Practical Magic is perhaps one of the strangest ‘90s movies to gain a cult following.
The story of a family of witches persecuted by their peers and cursed to lose anyone they fall in love with to an early death, it was based on a novel by Alice Hoffman that debuted just a couple of years earlier.
It was marketed as a warm, fuzzy chick flick with Stevie Nicks spotlighted on the soundtrack and Griffin Dunne directing, which fit very well into the late ‘90s landscape of both female-driven media and stories about witches.
So, its surprise detours into topics like murder and domestic violence were not what audiences were expecting, and actively worked against the movie, muddling its tone and the coherence of the story.
Despite its flaws and critical and commercial disappointment, audiences liked it, driving it towards a moderate cult status that it enjoys to this day.
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