A group of teenage girls discover they have real magic powers, but what starts as fun quickly turns dark. Each spell brings new danger, and they soon realize their powers demand a cost they never expected.

‘SPOILER ALERT’

In the small town of Brunswick, it’s detention time at the local high school.

Claire McClaskey, a budding journalist, is doing a documentary on the effects of detention.

She starts by interviewing Brooke, the most popular girl in school, but it’s obvious that Claire doesn’t know how to work her camera. Anyway, Brooke got detention for insulting Mr. Clark, the math teacher, and thinks detention is a pain.

Moving on, Maryjane (MJ) and Darren, her boyfriend of two years, were playing in the hallway, and the teacher got mad. She got detention for her troubles.

Then there’s Greta, captain of the field hockey team. Apparently, she missed classes trying to teach one of her teammates how to play better.

The teacher on duty isn’t so keen on Claire interrupting detention, so she gives her five minutes to round up. With this, she directs her camera to the girl in the black hoodie, a new girl everyone had concluded wouldn’t say a word because she worships Satan.

Surprisingly, she comes up all smiles and introduces herself as Jules Sutton, adding that she was actually born in Brunswick. As it turns out, her family has lived there for generations.

She got detention for pushing Nate Aldrich, and the other girls agree that he deserved it. The weird part is that Nate is over two hundred pounds, and when Jules is asked how she pushed him, she plays it off as magic. Brooke refuses to believe her and ends up daring her to get them out of detention if she’s so powerful.

In turn, Jules asks some of the girls to believe with her and lifts her hand as she makes some incantations. Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off, and everyone is moved outside.

Brooke still doesn’t believe it, but MJ does. In fact, she’s just about to show how much when her boyfriend grabs her from behind. His friend, Jason, comes along, and they distract the girls long enough for Jules to walk away.

The girls notice and chase after her, hoping to gain more of this mysterious power. In response, Jules tells them to meet her at Hag’s Rock in Merry meeting Park at midnight. The other girls seem interested in the idea, but Claire isn’t used to breaking the rules, not to mention leaving so late at night.

They part ways in no time, and Claire hands her tripod over to her dad to help fix. He touches it up as his wife and second daughter, Emily, come to the table for dinner.

Later on, in her room, Claire tries to do voice-overs for her detention piece, only for her mom to remind her that it’s almost midnight. Claire falls prey to the temptation and sneaks out that night with her camera.

A few ways from Merry meeting Park, Brooke jumps out of a street corner, almost scaring the glasses off of Claire. Apparently, they had both come out of curiosity.

They get talking about everything from Brooke’s nose job to how her parents are divorced. They’ve barely covered her mother’s drinking problem when Greta pulls up in her old car. Together, the three of them drive to the park and arrive at Hag’s Rock ten minutes past midnight.

They conclude that Jules is a liar, only for the emo witch to show up with MJ and two shovels. She gives Claire a choice: either she leaves or participates. Claire chooses the latter.

Up next, Jules maps out a pentagram around Hag’s Rock using salt. She then explains that the five points represent the four primal elements—water, fire, wind, and earth—and the last point represents spirit.

With this, she instructs them to pick up a shovel, dig a point of the pentagram each, and bury a lock of hair as a sacrifice. They do this almost immediately. She then pulls out a piece of parchment containing instructions passed down for generations in her family.

It contains two sets of chants: the first one is capable of bonding like-minded souls, and the second is commencement.

Of course, the girls barrage Jules with questions, especially when she mentions something about them becoming a coven. She satisfies their curiosities, so they chant in unison, mentioning all four elements in their bonding ritual.

Nothing happens for a while after this, and the girls just sit around eating store-bought cookies. They talk among themselves to pass the time, and Claire goes full geek mode, bringing up papers she’s read about the burning of witches in Brunswick.

It turns out that they weren’t burned but rather found dead at Hag’s Rock. The spot had been used for various Wiccan rituals in the past. They’re still talking when they hear a loud scream, and they instantly run towards the pentagram.

