Deep Dive Disney Halloween Special: Wes Looks at Hocus Pocus

Happy Halloween my friends and welcome to the first of several planned seasonal specials. Since today is Halloween (or at least it should be if the Wix.com post scheduling mechanic has worked correctly, it’s actually still September as I’m writing this), I’ve decided to analyze the greatest Halloween film that Disney has ever had a hand in producing. Unfortunately, we already covered The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I guess we’re stuck with Hocus Pocus. I kid, I actually do like this movie, I just don’t really have a nostalgic connection to the film having not grown up with it. I was already nineteen years old when I saw the film for the first time. Still, despite the lack of a personal connection I still appreciate this as a fun and spooky Halloween romp as well as a lovely little slice of 90’s nostalgia pie. It’s actually quite fortuitous that we’re covering Hocus Pocus when we are since very recently, Disney has announced a sequel to Hocus Pocus to be released on Disney+ next year with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy all reprising their roles. After having relived this film for the first time in a while, I can honestly say I’m excited but that’s a discussion for another day, maybe next Halloween, who knows. Today, we’re here to talk about the original Hocus Pocus. So what’s the story? We open in 1693 in Salem Massachusetts where a young girl named Emily Binx is lured to a cottage in the woods by three witches, Winifred, Mary and Sarah Sanderson. The witches brew a potion that will allow them to drain the young girl’s life force to restore their youth and help them live forever. The girl’s older brother tries to save her, but Winifred turns him into a cat for his trouble and the girl’s life is drained by the evil witches. Fortunately, the village rounds up a posse and hangs the three evil hags, but with their final spell, the witches proclaim that one day, when a virgin lights the candle of the black flame, they will return from the grave. Three hundred years later, and the legend of the Sanderson sisters is remembered as a folktale for the locals. Max Dennison, having recently moved to Salem from Los Angeles and clearly having a difficult time adjusting to his new surroundings, takes a bit of a more cynical approach, believing that Halloween was only invented by the candy companies. One fateful Halloween night, Max, his little sister Dani and his would-be girlfriend Allison sneak into the old Sanderson place, which is now a museum. Not believing the legend, Max decides it would be a good idea to light the fabled candle of the black flame. Turns out it is NOT a good idea as the Sanderson Sisters are resurrected as foretold. The witches proclaim that they will drain the life force of every child in Salem but must hurry because the candle’s magic only lasts until the sun rises. With the help of Thackery Binx, who in addition to being turned into a cat was cursed to live forever with his guilt, Max and the others escape the cottage and steal Winifred’s evil spell book which is needed for brewing the life draining potion. Now, it’s a game of cat and mouse between the Sanderson Sisters and our heroes as Winifred desperately tries to reclaim her book and steal the life force of every child in town so that she and her sisters may live forever. This movie was an absolute blast and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Halloween. Let’s get into, Hocus Pocus.

Main Character:

When we first meet Max, he’s kind of a cynical asshole and something of a party pooper. He openly mocks the superstitious nature of the people of Salem and the legend of the Sanderson Sisters specifically and he’s a jerk to his sister, needing to be coerced to take her trick-or-treating. However, while I don’t especially like his attitude, I understand why he is the way he is. It’s tough for a kid to move to a new town, especially one that’s on the complete opposite end of the country. Max doesn’t know anyone, he’s missing his friends and some local bullies stole his shoes. You can’t blame him for having a chip on his shoulder. Still, Max is shown to love his sister, clearly seems to have genuine affection for Allison and once he finds out that the witches are the real deal, he valiantly steps up to fight against them and even gets the better of them once or twice. For someone who doesn’t believe in the supernatural Max is pretty quick on the uptake, quickly figuring out how to turn the Sanderson Sister’s lack of knowledge of the twentieth century against them pretty quickly and accepting that Binx is a talking cat without question. He’s not the most interesting protagonist we’ve covered for Deep Dive Disney but he has his moments.

Villain:

However, no one cares about Max. You don’t watch a horror movie, even a children’s horror comedy like this one for the main character anyway. No, you want to see the monsters, the ghosts, the ghouls, the goblins or, in this case, the witches. Fortunately, the Sanderson Sister’s deliver. While they may be a little too goofy at times, they’re still a ton of fun and can even be pretty creepy and threatening at times. Plus, Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker are all great actresses who each turn in stellar performances. We’ll stary with Mary Sanderson, played by Peggy Hill herself, Kathy Najimy. I’ll be honest, while she has an occasional funny moment, Mary is easily the least interesting of the sisters. While her ability to sniff out children and her hair that’s been styled to look like a witch’s hat are pretty cool. However, she’s mostly just a dumb and silly character. Don’t get me wrong, Sarah and Winifred have their moments of dumb silliness, but at least they still come across as a threat, which is more than I can say for Mary.

