Updated August 28, 2020 7.3K votes 1.0K voters 57.8K views
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Vote up the reasons why Hocus Pocus puts a spell on you.
No October is complete without a viewing of Hocus Pocus. It's not only among the best Halloween movies ever made, but the film's heady blend of capital-A acting, scary witchcraft, and adult subtext turns a pretty basic story into a cult classic.
Before it went into production, the Hocus Pocus movie was only meant to be a Disney Channel special that played in October. But according to the documentary Hocus Pocus: Begin the Magic, someone at Disney read the script and realized how good it was. Instead of falling through the cracks, it ended up being a showcase for Bette Midler, Thora Birch, and Sarah Jessica Parker – not to mention that cat.
Hocus Pocus wasn't a hit when it was released in 1993, but it's become a minor sensation since. Part of that is due to the movie's wickedly subversive streak. Hocus Pocus features a lot of sex, straight up child murder, and a very fresh take on witchcraft. It's an anomaly among Disney’s filmography, and that’s what makes it so good.
The Sanderson sisters, played by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker, are perfect. It’s not just that they tear through the film like the Marx Brothers crossed with Spinal Tap (they do). It’s that they commit themselves so fully to acting like crazy people for an hour-and-a-half that you begin to believe they really are the Sanderson sisters – even when Bette Midler takes a mid-film break to sing a song.
The characters have a secret meaning, too. Each sister represents a part of the Freudian Trio: the id, the ego, and the supergo. In this case Winifred (Bette Midler) is the superego who masterminds all of the group’s plans. She’s buoyed by Mary (Kathy Najimi), the somewhat logical ego, and Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), the id who only cares about her carnal and instinctual desires.
Hocus Pocus could've taken place on a bunch of anonymous, cloud-filled sound stages, but instead it's filled with great set design. It feels quintessentially Halloween in its visual elements, from broomsticks to jack-o-lanterns. The Sanderson sister's house is filled with spooky easter eggs, and the fictionalized version of Salem looks like a real-life town.
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The Acting Is Great, The Pacing Is Spot-On, And Everyone Looks Like They're Having Fun
Simply put, Hocus Pocus is just a good movie. From top to bottom, everything about the film works. None of the actors look like they don’t want to be there, and it’s paced so well that by the time 45 minutes have passed you don’t even realize that the movie is halfway over. Even towards the end the film, when the witches suddenly know everything about the 20th century, the movie has gotten into such a groove that it deflects all criticism. This might be the greatest spell that Hocus Pocus casts.
Regardless of whether you’re watching a children’s movie or not, having multiple characters discuss their displeasure with living forever is a heavy existential idea to digest.
Thackery Binx is cursed to live forever in the body of a cat, a fate regarded as much worse than death. The audience sees him hit by a bus, and even whomped by the witches a few times, and each of his post “death” lines are imbued with more sadness than the last. This is an insane concept, but it does make Hocus Pocus feel like it has more of an emotional weight than any other run-of-the-mill holiday film.
Even in hard-R horror films it’s rare to see a child die on screen. Hocus Pocus is rated PG, and within the first 10 minutes of the movie Bette Midler kills a kid by sucking out her essence. Then, she shocks the girl’s brother with her taser hands and turns him into a cat.
The moment passes so quickly you almost forget what happened. It’s only when the girl’s ghost appears towards the end of the movie that you remember why she’s a ghost in the first place.
The citizens of real-world Salem, MA, probably like Halloween well enough, but no one loves Halloween the way the fictional residents of Salem do in Hocus Pocus. If you don’t pick this up from all of the elaborate decorations and over-the-top costume parties, there’s one scene that tells you all you need to know about how Salem feels about Halloween.
Early in the first act, when California boy Max talks about how “Halloween was invented by the candy companies,” he immediately has his butt handed to him by Allison, who points out that Halloween is based on a pagan ritual. The entire classroom erupts into frenzied applause. Don’t mess with Halloween in this town.
