See above title! I hope your day is filled with candy, kids in cute costumes, and pumpkins while your night is filled with alcohol, adults in costumes and ghosts! Everyone has their favorite Halloween movie and I’m no different. Now, I’m not a horror fan. I particularly hate guts and gore. In fact, amongst some of my friends, my “gore blanket” is well known—it’s a blanket I clutch and used to hide if I’m forced to watch something gory (Note: This can include particularly nasty episodes of CSI). My favorite Halloween movie therefore is the classic “Hocus Pocus”!
The story starts in 1693—Salem, Massachusetts. As something flies by his window, young Thackery Binx (Sean Murray now Agent Timothy McGee on NCIS, voiced by Jason Marsden) awakens to discover his sister Emily is missing. He is disheartened to see Emily heading into the woods, to the house of the apparently only real witches in Salem. These are the Sanderson sisters—Winifred (Bette Midler), Mary (Kathy Najimy) and Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker). They want to be young again and create a potion to suck Emily’s youth from her. Thackery tries to rescue her but gets turned into a cat. Fortunately, the villagers show up and hang the sisters for witchcraft. But Winifred vows that they will return!
Fast-forward 300 years. Max (Omri Katz) has just moved from California to Salem with his family. He hasn’t handled it well and doesn’t understand why the town is still so into Halloween. His little sister Dani (Thora Birch) drags him trick or treating because Mom and Dad are going to a town party at town hall. They end up at a mansion belonging to Allison (Vinessa Shaw), the girl Max has a crush on. She offers to bring them to the Sandersons’ cottage where Max lights a candle. And thus brings back Winifred, Mary and Sarah. The witches want to continue their interrupted plans on becoming younger and decide to start with Max, Allison and Dani. They are being aided by Winifred’s (and Sarah’s) former lover Billy, come back from the dead. The kids have an ally in Binx the cat, who has survived 300 years.
Hijinks and musical numbers ensue.
When the movie first came out, my parents wouldn’t let me see it because they thought it would be scary. I saw it at a friend’s house shortly after it was released on VHS, went home and told my parents it wasn’t scary—it was funny! There may be some scenes that could scare young children—the entire climax takes place in a graveyard. But the performances are great, especially from the three witches. It’s a classic, great for the whole family (even if the Nostalgia Chick is right about how obsessed the movie is with virginity and portraying it in a bad light), and not so spooky.
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