Winifred Sanderson is the leader of the sisters and by far the smartest of the bunch. If you can get past the obnoxious buck teeth on Bette Midler, Winifred is a pretty serious threat. Cruel, sadistic and completely vain and self-absorbed, Winifred is pure evil. It’s her idea to suck the life force out of every child in Salem in order to keep herself young forever, so kind of like Mother Gothel only without the flower or any sort of pretense of being a decent human being. Well, at least she’s honest. While she may be pompous and very over the top like Cruella De Vil after three galleons of espresso, you never forget that she is a serious threat with some powerful magic that can kick your ass. Such magic includes force lightning, raising the dead, hypnotic spells and so much more. Winnie is a seriously nasty customer.

Finally, there’s Sarah Sanderson, my favorite of the sisters and quite possibly my favorite character in the movie. I never thought I’d say this, but Sarah Jessica Parker makes this movie for me. I’m not normally a big fan of hers but I have to give her all the credit in the world, she absolutely nails it as Sarah Sanderson. Every second she’s on screen it looks like Sarah is having the absolute time of her life, and I mean that in reference to both the actress and the character. Parker’s performance is perfectly balanced. At times she’s funny and almost child-like but at the drop of a hat she can become downright creepy and disturbing, sort of like a cat who plays with her food before she eats it. The performance kind of like a mix of Harley Quinn and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I actually wonder if the professional wrestler Alexa Bliss drew inspiration from Sarah Sanderson when crafting her current persona. Easily her creepiest power is her haunting siren song used to lure children to their doom, but we’ll get to that in good time. While I doubt they’d be able to compete with Maleficent or Hades, the Sanderson Sisters definitely have earned a place amongst the Disney villain pantheon and have been popular enough to stand the test of time. Even as recently as 2019 the sisters starred in their own stage show at Walt Disney World. In the show, the Sisters must make a new potion and enlist the help of Dr. Facilier, Oogie Boogie, Maleficent and more. It’s a little cheesy, much like the film, but it’s still pretty cool to see the sisters interacting with classic Disney villains. The show is available in full on YouTube if you’re curious. All in all, the Sandersons are great and definitely make this movie a lot of fun.

Side Characters:

There’s not a whole lot to say about Allison. She’s your typical love interest in one of these movies. She comes from a wealthy family but doesn’t let that make her a snob or anything. She and Max have a pretty sweet, albeit underdeveloped romance and that’s about all there is to say.

Dani is Max’s eight-year-old sister and she’s also a pretty sweet character. It’s clear that she’s had a much easier time adjusting to life in Salem than her brother I actually like their relationship. It’s clear that they love and cherish one another but Dani isn’t above embarrassing her older brother and I love that she still calls Max Jerk Face even after he saves her life at the end.

Next there’s Billy Butcherson, the former lover of Winifred who left her for Sarah and was later resurrected as a zombie to attack our heroes while they were hiding from them on sacred ground there the witches cannot set foot. First thing’s first, Billy is played by extremely talented actor and mime artist, Doug Jones. Doug Jones has performed no shortage of iconic characters over the course of his career but these days he’s probably most recognizable as Saru from Star Trek Discovery. I like how Billy starts out menacing but later turns out to be a good guy zombie who hates the Sanderson sisters as much as anyone else. Billy’s a fun character, I just wish he got more time with him after his face turn.

Finally there’s Thackery Binx. While Binx is voiced by our old friend Jason Marsden, otherwise known as Max Goof, his human form is actually played Sean Murray, who you may know as McGee from NCIS. Binx is actually a fun character and played surprisingly serious despite being a talking cat. I like how his own relationship with his sister mirrors that of Dani and Max and he and Dani ending forming this really cute friendship.

