| Director | Andrew Fleming |
|---|---|
| Genre | fantasy film, horror film, teen film |
| Runtime | 101 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $55.6 million |
Sarah Bailey, a troubled teenager with unusual abilities, moves from San Francisco to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother. At her new school, she befriends a trio of outcast girls rumored to be witches. Bonnie Harper bears burn scars, Nancy Downs lives in a trailer with her mother and abusive stepfather, and Rochelle Zimmerman, a black student, endures racist bullying from a group of white girls. The girls worship a powerful earth deity they call Manon.
Popular jock Chris Hooker shows interest in Sarah, which she reciprocates. When Bonnie sees Sarah levitating a pencil in class, the outcasts become convinced that she is "the fourth" they need to complete their coven—representing the Four Elements—and make them powerful. While walking home from school, the girls are approached by a vagrant who had earlier frightened Sarah with a snake (since a home invasion) when she moved in. As he chases her, he is struck and killed by a car. The girls believe their combined will caused the accident, strengthening their bond. It is also revealed that Sarah once attempted suicide.
After a date with Chris, Sarah is devastated when he spreads a false rumor that they had sex. Seeking revenge or change, each girl casts a spell: Sarah places a love spell on Chris, Rochelle curses her bully Laura Lizzie, Bonnie wishes for beauty, and Nancy asks for power. The spells succeed: Chris becomes obsessed with Sarah, Bonnie's scars miraculously heal, Laura's hair begins to fall out, and Nancy's stepfather dies of a heart attack, allowing her and her mother to collect his life insurance and move into a luxurious high-rise apartment.
Drunk on power, Nancy urges the others to join her in a ritual called Invocation of the Spirit—despite warnings from Lirio, the owner of a local occult shop and practicing witch. During the ritual, Nancy is struck by lightning. The next morning, she is seen walking on water, surrounded by beached sharks and other dead sea creatures. In the days that follow, Nancy becomes increasingly unstable and reckless, endangering herself and others.
The spells soon bring unintended consequences: Bonnie grows vain and cruel, Rochelle is disturbed to find Laura traumatized by her baldness, and Chris's obsession turns violent. When Sarah rejects his advances, Chris attempts to rape her. To punish him, Nancy uses a glamour spell to impersonate Sarah and tries to seduce him at a party. The real Sarah intervenes, but when Chris realizes Nancy's deception, he accuses her of jealousy. Furious, Nancy kills him by throwing him out a window.
Sarah attempts a binding spell to stop Nancy from causing more harm, but it fails, and the coven turns against her. They invade her dreams, conjure swarms of insects, and make her believe her family has died in a plane crash, driving her toward suicide. Overcoming her fear, Sarah successfully invokes the spirit herself, healing and empowering her. She uses her magic to terrify Bonnie and Rochelle with mirror illusions—Bonnie's face re-scarred, Rochelle's hair falling out—before defeating and binding Nancy, rendering her harmless.
Later, Bonnie and Rochelle visit Sarah, hoping to reconcile. She rejects them, telling them that Manon stripped their powers because they abused the powers. Scoffing, they claim Sarah must have lost hers too—until she conjures a lightning storm and nearly crushes them with a falling tree branch. She warns them not to end up like Nancy, who has been committed to a psychiatric hospital, delusional and restrained, insisting she can fly.