Hocus Pocus (1993 film)

Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus theatrical poster
Directed by	Kenny Ortega
Written by	David Kirschner (story) Mick Garris Neil Cuthbert (screenplay)
Produced by	Steven Haft David Kirschner
Starring	Omri Katz Bette Midler Kathy Najimy Sarah Jessica Parker Vinessa Shaw Doug Jones Jason Marsden Thora Birch
Cinematography	Hiro Narita
Music by	John Debney James Horner
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date	July 16, 1993
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000
Box office	$39,514,713 (USA)

Hocus Pocus is a children's 1993 Halloween-themed film released by Disney, and directed by Kenny Ortega. The movie started life as a script for a special original movie for the Disney Channel, to be produced by one of the smaller studios owned by The Walt Disney Company, but the script caught the eye of Walt Disney Studios who decided that the film was strong enough to carry well-known names and to attract a cinema audience. The movie was released in the United States and Canada in July 1993. It was released in October 1994 across Australia and most of Europe and some Asian countries. The idea to cast Bette Midler was partly inspired by Midler's award-winning performance in a milestone motion picture for the Walt Disney Company on its Touchstone Pictures line, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

Plot

The movie opens in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts where three witch sisters — Winifred, Sarah, and Mary Sanderson — transformed a boy, Thackery Binx, into an immortal black cat as punishment for trying to prevent them from absorbing the life force of his younger sister, Emily. He fails to rescue her and instead is cursed to spend eternity as a black cat. The witches are tried and executed by the locals. However, thanks to a curse created by Winifred's magic spell-book, they vow to return when a virgin lights the Black Flame candle on a Halloween night when the moon is full.

Three hundred years later in 1993, Max Dennison (Omri Katz), a skeptical teenager from Los Angeles, lights the Black-flamed Candle at the Sanderson house with his younger sister Dani (Thora Birch) and his love interest Allison (Vinessa Shaw) present bringing the witches back from the dead. However, the kids manage to escape from the witches along with the black cat (Binx) who can now talk, and Max steals Winifred's magic spell book. In an attempt to get the book back, the witches chase the kids to the local graveyard where Winifred resurrects Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones), Winifred's previous unfaithful partner. He is sent to chase the kids across town. The witches also reveal that in order to remain alive and young, they must steal the "life force" of a child before the sun rises and Halloween night ends

The witches experience some 20th century antics, including riding a bus, discovering paved roads, and finding themselves in a Halloween party. They also meet a man who they believe is their master, Satan, but they are thrown out of his house by his wife, who they think is Medusa, because of the curlers in her hair. (The couple was played by well-known director/producer Garry Marshall and his sister, actress/director Penny Marshall.)

Max, Dani, Allison, and Binx go to the town hall Halloween party where they find Max's parents. Max takes the stage in an attempt to warn the families that their children are in danger, telling them that the Sanderson sisters were back from the grave. The audience laughs it off as a prank while Winifred steps on stage and thanks him for his "introduction". Taking over the stage, the witches perform a spell disguised as a Broadway-esque performance of I Put A Spell On You, highlighting Midler's musical talent, to cause all of the adults to "dance, dance, dance 'till you die!".

Max and the others lure the witches into the high school and trick them into entering a kiln, where they appear to burn to death. However, the witches cannot die (they have yet to absorb life-force, nor has the sun risen yet). The witches return to their cottage, taking Jay and Ice (two high-school bullies) with them and locking them in cages. The witches believe that they are doomed because they are unable to make the life-potion without the book, until they spot the light from the magic book, coming from Max's house as Max and Allison tried to find a means of removing Binx's curse. The witches kidnap Dani and Binx. They escape via a new gaping hole blown in the side of Max's home.

Sarah flies across Salem, utilizing a siren-song to lure all of the town's children to their cottage. Max and Allison fool Winifred, Mary and Sarah with threats of Daylight Savings Time (and some headlights) and retrieve Dani and Binx. They retreat to the graveyard, but not before destroying the witches' newest batch of potion. There is still enough for one child however, and Winifred decides that she will make Dani her victim. Max helps Billy, who, after cutting open the stitches over his mouth, reveals himself to be friendly and helps the others protect Dani. A battle begins: Dani is captured by Winifred, who tries to feed her the potion, but Binx forces her to drop it, and she throws him onto a rock, knocking him out. In order to save Dani, Max drinks the potion himself, forcing Winifred to take him instead of her. Meanwhile Allison and Billy incapacitate Sarah and Mary, and after a struggle, Max manages to bring Winifred down from her broom, forcing her onto holy ground, which causes her to turn to stone. Mary and Sarah sadly bid farewell and explode to dust when the sun rises, and Winifred's petrified form soon follows. Billy returns to his grave, but the three kids discover Binx dead (the immortality spell had ceased its duration with the death of the Sanderson sisters, and he was 317 years old). Dani is distraught, since she had formed a bond with him. His spirit appears and thanks the children for breaking his curse, then walks away into the sunrise with the freed soul of his sister, Emily.

