prank, spiders, a dead student and a burning supernatural attack. A 13-year-old who is sensitive to body horror, sexualized framing or occult themes may need to wait despite the PG-13 rating.
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For a double feature, watch The Craft first if the goal is to understand the comparison: it establishes the outcast-girl, consequence-driven model that The Covenant later smooths into a male teen fantasy. Watch The Covenant first only if you want the gentler introduction before confronting the R-rated material.
Where can you buy or watch them?
Physical editions are the most stable option; streaming availability changes by country and date. The Craft was released on VHS in 1996, DVD in 1997, a special-edition DVD in 2000, Blu-ray in 2009 and a Shout Factory collector’s edition in 2019. Its soundtrack was issued by Columbia Records, while the score appeared through Varèse Sarabande.
The Covenant arrived on DVD and Blu-ray on 2 January 2007. The film’s strong DVD sales make used discs relatively common, but edition condition and regional compatibility vary. The available data recorded a 2024 report of The Covenant streaming on Amazon Prime; that is not a current 2026 availability guarantee. Check a local catalog before subscribing or renting, because rights move frequently.
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What is the final verdict?
The Craft is darker in rating, subject matter, imagery, emotional damage and consequences. Its witches are marginalized girls whose attempts to seize control unleash assault, murder, self-harm and institutionalization. The Covenant has a genuinely bleak addiction metaphor and several disturbing set pieces, but its privileged protagonists, glossy tone and CGI duel keep it closer to a supernatural teen thriller than sustained horror. Calling The Covenant a gender-flipped echo of The Craft is fair; calling it the darker film is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Craft too scary for a 13-year-old?
The R rating is driven less by nonstop gore than by suicide imagery, an attempted rape, self-harm, abuse and an intense insect-filled finale. A 13-year-old who is sensitive to those subjects should wait, even if they are comfortable with ordinary fantasy violence.
Does The Covenant show graphic gore?
Most of its violence is stylized and bloodless, involving energy blasts, fire, crashes and characters thrown through structures. The spider infestation, dead student and aging father are the scenes most likely to unsettle viewers who dislike body horror.
Are The Craft and The Covenant connected in the same universe?
No. They have separate characters, mythologies and studios’ fictional continuities. The connection is influence and presentation: The Covenant followed The Craft’s commercial model with teenage magic, school settings and witchy imagery.
Is The Craft based on real Wiccan rituals?
The film uses invented mythology, including the deity Manon, but production consulted Wiccan adviser Pat Devin for incantations and ritual details. It should be treated as stylized fiction rather than a guide to contemporary religious practice.
Which movie has the better reviews?
The Craft has mixed reviews overall, with 57% of 60 critics positive on Rotten Tomatoes as reported by Wikipedia and a 55/100 Metacritic score. The Covenant was received far worse: 4% of 75 Rotten Tomatoes critics positive and 19/100 on Metacritic.
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