| Director | Griffin Dunne |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy drama, drama film, fantasy film, film based on a novel, romantic comedy |
| Runtime | 100 min |
| Country | Australia, United States |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Box office | $94.4 million |
In Massachusetts, the Owens family have been persecuted for over three centuries because their ancestor Maria Owens survived an attempted execution for witchcraft. Heartbroken when the father of her unborn child left her, Maria cast a spell to prevent herself from ever falling in love again. The spell developed into a curse upon Maria's descendants, dooming any man an Owens woman loves.
In the present, Sally and Gillian Owens are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after their parents succumb to the Owens curse. As children, Sally and Gillian are frequently ridiculed by the town's schoolchildren. Upon witnessing their aunts cast a love spell for a woman obsessed with her beloved, Sally casts a spell on herself to ensure she will only fall in love with a man who possesses certain seemingly impossible traits, with the intention of never falling in love. Witnessing the same incident, Gillian cannot wait to fall in love. As teenagers, Gillian elopes with her boyfriend and leaves for Los Angeles. Before she departs, she and Sally use a blood spell to swear to always be faithful to one another.
Gillian spends the next decade moving from relationship to relationship across the country, while back in Massachusetts, Sally meets and marries a local named Michael. They have two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. After a truck fatally hits Michael, Sally and her girls move in with the aunts. Learning that they secretly cast a love spell on her so that she could marry and be happy, Sally vows that the aunts will never teach her daughters magic.
Gillian unexpectedly tells Sally her involvement with a dangerously abusive man named Jimmy Angelov. When Sally arrives to rescue her sister, he takes them hostage in his car. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila to sedate him, but inadvertently kills him instead. The sisters take Jimmy's body back to the aunts' house, where they attempt to resurrect him with a forbidden spell, which causes him to return and attack Gillian. Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his remains in the garden. Sally, Gillian, and the aunts have a midnight drinking session in which Jimmy's tequila seems to be influencing them to turn against each other; the aunts leave home the following morning, leaving a message to the sisters to "clean up their own mess".
State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona, in search of Jimmy, who is revealed to be a serial killer. Gillian attempts to separate them with a potion, but Kylie and Antonia realize he is the man from Sally's childhood spell and they dispose of the potion. After Gillian and Sally fight, a distraught Sally confesses to Gary, only to discover he is the impossible man from her spell. Unable to deny their attraction, the two kiss, which makes Sally ultimately stop and flee.
Upon returning home, Sally realizes Jimmy's spirit is using Gillian as a medium. Gary arrives and uses his silver badge to thwart Jimmy's spirit from possessing him. Sally tells Gary he is there because of her spell, the feelings they have for each other are not real, and the family curse will kill him if they pursue a relationship. Gary replies that curses only work if one believes in them, before returning to Tucson.
Jimmy uses Gillian again in an attempt to kill Sally before Frances and Jet return. Realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, Sally asks the local townswomen to form a coven and exorcise Jimmy's spirit. They exorcise Jimmy's spirit and permanently exile him, and hope that this might also mean the end of the Owens curse.
Gary clears the sisters of any suspicion in Jimmy's case and returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally. The townsfolk finally welcome the Owens women into the community, as witches.