Upon arrival, they notice that all their buried locks of hair have been dug up. The others freak out, but Brooke just sees it as the result of their actions.

The next day, during lunch, Claire’s editor, Pete, gives her a taste of her medicine, pointing the camera at her. She escapes him when she realizes Jules is eating by herself. In no time, MJ joins them at the table, freaking out about what happened at Hag’s Rock. She thinks someone must’ve been watching them.

Jules pulls out the parchment to confirm the conditions of their ritual, only for Darren to snatch it from behind. Greta shows up to smack him upside the head, and retrieves the parchment. He and Jason are forced to leave the girls alone, and soon, Brooke completes the circle.

She strongly believes the ritual worked, and to move on to the next chant, the group will have to meet.

Brooke refuses to sit for fear of ruining her image but suggests that they all meet at her place by 11pm. MJ chooses this moment to voice her fears, explaining how she couldn’t sleep and doesn’t want to be in league with some demons. Jules then reveals that they can’t commence without all coven members being present.

After lunch, Claire and her camera sit for Mr. Dwyer’s class, only for Brooke to storm in and displace the boy sitting next to her. She would like Claire to join her in helping MJ gain some courage before their meeting.

By 11pm, everyone except MJ gathers at Brooke’s home. Jules wastes no time purifying the space with some sage, but it sets off the smoke detector. Just as Greta disables it, MJ comes walking in.

They sit in a circle soon enough, chanting the commencement spell. For a split second, the lights glitch, but nothing more happens until they’re done. Shortly after, they begin to wonder what they can do now that the only two spells on the parchment have been activated.

In turn, Jules explains that she didn’t need the parchment to get them out of detention. They then sit in a circle and form a mantra to get a book to levitate. It doesn’t work initially, so Jules points out that the problem could be in the phrasing of the mantra.

Taking initiative, Claire starts a new one in which they believe the book is already floating. After a few seconds of repeating this, the book levitates, pushing MJ to burst out laughing. Her break in concentration sends the books falling.

They decide to try levitating something bigger next, Claire to be precise. They all chant a mantra to get her to levitate, and soon, Claire floats so high that she almost touches the ceiling.

Suddenly, Brooke’s mom, Karen, comes home with a lad half her age, scolding her kid for not telling her about the sleepover. The girls are distracted, and the moment Mrs. Cabot goes upstairs, Claire falls face first on the ground. She’s not even mad about it.

School the next day goes by in a flash, and everyone except MJ gathers at a restaurant. They’re just going about their food when a rude waitress comes to the table. After she leaves, the girls chant that the bill’s already been paid, and it works like, well, magic.

Together, they just walk out without dropping a dime, and Claire’s conscience pricks her. The others choose to go shopping with this newfound power and successfully pull Claire to the dark side.

Brooke stocks up on bags, Greta on some new dresses, and later on, the four of them get their hair done. The shopping spree continues for much longer, with Greta, Brooke, and Claire chanting outside as Jules does even more shopping. They get away with it, only to run into Darren and Jason outside the mall. Apparently, MJ had a serious dental emergency.

Claire and Brooke end up in Mr. Dwyer’s class once again, and once again, he catches Brooke mouthing off instead of listening. He asks her a question, but she gives a witty response instead, leaving Claire to give the right answer. In turn, Mr. Dwyer mocks Brooke for being dumb, and the girls plot their revenge.

They chant that he’s a coffee mouth and keep on chanting until Mr. Dwyer begins to throw up coffee. Word spreads about his incident, and the girls meet up to talk about it during lunch. He’s also Brooke’s advisor, and she’s convinced that he’s out to get her.

MJ shows up, sad that she couldn’t go shopping with the rest of the coven. As it turns out, any one of them is capable of harnessing magic without the rest of the group present.

Greta chips in how Brett, a popular jock, asked her to be his date to the spring fling. Brooke then mentions how they must all have things they really want to achieve. With this, she calls for a meeting at midnight in which they’d make the things on their lists a reality.

