Screenplay Structure Analysis
The Craft
A troubled teenage girl moves to Los Angeles and falls in with three outcast classmates who practice witchcraft, but when their spells spiral out of control, she must fight to stop her former friends from destroying her.
Tone
Dark, atmospheric, escalating from teen angst to psychological horror with visceral supernatural elements
Tension curve
Dramatic intensity across The Craft from first page to last, sampled at 40 points on a 0–10 scale. Values: 5.9, 6, 5.9, 5.8, 5.6, 5.7, 5.3, 5.5, 6.5, 7.2, 6.8, 6.1, 5.8, 5.8, 5.5, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.7, 5.9, 6.2, 5.9, 5.5, 5.2, 5.4, 6.4, 7.3, 8.1, 8.4, 8.2, 7.6, 6.8, 6.9, 7.3, 8.2, 8.8, 9.1, 8.1, 6.2, 4.9.
Structure at a glance
- Inciting incident
- Page 20, 17% of the script: The girls browse a dark occult candle shop where Rochelle gives Sarah a spell book and explains they put spells in it, Nancy stares at a painting of a witch invoking a spirit, and Sarah finds a book about invoking the spirit and buys candles.
- Act 1 break
- Page 42, 37% of the script: The girls perform their first major ritual in the meadow, marking the transition from dabbling to genuine magical practice and commitment to the coven.
- Midpoint
- Page 61, 53% of the script: Rochelle showers alone and finds clumps of long hair on the floor; she discovers Laura Lizzie wrapped in towels with a ravaged scalp covered in bumps, boils, and scabs, and they exchange a cold look.
- Act 2 break
- Page 81, 70% of the script: Nancy invokes Manon at the beach and becomes consumed by power, fundamentally shifting the group dynamic and setting Sarah against her former friends.
- Climax
- Page 106, 92% of the script: Sarah stands in the living room surrounded by Nancy, Rochelle, and Bonnie who appear and disappear in different locations, a boa constrictor wraps around Sarah's neck and lifts her off the ground, it morphs into a rope and Sarah's neck snaps as she falls dead to the ground.
- Peak tension
- 9.1 out of 10, reached about 92% of the way through; the script averages 6.4.
- Average scene length
- 1.3 pages
Structural personality
This script follows a classic corruption-and-confrontation arc, moving methodically from isolation to belonging to betrayal. Act One establishes Sarah's vulnerability and her gradual integration into the coven through scenes 1-46, building carefully through everyday humiliations and small magical experiments. The meadow ritual (scene 46) serves as the true point of no return—the girls commit fully to witchcraft. Act Two (scenes 47-90) tracks the escalating consequences of their spells: Bonnie's transformation, Laura's hair loss, Chris's obsession, Nancy's inheritance. The beach invocation (scene 90) is the structural hinge—Nancy becomes genuinely dangerous, and Sarah realizes she's lost control. Act Three (scenes 91-135) is pure siege: Sarah is isolated, attacked, and must survive a supernatural home invasion before finding precarious safety. The structure is patient in its build and relentless in its final third.
Pacing
The first 45 scenes move at a measured, observational pace—short scenes averaging just over a page, establishing Sarah's world through accumulation rather than big set pieces. The pace accelerates dramatically after scene 78 (the beach ritual), with longer, more intense confrontations. Scenes 88-90 form the emotional and supernatural climax of Act Two. The final act (scenes 102-135) maintains high tension through a protracted cat-and-mouse sequence in Sarah's house (scenes 119-131), using spatial claustrophobia and supernatural disorientation. The script ends quietly with scenes 133-135, a deliberate deceleration that mirrors the opening's melancholy tone.
Themes
- The corrupting nature of power
- Female friendship and betrayal
- Adolescent alienation and belonging
- Abuse of power and revenge
- The danger of wish fulfillment
- Identity and self-control
Similar shapes
Screenplays whose tension curve most closely matches The Craft.
- 28 Days Later by Alex Garland
- Bone Tomahawk by S. Craig Zahler
- Get Out by Jordan Peele
Scene summaries and structural markers are generated by AI analysis of the screenplay text and may contain minor inaccuracies. ScriptGraph analyzes structure and does not reproduce screenplay text.
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