The Covenant: The Craft for Guys

It was bound to happen: after 1996′s The Craft, it was surely a mere matter of time before someone got the idea to remake The Craft for guys; hence 2006′s The Covenant. Not meaning to make too much of basically a teen Witch-Flick (for guys), I find the film notable (1) for being so guy-centric; (2) as an example of the degree to which the Salem Witch-Past informs American consciousness about Witchcraft; and (3) as one of a number of recent works that demonstrate how firmly the Wiccan Magick Circle and Book of Shadows (or some such related Magickal volume) have fixed themselves into American perception of Magick-Use.

How to put this? The Covenant is unique in the Pantheon of Magick Movies (to borrow Star Foster’s phrase) for being its Beef-Cake representative. If you ever wanted to watch a bunch of Smoking Hot Guys run around doing CGI-Magick while all buffed out in tight Speedos- here’s your film.

At the same time (seriously): Witchcraft is so often a Female-Dominated field, after Charmed, Practical Magic, The Craft, and Sabrina the Teen-Aged Witch- to say nothing of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Bewitched, or Bell, Book, and Candle- it is fun to see Guys doing Witchcraft for once (Nicolas Cage in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice notwithstanding). It kind of helps if the guys are all hot and buffed, too.

The premise to The Covenant is interesting; it sort of invents its own Magick-Use, based upon fanciful projection of the Salem Witch Period, as opposed to conforming to Wiccan or Neo-Pagan Magick. 

As is the case with these sorts of film, the opening credits offer a flashing montage of Occult-Book pages, with depictions of the Burning Times and the Salem Trials (many of the pictures shown are historically genuine). An ominous word crawl solemnly informs that: No one really knows how The Power came to be. But those who have mastered its secrets have always been hunted. Fleeing the Brutal Persecutions of those who have The Power, many came to the New World of America in the mid-seventeenth century.

However- when Salem broke out, Five Witch-Families fled to nearby Ipswich, where (for their own safety), they undertook the Covenant of Silence.

For three hundred years- it has protected them; until now (lightning flashes ominously).

So the four guys of the movie are each the descendants of one of these original Four Witch-Families (the Fifth has died at Salem- or has it?), and are known as the Sons of Ipswich, and together they form a sort of Guys’ Coven (like in “Covenant,” get it?) The striking thing about the film is how totally it conceives of Witchcraft as a Male thing: in the movie, The Power is passed (once in a generation) from father to the oldest son in a blood-line. At age thirteen, The Power begins to manifest itself; at eighteen, one Ascends, meaning one’s Powers become Super Mad Awesome. Ah- but as the Book of Damnation tells us, Thy Powers can take thy Life.

It is the interesting case that, during the Burning Times, some places such as Finland and Estonia held Witchcraft to be a Guy-Thing, and so accused way more Males as Witches than Females; elsewhere in Europe, women tended to outnumber men as victims of Witch-Hunting by a ratio of 4 to 1.

American Witch-Stories originating in Salem have a tendency to start off with some Witch or other fleeing the “brutal persecutions” in England. In actuality, the English made far more of a point to hold themselves in check during the Burnings Period (Witches were never burned in England, or at Salem, by the way); even at Salem, it is important to note that they observed what they considered to be appropriate treatment of Witches under the Law (with a few- but notable- break-downs). Salem clearly got hysterical at times, but (with a few notable exceptions), legality was maintained. Put it this way- in Salem and in England, torture was not routinely performed upon the accused- unlike in Scotland or Germany, for instance- and the Witches were able to face their accusers in an open court.

The curious thing is, why would some Witch going to the trouble to Flee the Persecutions in England and start a perilous life anew in the New World in the mid-1600s- why would they go to Puritan Salem, which is surely going to be even more claustrophobic and inhospitable to Witchcraft? Why not go to New Amsterdam (New York), with the vastly more tolerant Dutch, or to Charleston, SC, which at the time was so free a sea-port that pirates caroused there. Why Witches escaping the English Terror Times would want to race right off to the Puritan stronghold in Massachusetts is a little difficult to understand.

As one would hope in an Ipswich-set film, there is majestic New England autumn scenery; in a nice touch, they reproduce the actual Putnam Barn for a pivotal moment.

The Covenant’s idea of Ascension into The Power as a major life-passage is interesting; as is its identification of The Power’s becoming (upon Ascension) one’s Life. Characters caution one another against the seductiveness of “using” The Power, its addictive quality. As Caleb urges at a critical moment, “Using The Power takes bits of your Life, until there is nothing left!” “It’s the Body that wears down- not The Power!” 

Its depiction of Main Hot Guy Caleb as the essential Coven-Leader, dealing with Darkling attacks against his Witch-Brothers (“someone’s using Powers big-time- and I intend to find out who!”), as well as trying to keep rebellious Witch-Brothers in line (“using your Powers openly like that risks exposing us all- and that I will not allow!”) could have made a more interesting story than it did. Steven Strait, the actor who plays Caleb, is much more effective than a lot of other, similar actors, would have been. He gets that Caleb has to have an inner life; his face and his eyes are always alive with thought; he holds a closeup extremely well.

The coolest scene is that in which the Sons repair to their Magickal Space, an underground, rock-hewn vault beneath Caleb’s ancestral home. (This is actually a variation of an ancient mythological motif- the Descent into the Underworld, in order to gather wisdom and strength. The guys will emerge from their Magick Cave in order to face the Dark Power-Working Wizard, in one of those showdowns between Good and Evil that seems thought good story-telling.)

Candles abound in this removed room, with a really cool Magickal Circle that CGI-activates into Eldritch Life, while the guys consult their Coven’s History Grimoire: the Book of Damnation (ok, I so could have done with a better title than that).

In other Magick Movies, the Circle and a Magick Tome also play a part: in The Craft, they cast Circles; Charmed has both a Book of Shadows and an association of Witchcraft with Circle-Use. In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Nicolas Cage invokes Merlin’s Magick Circle, with his Magick Book the Encantus nearby. Katherine Howe’s recent novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane involves a Witch’s Spell-Book. All of these examples assume that (1) a Magick Circle, and (2) a Grimoire of some kind, will play important roles in the accomplishment of Magick.

This would seem to indicate the degree to which Wiccan practice is informing American perception of Magick-Use.

Let me put it this way- the Magick in Harry Potter is of a very different sort. In the Harry Potter books and movies, they don’t cast Circles, and while they have books, they don’t really have anything comparable to an individualistic grimoire, personal to a Magick-Worker or a Group.

From what avenue appears Circle-Casting and Grimoires (or Books of Shadow) to be entering the public consciousness as regards Magick-Use?

Wicca, anyone?