Shortly after, Claire and Jules watch Greta’s field hockey game. They decide to walk back together, and on their way, Claire finds out that both of Jules’ parents are dead. Seconds after this revelation, she gets ambushed by a mute hobo, and Jules stretches her hand towards the criminal. Out of nowhere, the hobo is sent flying into the distance, giving the girls a chance to run for it.

As Claire nurses her bruised arm, she can’t help but wonder how Jules sent the hobo flying. It turns out that she really wanted her gone, and the magic did the rest.

Claire continues her voice-over when she gets home that night, but her little sister stops by her room to make trouble. Just before the pillow fight becomes serious, Mrs. McClaskey sends Emily to her room.

Later on, Greta drives the others to Brooke’s home as planned, but they find her standing outside. Unfortunately, Karen is with the young man from before, and it’s way too noisy to get anything done. With this in mind, Greta drives the coven to the woods.

Everyone came with their lists: MJ with one way too long, and Claire for her dad to get a good job and her sister to stop stuttering. Jules would love to fly and become queen at the spring fling, but the others find the second wish quite ridiculous.

Claire becomes the voice of reason, explaining how unnatural it is to wish for things that could hurt people. All four girls then agree to scrap things off their lists and leave only two wishes.

Brooke goes first, and the coven chants that she can do no wrong in Mr. Dwyer’s eyes. Her second wish is for her mom to hate the taste of alcohol. MJ also wishes for flight, and it works almost immediately. Sadly, her landing is quite rough, and she loses yet another tooth.

They have to take her to the hospital, where they discover that Darren was ready to propose to MJ. This was in fact her second wish.

The next day, Mr. Dwyer asks to see Brooke in private. There, he gives her an A minus on her paper and even offers to help her get into Princeton University. The moment Brooke steps out, she tells Claire that she’s scared of the spell wearing off and gets told that it’ll last longer because the entire coven cast it together.

Claire is still filming everything when she bumps into Jason. In turn, he reveals the news about MJ’s jawbone deteriorating.

Anyway, Jason invites Claire to a party at Topsham Lake, advising her to show up by 10 or later.

As wished for, Greta’s team wins the game against Westbrook, and shortly after, they head out to her new car. The coven tries to Skype MJ that night, and she picks up after the third try, unable to show her face.

After some encouragement, MJ reveals her wired-shut jaw long enough to tell the girls to leave her alone. As for Brooke, her mom hasn’t had any alcohol since the night before and has been nothing short of awesome.

Greta offers to pick Claire up for the party by 11pm. Her parents call out to her, so she leaves the call, only to find out that her dad got two job offers. As they hug it out, Emily tries to drop snarky remarks, and everyone is in awe that her stuttering has stopped. Wishes were being granted left and right.

Later on, Claire, Brooke, and Greta arrive at the Topsham Lake party, and they advise the budding journalist to just be herself. While the campfire burns on one end, Brooke gets very drunk on another.

Meanwhile, Jason hopes to capture the moment Claire tries beer for the first time, but Brooke interrupts them and drinks it all. She goes on to ask for some more, so Jason leaves to find it for her. It’s at this point that Greta introduces Brett to her friends.

After a while of playing around, Claire doesn’t hear from Jason. Afraid, she goes searching for him in the woods, only to witness Jules flying down on a stick. It turns out that she flew to Boston just to get pancake sandwiches.

They both track down Greta, and all three girls go looking for Brooke. To aid their cause, Darren has his friend turn on the headlights on his van, and it reveals Brooke being too friendly with Jason.

Claire feels so betrayed, and it spills into the next day. At school, she and Jules talk about how much of a traitor Brooke is, and they’re still talking when the teacher asks them to step into the hall.

They quietly obey, only to be met by Detective Strauss and her subordinate. Apparently, she wants to see the receipts for their purchases at Old Port. The girls were caught on camera picking out things and just walking away, so the detective would like some proof of payment.

This is where Jules comes in. She first confirms that the cashier said they paid and then turns it around on the officers, claiming that they’re harassing young girls who are supposed to be in class. The case closes faster than a hot knife through butter.

