Sarah Bailey

Sarah Bailey
Born	c. 1980
Status	Alive
Relatives	Mr. Bailey (Father) Jenny (Stepmother) Mrs. Bailey (Mother)
Powers	Magic and Witchcraft
Location	San Francisco, California, U.S (Formally) Los Angeles, California, U.S (Currently)
Actor	Robin Tunney

Sarah Bailey is one of the main characters in The Craft. After arriving to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother, Sarah befriends a group of girls, Nancy Downs, Rochelle and Bonnie, who are rumored to be witches.

Sarah exhibits supernatural powers from the onset of the film, and her new friends believe that she will complete their coven, making them all powerful. Nancy's hunger for power quickly gets out of hand and the girls begin tormenting Sarah when she decides to leave the coven. With the help of Lirio, Sarah invokes the spirit of Manon, a powerful deity the girls worship, to take down Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle, stripping them of their powers.

Sarah is a natural witch, having inherited her magical abilities from her mother.

She is portrayed by Robin Tunney.

Biography

Early Life

Sarah Bailey was born in San Francisco, California. After the discovery that her mother, Mrs. Bailey died during childbirth, Sarah blamed herself and fell into a deep depression. During her depression, Sarah began to hallucinate herself drowning in a pool of insects and reptiles. Apparently, the severity of these hallucinations drove Sarah to attempt suicide. However, she was saved by her father who found her body on the bathroom floor with blood coming from her wrists. After a year of therapy, Sarah overcame her depression and moved to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother, Jenny. Unbeknownst to Sarah, she was also born with the ability to use magic, occasionally manifesting her powers without meaning to.

The Craft

After moving to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother to start a new life, Sarah is soon enrolled into a Catholic high school where she comes into contact with three unlikely friends: Bonnie, Nancy and Rochelle. Sarah also meets the incredibly charming captain of the football team, Chris Hooker. As the two share lunch, Chris warns Sarah to stay away from Nancy and her friends because they are witches. However, when Sarah is caught by the girls watching Chris play football, they invite her on a shopping trip to a local occult store. Later, as the girls are walking through the streets of Downtown LA, Sarah is confronted by the same vagrant who broke into her home the previous day. Afraid, Sarah rushes to catch up with the girls. However, the vagrant follows her while shouting about her life being in danger. Together, the girls combine their power and wish death upon the man. The vagrant is then run over by a car and instantly dies.

Upon learning that she is a witch, Sarah and her new coven begin to cast spells on their classmates and each other. However, with bad-girl Nancy thirsting for more power each day, she finally convinces the others to join her in a ritual that will help to "Invoke the Spirit". On completion of the spell, Nancy is blessed with more power than she can handle which causes her to lose all sense of compassion and rationality. Meanwhile, as the girls continue to practice their Wiccan rites, they soon begin to reap the consequences of their previous spells. Bonnie (who had cast a spell for beauty) becomes more and more conceited; while Rochelle (who cast a curse on a former bully) feels remorse after finding the girl bald and hysterical on the restroom floor; and Sarah (who had cast a love spell on Chris) is stalked by Chris, who eventually attempts to rape her.

However, after Nancy kills Chris Hooker for rejecting her and trying to attack Sarah, she begins to fear Nancy and her newfound powers. As a means to protect herself, Sarah performs a binding spell upon Nancy that would prevent her from doing harm. However, the spell is unsuccessful and Nancy (who could sense the binding spell) convinces Bonnie and Rochelle to help her murder Sarah. Later, as the three girls sadistically threaten Sarah and her family, she later turns to another witch named Lirio who informs her that the only way to defeat Nancy is by calling a "Higher Power". Afraid and alone, Sarah reluctantly invokes the spirit of Manon and is blessed with more power than ever before. With the strength of Manon, Sarah is finally strong enough to scare off Bonnie and Rochelle and bind Nancy from further practicing witchcraft. As the film comes to an end, Nancy is committed to a psychiatric hospital and we learn that Sarah (who is finally able to live a peaceful life) has bound Bonnie and Rochelle of their powers as punishment for their betrayal.

Personality

Sarah is shown to be kind girl, though lonely and suffering from poor self-esteem and low confidence. She seems to have suffered from depression in the past and at one point attempted to commit suicide. Sarah seems to want to be loved and feel as though she belongs more than anything else. She dislikes hurting others and seems to have a stronger sense of morality and self-control when compared to the other girls. She also has a fear of snakes, rodents and insects, stating she used to hallucinate these creatures crawling over the ground of floor. It is hinted that she may also blame herself for her mother dying in childbirth.

Sarah is concerned by the girls' misuse of their powers and respects the laws of magic, in particular the Rule of Threefold. She is deeply remorseful when her actions cause harm to others and does her best to fix things. Sarah is also rather witty and responds with passive-aggressive sarcasm towards people she dislikes. Sarah tries to be strong and brave, though her fears sometimes get the better of her. However, by the end of the film she emerges as a confident young woman, comfortable in her own skin and with her powers.

Gallery

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Trivia

• Sarah Bailey was portrayed by Robin Tunney. At the time Robin auditioned for the film, her hair was an inch long because she shaved it for a previous film (Empire Records). She ended up being cast, but had to wear a wig throughout the film.
• She was the only actor (out of the four) to not have studied witchcraft for the film. Fairuza Balk (Nancy Downs) at the time of the film was already a practicing Pagan and owned an occult shop in Hollywood and Rachel True (Rochelle) read from a copy of the Spiral Dance (a famous book on Wicca and its relationship with feminism and goddess-worship).
• Robin Tunney was already friends with Skeet Ulrich (Chris Hooker) before The Craft.
• According to the filmmakers, Sarah's classical element is earth.