During the credits we see the exhausted adults leaving the Halloween party, no longer under the dancing curse. Jay and Ice are seen still trapped in their cages and then the spell book's eye opens and looks around. However, what this means is left to the interpretation of the viewer.

Main cast

• Bette Midler — Winifred Sanderson
• Sarah Jessica Parker — Sarah Sanderson
• Kathy Najimy — Mary Sanderson
• Omri Katz — Max Dennison
• Vinessa Shaw — Allison
• Thora Birch — Dani Dennison
• Sean Murray — Thackery Binx

Witches

• Winifred Sanderson - played by Bette Midler. Winifred is the loud, red-headed, buck toothed leader of the group. The only intelligent member of the trio, she has to put up with her two idiot sisters. She has the power to stun her victims from a distance by firing bolts of lightning-like energy from her fingertips, and is the primary spell-caster of the group. It is her book that the children steal. Winifred, or Winnie as she tends to be called, has a tendency to be rather melodramatic. She is also very sensitive about being called "ugly." She rides a regular house corn broom in the climax of the film, forcing her sisters to fly by other means. She admits shortly before her second death that hell was actually 'quite lovely'. Her costume is green-themed, with black spikes on the toe end of her black shoes.
• Sarah Sanderson - played by Sarah Jessica Parker. The most beautiful of the trio, Sarah is boy-crazy, extremely ditsy, and also unbearably stupid. Her primary power is a siren song: granting her the ability to control children's minds with her voice. She also possesses uncharacteristically-refined knowledge of spellcasting in general, as she has no problem assisting Winifred in spells of perpetual-dance and transmogrification. Sarah rides a mop in the climax of the film and dramatically bids farewell to Winifred before exploding. Her dresses are purple themed and more revealing than the other sisters.
• Mary Sanderson - played by Kathy Najimy. The "fat" sister of the trio who, while not nearly as ditsy as Sarah, is still rather dim. She has various canine tendencies, including barking when she is excited and having the power to sniff out the presence of any children near her. Mary acts as the voice of reason and has to calm down Winifred on several occasions. She also does whatever she can to be in Winnie's favor, including helping her make a potion or compliment her. Mary rides a vacuum cleaner in the climax of the film, known for yelling "broom ho!" to invoke a flight-spell onto a vessel. As she sees the sun come up, she cheerfully says 'Bye-bye' before exploding into dust. Her garb is red themed, and she sports a very interesting hairstyle.

Children

• Max Dennison - Played by Omri Katz. Max is the typical city boy teenager who is upset at having to move to the smaller town of Salem. After a run-in with the two bullies Jay and Ice, he exhibits his behavior in a mixture of anger and frustration, directed toward his sister Dani. As their adventure begins he loses his previous skepticism and attains a leader-like role in order to protect Dani and attempt to attract Allison's attentions. He offers to sacrifice himself for the life of his sister, which Binx had not had the chance to do when he was human proving he cares more for Dani's life than his own. Max grudgingly dressed in regular clothes with a hat and sunglasses saying he was a rap singer, but Dani clarified to a group of bullies that he was a Little Leaguer instead.
• Allison - Played by Vinessa Shaw. Allison is the grounding force of the children, she tends to remain calm under stressful situations and often comes up with ideas on facing various situations against the sisters. She's cool, collected and the most resourceful (Even using a circle of salt to prevent the witches from attacking her as she learned from the spellbook) She is Max's love interest, and despite his original skepticism which caused her to turn down his advances, comes to like Max a lot. When met at her party, Allison was originally dressed in a Victorian gown. She changed clothes for the rest of the film, however.
• Dani Dennison - Played by Thora Birch. Dani is the youngest of the children, and also plays as the most vulnerable. Like Binx, she is the younger sister of Max and constantly needs the protection of her big brother. She tends to whine and screams when she doesn't get her way. She matures rapidly throughout the film, becoming more independent, but still falls prey to Winifred who kidnaps her. Dani is friendly with Allison, but is closer to Binx to whom she has developed a pet bond to, and Max her big brother who she loves tremendously. She was dressed as a witch for Halloween which initially threw the witches off when they encountered her.
• Thackery Binx aka Binx - Played by Sean Murray while Jason Marsden voiced his feline version. Thackery was born in the late 1600's and in 1693 he chased his sister Emily into the woods as she was being drawn by Sarah Sanderson to the witches' home. He was too late to save her when they drew the life force out of Emily and the witches made themselves young ("Well... youngER") as punishment for attempting to disrupt their spells, Winifred decided to transform him into a cat who must live forever with the guilt of his loss. Over the centuries, Thackery (becoming known as Binx in his cat form) guarded the house to be sure no one would resurrect the sisters. He became familiar with modern technology and learned to talk. He is often sorrowful of the loss of his sister and bonds closely with Dani who likely reminds him of Emily. He finally passes away when the sisters are destroyed. He returns for a moment to assure Dani that he is finally at peace and leaves with Emily into the sunrise.

External links

• Hocus Pocus at IMDb
• The Doug Jones Experience (Doug Jones as Billy Butcherson)