Later on, Mr. Dwyer comes on to Brooke by her locker, and she flees the scene. After this, the poor teacher turns himself in and gets fired for harassment. Jules and Claire talk about it on a video call while she’s at the eye doctor’s, only ending the call when the doctor steps in with her mom.

As it turns out, there’s nothing wrong with Claire’s glasses. It’s something worse. She’s plagued with a vision loss condition called macular degeneration, the same condition her grandmother had.

That same day, at Greta’s game, she suddenly drops to the ground, gripping her knee like it’s on fire. Her dad, Kevin, goes from excited to worried in a split second and runs to her side.

Claire links up with Brooke and Jules at a diner, where she reveals that Greta has been diagnosed with early-onset arthritis. Her theory is that the spells they’ve been casting are costing them their youth. They think Jules isn’t paying the price, so she opens up about her early-onset menopause and how she’s been taking hormones.

With this, Claire suggests that they stop casting spells altogether, seeing as it could affect others in the coven. Brooke doesn’t care for the suggestion. She even promises to chant should her mom go back to drinking. She then walks out on the group.

Shortly after Claire drops off MJ’s homework, she and Jules pay Greta a visit. The sportswoman can barely walk without her crutch, but she manages to make it to her porch, where she talks with her girls.

Mid-conversation, Detective Strauss interrupts them, wanting to know about Greta’s car. Feeling frustrated, Greta just screams at her to take it back and then wobbles her way back inside.

The detective goes on about seeing a similar situation seventeen years ago: a group of girls collected a lot of stuff just like Claire and her friends are doing, and it turned out pretty badly. Sadly, Detective Strauss doesn’t get a chance to say more before Greta’s dad intervenes.

On her way back home, Claire feels like she’s being followed, and to prove her right, Jason pops up out of nowhere. His efforts to apologize fail, so he throws caution to the wind and asks Claire to be his date to the spring fling. This gets a smile out of her, but she explains that she’s going through too much at the moment.

That night on Skype, Jules and Claire brainstorm ways to get rid of their powers. Jules is pretty distracted by the weird sounds coming from the hall, and just when she stands to check it out, a strange black essence knocks her down. It continues to knock her around until it pushes her out the window.

Luckily, she gets treatment on time. Claire’s worried sick about Jules, but her parents refuse to let her visit the hospital so late at night. In school the next day, Jules’ seat is empty, and Claire can’t concentrate. It’s worse at lunch, seeing as she pours her drink all over herself.

She picks up Jules’ homework after school and makes her way down to the hospital. Still feeling like someone is following her, she dips in and out of alleyways before reaching the hospital. Upon her arrival, she says hi to Jules’ foster parents and goes straight to her friend’s bedside.

Apparently, Jules found a lock of blonde hair in her fist after falling out the window. Her theory is that it belongs to Brooke and that the witch continued to use magic even though her friends were hurting because of it. Jules then warns Claire to be wary of Brooke, seeing as they have no idea how far she’ll go for power.

By 11 PM that night, Claire returns to documenting her thoughts. She’s barely started when she hears Brooke calling out to her from downstairs. Staring out the window, Claire tries to have the conversation at a safe distance, but Brooke insists that they go for a walk.

Scared, Claire leaves an SD card containing past footage and chants a spell that’ll let her be invisible to Brooke when the time comes.

Both girls go for a walk as planned, with Claire putting ample space between herself and Brooke. It doesn’t last long as Brooke starts to speak like the villain they’ve always suspected. Claire immediately becomes invisible, but is betrayed by the camera in her hand.

Easily, Brooke electrocutes her, making it impossible for her to become invisible again. Claire makes a run for it, hiding behind a propane tank to mutter a spell of her own. This time, it makes her three times Brooke’s size, and she kicks an entire barrel at her.

She then returns to her usual size, runs to pick up her camera, and comes face-to-face with Brooke in a nearby alley. Sadly, Brooke casts a multiplication spell, summoning two more copies of herself. She knocks down Claire at this point, only stopping when she’s accused of attacking Jules.

