Cult horror movie's famous beach scene 'invoked a petrifying phenomenon after filmmakers ignored local witch's eerie warning'

Spooky, behind-the-scenes tales from cult classic horror movie The Craft have resurfaced online, sending fans into a frenzy.

The 1996 movie about a coven of teen witches was entirely fictional but showrunners hired a real-life Wicca consultant to ensure all spells and incantations were as accurate as possible.

But behind the scenes reports of strange happenings on set soon began to emerge, and were later made public in a host of interviews with the cast and crew. 

In one instance, during the film's most famous scene 'Calling of the Corners' where the girls assemble on the beach to call upon a fictional deity, the tides kept sweeping in whenever the cameras rolled. 

Producers had reportedly chosen a fictional deity to avoid angering the pagan gods, but it has since emerged they allegedly ignored a warning from a local witch that the beach was a 'bad place for rituals'.

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During filming 'Calling of the Corners' scene - where the girls assemble on a beach to call upon a fictional deity  - the tides kept coming in whenever the cameras rolled

Actress Robin Tunney, who played Sarah Bailey, said of LA-based Dianic Elder Priestess Pat Devin: 'She'd heard that beach didn't like pagan ceremonies, cause she heard from some witch associates that it was a bad place for pagan rituals'.

'And, uh, she got ill, so we had to wrap up, go back there the next week,' she further recalled in the resurfaced interview conducted shortly after the film's premiere.

'All the lights went out and the tide came in and washed up our altar, and it was one thing after the next,' she continued.

She added that the waves would come so close whenever the cameras rolled, they would put out the fire on set. Then when they cut the cameras, the tides would pull back, The Mentalist star, now 52, said.

Tunney continued: 'When the water came up and washed away the set, it should have [been] fun, spooky.

'Had we just been four girls out on the beach doing it ourselves, without a whole camera crew,' she went on, 'it would have been petrifying.' 

'But the fact that you have these lights in the camera crew, you know, sort of demystifies it. 

Actress Robin Tunney, who played Sarah Bailey in the film, is seen describing some of the strange on-set occurrences in an interview shortly after the film's premiere

Showrunners hired a real Wicca consultant, Pat Devin, seen here surrounded by the main cast, to ensure all spells and incantations were as accurate as possible

She added: 'You know creepy thing had 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 failure!"' she added, pointing to how a portable generating powering the scene also cut out at one point during the chaos.

'You know the genny [generator], it wasn't big enough for what we had to do.

'It's like, "We're doing this witchcraft movie - it had to be witchcraft"', she joked.

The interview clip was recently posted on TikTok, with the caption: 'You won't believe what happened when the cast of The Craft invoked the spirit on the beach! The tides actually changed, and everything went wrong. It was like reality and magic collided!'

Other fans were quick to comment, with one saying: 'Makes me want to watch this tonight!'

Speaking about the same scene, a crew member further added in a separate interview:  'While we were doing the invocation on the beach, it was strange.

'[W]e would get into the invocation [and] the surf came up higher and then it would go down when we stopped.'

For the film's twentieth anniversary, director Andrew Fleming also brought up the seemingly supernatural circumstances during this scene.

'It was just this odd thing where, when the girls started the incantations, the waves kind of came up,' he said of the scene, which was filmed at Leo Carrillo Beach along Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway.

'At one point, a wave came and wiped the whole set out,' he added.

Tunney, Fairuza Balk, and Neve Campbell are seen acting out a scene on the beach in Malibu

Devin, meanwhile, also weighed in, speaking to fellow Wiccan John Britshadow Yohalelm about the scene in 1998.      

'The beach scene was originally set at Winter Solstice, in a circle of black candles in which the girls intended to sacrifice the small animals they had with them - although all the animals escaped unharmed,' the woman recalled at the time.

'I realize that sacrifice is a traditional part of religious practice - Pagan and non-Pagan - but I assure you that, had any of the animals been hurt in the scene, I would have thrown a fit. 

'In fact, I objected to Sarah [Tunney] picking up a goldfish plopping on the sand and releasing it in the sea, as goldfish are freshwater fish!' she proclaimed.

'[Fleming], somewhat bewildered, asked if I really thought anyone would notice.'

She went on to reveal how she christened the deity Manon - a made-up name designed not to offend any spirits.

'As I understand it, in very early versions of the script, each of the girls had her own name for the Ultimate Deity,' she said.

'Light as a feather, stiff as a board' has likely been uttered at countless sleepovers since the movie's 1996 release, thanks to this memorable scene 

 From left: Campbell, Balk, Tunney, and Rachel True in artwork for the film

'In the first version of the script that I read, Rochelle was still calling the Ultimate Deity "Noah". 

'I told Andy to drop "Noah" and, after consulting lists and lists of God/Goddess/Demon/Angel/Spirit names, to stick with Manon, as I didn't find it listed anywhere,' she continued.

'I didn't want hordes of teenagers running down to the beach or out to the woods invoking anybody real.

'I've since been told that Manon may be a minor Water spirit - well, I looked and other people looked and we didn't find it listed anywhere, which is why we used it.'

Several other bizarre happenings were also recorded on-set, with actress Fairuza Balk, who played Nancy, rumored to be practicing Wicca, according to Richard Abanes' book Religions of the Stars: What Hollywood Believes and How It Affects You.

Among them was the presence of a mysterious white owl that appeared to be following members of the cast while filming.

In an interview, Half Baked star Rachel True - who played Rochelle Zimmerman in the film - told Talent Develop: 'There was definitely weird energy around, and we were followed around by a white owl to several different locations.'