1. Most of the rats, bugs, and snakes in the film are real.
2. The animal wrangler for the film, Boone Narr, said that it had “the largest quantity of reptiles that will be seen onscreen in years”.
3. The movement of the snakes had to be digitally enhanced because it was too cold for them, so they all fell asleep.
4. Several spooky things happened during filming, like sudden unpredicted downpours and flocks of crows flying out of nowhere.
5. One time the crew were shooting a scene on the beach, and they’d worked out tide times, but as the girls were doing an incantation a massive surge rushed in and washed away the whole set.
6. Rachel True, who plays Rochelle, has said that they were followed about by a white owl several times during filming.
7. Rachel also said that she could relate to her character Rochelle’s struggles in the film because she too went to a majority-white high school.
8. In the scene where Rachel is levitating she is actually lying in a metal pan moulded to her body, which was being held up by a single pole and was erased from the footage afterwards.
9. The pan was under her clothes. Rachel was scared that it made her hips look bigger, but then she realised no one actually cared.
10. Although the girls were meant to be teenagers, during filming they were actually all in their twenties, and Rachel True was 30 by the time the film was released.
ID: 9878316
11. Andrew Fleming, the director, said he didn’t want the girls to have pointy hats or broomsticks; he said he wanted them “to look like they were in the Cure”.
12. The idea for Bonnie to have burn scars came about because a girl in director Andrew Fleming’s college dorm had burn scars.
13. It took nine months to cast the four main girls.
14. Robin Tunney originally wanted to play the role of Bonnie, but she got cast as the lead, Sarah.
15. All the girls in the film go to Catholic school, but Robin is the only one who is Catholic in real life.
16. Douglas Wick, the film’s producer, sees the film as a metaphor for young women coming into their sexuality.
17. The studio was in two minds about whether to make the movie, because it didn’t really fit into any neat genre, but when they saw the scene of the four girls walking powerfully towards the camera, they were sold.
ID: 9878396
18. The French written on the board in the French lesson is actually wrong. It’s supposed to say: “If you would have done your homework, you’d understand.” But the verb “do” is in the wrong tense.
19. When they started filming, each of the girls was left a bag in their trailer full of candles, incense, and witchcraft books.
20. None of the girls are taller than 5ft 3in.
21. Fairuza Balk, who plays Nancy, is a practising Wiccan in real life.
22. Fairuza actually bought the occult store she used to go to for research for the film, Panpipes Magickal Marketplace, in Hollywood. She owned it until 2001.
23. Fairuza used to collect knives as a teenager, because she thought “they were beautiful”.
24. In the scene where Nancy is shaking her head, there are no camera tricks: Fairuza really is just shaking her head that fast.
25. The big fight scene between Sarah and Nancy was re-shot after the film tested well with initial previews and the studio gave more money towards it.
ID: 9878416
26. An actual witch, Pat Devin, was hired to advise on the film.
27. Her full title is Pat Devin, High Priestess and Public Information Officer of Covenant of the Goddess.
28. In order to respect Wiccan tradition, no real Wiccan spells are used in the film. Pat made up realistic-sounding spells and incantations.
29. Pat told the writers of the film about the idea of binding someone’s powers, which is very important to the plot.
30. The spirit the girls invoke, Manon, is also totally made up.
31. Pat did cast one real spell, though, to make the film number one at the box office, and it worked.
ID: 9878441