Songs:

I suppose I should talk about I’ll Put a Spell on You, the big dance number in the middle of the film. It’s actually not a bad song, but the actual musical number kind of comes out of nowhere. The witches have the kids pretty much dead to rights and instead opt to sing and dance instead of hunt down their prey. I get that it makes sense in context since the song is actually a spell that the sisters place on the parents at the Halloween dance at the rec center to make them “Dance Until They Die” keeping them out of the way so they’re free to go after Max and the others, but even then, it still feels out of place.

However, that’s not the song you most associate with the Sanderson Sisters, is it? No, for that, we look to later in the film where Sarah uses her hypnotic powers on all the children in Salem by singing the song Come Little Children. I bet even if you only have the vaguest memory of this movie, just my mentioning of the Come Little Children song sent a cold shiver down your spine. The song is absolutely haunting and otherworldly. While the sisters are fun, creepy undoubtedly a threat, this is the only scene in the entire film where any of the witches are genuinely scary. This song will haunt my nightmares as it has for the past several years, and I absolutely love it.

Memorable Scenes:

The final showdown with the Sanderson Sisters is actually a lot of fun. At this point, Winifred has finally gotten her book back and has brewed the life sucking potion. On top of that, the witches have captured Dani and Sarah has put the come hither on the rest of the children with her creepy song. After Dani hits Winnie where it really hurts by calling her ugly, Winifred insists that she die first. Max shows up and tricks the sisters into thinking the sun has come up using some car headlights in order to distract them and save Danny. Our heroes make their last stand in the cemetery where the witches soon descend upon them. It’s chaos as our heroes fight off the evil hags and the action gets pretty intense. Eventually, Winifred grabs ahold of Dani and demands that Max fork over the potion or his sister gets. Max does the only thing he can do to save his sister and drinks the potion, meaning that Winnie has to drain him instead. Max and Winnie have pretty intense battle on her broomstick until they’re eventually knocked to the ground and Winnie is turned to stone for setting foot on sacred ground. Soon after, the sun comes up and before you can say Nants Ingonyama Bagithi Baba, all the witches turn to dust, Billy returns to his grave and Binx’s soul is now free to join his sister in the afterlife. All’s well that ends well… at least until the sequel next year.

Story:

Unlike something like Brave or Big Hero Six, this movie isn’t exactly going for any deeper meaning. It’s just trying to be a fun Halloween adventure and it succeeds at that just fine. That said, there is a pretty overt motif of the bond between siblings. Binx is driven by his guilt over failing to save his sister and reminds Max to make sure he doesn’t make the same mistake with Dani. It’s not exactly a strongly presented message, but’s it’s a nice sentiment all the same.

The Dark Disney Factor:

While there’s nothing crosses into the territory of true horror, there’s plenty of stuff in here that pushes things into the area of just a little bit too creepy for a kids movie. We’ve already discussed Sarah’s hypnotic siren song, Winifred’s life draining spell and Billy the zombie ex-boyfriend, but there’s still a lot more ground to cover. There’s the fact that Winifred’s spell book has an eyeball, that’s pretty creepy. How about the scene where Binx gets hit by a bus and the movie actually shows us his mangled and flattened body? Don’t worry, Binx is fine, Winifred’s spell keeps him from dying remember, but seeing this cat lying there like roadkill was still deeply unsettling. My favorite though is actually not something perpetrated by the sisters, but rather something that happens to them. After the big musical number, our heroes lure the witches to the school and using a recording, trap them in the kiln in the art room and burn them alive. You know, it’s actually kind of funny to me. At the time I’m writing this, I’ve only just posted my Big Hero Six article. As you may recall, in that film, killing the villain was presented as a very bad thing and caused our hero to have a crisis of morality that ultimately forced him to confront his own grief. Here, who gives a shit about morality or complexity or any of that shit. Our heroes burn the witches with zero hesitation. They just basically all decide, they’re evil, they’re gonna kill people, witches gotta die! They Sanderson Sisters manage to survive immolation of course and how is never quite explained, but hey, they have magical Satan powers, so I can roll with it.

Final Thoughts: Hocus Pocus is not a particularly deep or powerful film like some we've covered in the past, and it's in no way trying to be. It's just trying to be a fun Halloween film about evil witches, and in that regard, I'd call the film a resounding success. The Sanderson Sisters make for great and memorable antagonists and Midler, Parker and Najimy work off one another splendidly. Hopefully this dynamic carries over to the upcoming sequel. For now though, I was very pleased to relive this film. Since I have no idea what's coming next, I'll simply sign off by wishing you all a Happy Halloween! Wes, Out!