As it turns out, Brooke had nothing to do with it, so both girls team up once again. They run from the cops trooping in, and Claire calls up Detective Strauss. Before they see the detective, they check their bodies for consequences: Claire’s hair grows more gray, and Brooke’s face grows a wart. They both start to doubt Jules, seeing as all her consequences were internal stuff that they couldn’t prove.

Soon, they head inside to see Strauss, wanting to know about the girls from seventeen years ago. Unfortunately, three of the five girls lost their lives, and the other two are still missing.

Abby, one of the missing girls, was also a foster kid, so no one cared. The detective then shows them a picture of Lisa Strauss, her older sister who’s been missing since 1983.

Another look at Abby’s photo, and the girls can swear that she’s Jules without the dye job. They soon discover that the girls who died were in fact poisoned by some type of mold. This strikes a chord in both girls, and Claire calls up Margaret, her friend in charge of the school yearbook.

That night, the three of them raid the school’s archives in search of the name Abby Butcher. They find one, and then another, alongside a mention of Julia Sutton from 1689. They also come across Abby from 17 years ago and find out that she was spring fling flower queen. Jules appeared again as Susannah O’Martin in 1966 and in 1932 as Martha Carrier, who was accused of being a Brunswick witch.

Soon, the trio discovers that all these girls are the same witch returning every seventeen years using the names of her past victims as aliases. Claire is certain that she saw Sarah Gould, one of the girls who went missing, somewhere.

Back at the station, Detective Strauss is knee-deep in the case, so much so that she doesn’t notice her subordinate dropping off a coffee for her.

Anyway, Brooke and Claire skip school to find Sarah Gould. It turns out that she was the hobo who attacked Claire before, so they walk down the same alley until they find her. Sarah lost her voice as a consequence for using magic and has to write on a notepad to communicate. She only starts to write after confirming that Jules, who she knows as Abby, is nowhere close.

Sarah reveals that the coven story is a lie and that it’s actually a scheme for Jules to replenish her youth. It turns out that she also shoots fire and had burned Sarah’s face in the past.

Brooke wonders how they can reverse the effects of what Jules has done, but the only advice Sarah has is that they shouldn’t let her be crowned flower queen at the spring fling. She begs them not to let Jules seal the curse, and shortly after, she walks into an incoming van.

Brooke quickly points out how trapped they’ll be if the cops find them at the crime scene, and despite her suggestion to call Detective Strauss, Claire is convinced that they have to do things on their own. She goes on to call MJ after this and fills her in on everything.

Later on, at the hospital, Jules threatens her fake foster parents not to utter another word and sends them out just in time for MJ to walk in. Jules is a bit surprised but keeps her cool as she talks about the incident. Just then, MJ corrects her, explaining that she came to talk about Brooke and Claire going missing. Sadly, Jules plays dumb throughout the conversation.

Shortly after, Brooke gets a call from MJ confirming all their suspicions about the witch. Jules even gave MJ something to eat, but she didn’t eat it for fear of being poisoned. In addition, Jules coerces Brett to take her to the spring fling instead of Greta.

The night of the spring fling arrives in a flash. Margaret replaces Claire as the reporter on duty, and Pete stays behind the camera capturing the essence of the event.

The original four gather to chant a spell, hoping to stop Jules from becoming the flower queen. They’ve only chanted four times when MJ’s tooth gives out. Brooke can’t hear her because she’s losing her hearing, Claire can’t even see the situation properly, and Greta can barely stand.

They’re still worrying about not being strong enough to take on Jules when she enters with Brett and Jason on each arm.

Meanwhile, Detective Strauss is packing up her files on the case. Her eyes catch a correlation in some files, and she instantly drops everything and grabs her coat.

At the spring fling, it’s time to announce the flower queen. Jules and her two bodyguards head towards the stage gallantly, only for the emcee to announce Tiffany as the winner. Furious, Jules walks over to the group, pretending like nothing’s going on.

