Hocus Pocus (1993)

The Sanderson sisters – Winifred (a beaver-toothed queenly Bette Midler with a hairdo from Hell), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary (Kathy Najimy) – are three witches in Salem, Massachusetts, who are caught and hanged in 1693 by angry townsfolk after they drain the life out of a small girl named Emily Binx (Amanda Shepherd) before the eyes of her helpless brother, Thackery (Sean Murray).

Caught in the act of brewing up a youth-stealing potion, Winifred zaps the Binx lad with a curse that turns him into a black cat that will live forever. Then, on the gallows, the three witches pronounce that they will return to haunt Salem one day.

Fast forward 300 years to present-day Salem, and we are introduced to a wimp kid named Max Dennison (Omri Katz) who wanders around town moaning about having left his beloved California and has his sneakers stolen by high school hoodlums. The only bright spot in Max’s life is a lissom blonde named Allison Watts (endowed with a preppy Larchmont lockjaw drawl by Vinessa Shaw).

After suffering further humiliation at the hands of the hoods, Max travels to the old Sanderson manse with Allison, a former helper at the now-closed witch museum, and his bratty but wise and adorable little sister, Dani (precocious scene-stealer Thora Birch).

Playing with an old book (bound in flesh and sporting a roving eyeball), Max lights a black candle and inadvertently raises Winifred and her sisters from the dead.

Max, Allison and Dani manage to escape with the sisters’ magic spell book and – with the assistance of Binx, the immortal talking black cat (voiced by Jason Marsden) and a zombie ex-friend of the sisters, Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones), who they raise from the graveyard – wage a pedestrian war against the witches.

“We’re talking about three old hags versus the 20th century. How bad can it be?” Max asks. Pretty bad, Max.

Shocked that Halloween has turned into a night of fun and frolic for children, the wicked sisters set out to recover the book so they can steal the life-force of the children of Salem and remain young forever. The catch is that all this must be done before Halloween night ends, or the witches will turn to dust.

The script changes direction so often that it eventually seems patched together from several different stories, and director Kenny Ortega is incapable of keeping things coherent. But even within the jumble, some scenes stand out – such as Midler belting out Screamin’ Jay Hawkins‘ I Put a Spell on You during a costume ball.

About all that’s missing from this Disney film is a shaggy dog, a Volkswagen with a mind of its own and an animated duck named Donald.

Winifred Sanderson
Bette Midler
Sarah Sanderson
Sarah Jessica Parker
Mary Sanderson
Kathy Najimy
Max Dennison
Omri Katz
Dani Dennison
Thora Birch
Allison Watts
Vinessa Shaw
Emily Binx
Amanda Shepherd
Ernie ‘Ice’
Larry Bagby
Jay
Tobias Jelinek
Jenny
Stephanie Faracy
Dave Dennison
Charles Rocket
Billy Butcherson
Doug Jones
Headless Billy Butcherson
Karyn Malchus
Thackery Binx
Sean Murray
Thackery Binx (voice)
Jason Marsden
Elijah
Steve Voboril
Thackery’s Father
Norbert Weisser
Miss Olin
Kathleen Freeman
Lobster Man
Frank Del Boccio
Calamity Jane
Teda Bracci
Elias Miller
Elliott J Brown
Satan 
Garry Marshall
Satan’s Wife
Penny Marshall

Director
Kenny Ortega

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