MJ is the first to insult the witch, and then the other girls follow up, revealing that they know all about her plan. She mocks them for thinking they can stop her and announces that she’ll have to do things the bloody way. She taunts the girls, but only MJ reacts, so Jules slams her into the wall using her magic flames.

It draws the attention of the other students, and they witness as the witch blows Greta away. Darren tries to defend his girlfriend, giving Claire, Brooke, and Jason a chance to escape. Easily, the witch fights off Darren, blowing him away just like the others. She then tracks down the other three.

Brooke offers to buy some time and urges Claire to leave with Jason. They do so after some reluctance, and Brooke comes face to face with the enemy. They both activate their powers: Brooke with her lightning and Jules with her black flames. Somehow, the former manipulates her lightning into an electromagnetic field and uses it to block off the witch’s attacks.

During this time, Claire hands over Jason to Margaret, asking her to call the cops and an ambulance. She then returns to find that Brooke is on the run once again. Too tired to continue, she falls to the ground, giving Jules a chance to relish the pending murder. Before she can attack, Claire bursts in, offering herself in Brooke’s place. Sadly, Jason, the male virgin Jules has been seeking, also bursts into the room.

In no time, the witch grabs him by the collar, floats into the air, and flies off as a dark essence. She shatters her way out the window, leaving the girls to rack their brains for the next step. MJ shows up just in time, wielding a pole and announcing that Jules can only be heading towards Hag’s Rock.

Together, she and Claire take to the skies on the pole, but it’s almost midnight, so neither of them can see clearly. Soon, they crash into the forest and find themselves sprawled on the ground. It’s at this moment that MJ sends forth Claire to finish things.

She can only see a few feet in front of herself, so she uses the viewfinder on her camera to find her way to Hag’s Rock. Upon arrival, she notices Jules chanting a spell, and watches as she lays Jason down on the rock seconds later.

Sensing Claire’s presence, the witch urges her to get a good angle for the folks at home. In turn, Claire asks about her true identity, only for Jules to reveal that she’s Mary Perkins. The way she sees it, Claire isn’t a threat, so she continues the ritual, raising her knife to stab Jason.

At that moment, Detective Strauss shows up, gun in hand, and yells at her to put the knife away. Claire tries to warn the detective, but she doesn’t listen. She continues to point her gun at Jules, and the witch plays along, dropping her knife as instructed.

Suddenly, she shoots a blast of black flame at the detective, pushing her back a couple of steps. Jules blasts her again and again, forcing a panicked Claire to think up a solution.

She begins to chant a spell to summon all of the witch’s past victims, and MJ shows up just in time to help. As they chant, ethereal presences take the shape of all of Jules’ victims. Without uttering a word, they all walk up to the witch.

Claire and MJ rush back to the scene of the fight and witness Jules shouting at the ghosts. She doesn’t believe they’re real until they start to touch her, draining every last bit of power the witch possessed.

Detective Strauss can only watch in awe and, after the witch’s defeat, realizes that her sister is among the ghosts. Lisa Strauss then walks up to her and touches her face, a last-minute attempt at closure.

A quick look at Jules, and all they see is an aged and hunched woman, and before their eyes, she disappears into thin air.

The detective then makes it clear that the girls have to follow her to the station and hand over all the footage.

Life returns to normal at Brunswick High School as Claire finally turns in her piece on detention and its effects. Pete finds it inspiring but complex, and Claire doesn’t have time to explain it. She just abandons the poor guy to hang out with her friends.

They plan to have a girls’ night now that no one’s teeth are falling out, but Jason runs down the hall to speak with Claire. He’d like to take her out, and she promises to try anything once.

Happy, the four of them head out to Greta’s trusty old car to have the time of their lives.

What started as an accidental meeting turned into a wonderful friendship. In spite of Jules being a witch and trying to end their lives, these girls stuck together and found a way out of adversity. There’s strength in numbers; if you didn’t believe it, I hope you do now.

The Witch Files 2018.