Released in the US in 1993 (and in Australia in 1994), supernatural comedy Hocus Pocus introduced the world to villainous witches Winnie, Mary and Sarah Sanderson. Portrayed by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker respectively, the fictional sisters were hanged in 1693, but not before Winnie cast a curse that could result in the trio being resurrected if certain conditions were satisfied.
Jump ahead 300 years and hey, presto! The requirements of the curse were met when teenager Max Dennison (Omri Katz) lit a black flame candle in the Sandersons’ cottage – and Winnie, Mary and Sarah came back to life to wreak havoc on Salem once more.
The slapstick comedy didn’t hit its mark in 1993, but in the decades since, Hocus Pocus has found its audience through home entertainment, becoming a classic of the scary season. In 2022, it spawned a sequel, with another in the works – a miraculous turnaround for a film that was once considered a failure.
DEVELOPMENT HELL
Disney picked up the initial pitch for Hocus Pocus in 1984, with the concept coming from a bedtime story that writer and producer David Kirschner had told his children.
The film that was eventually made was reasonably similar to that original idea, which was given the provisional title of Disney’s Halloween House. Co-writer Mick Garris told TheWrap, “It was almost exactly what you see on the screen, except it was a little darker and the kids were 12.”
Around a dozen different writers were involved in the lengthy development process, with an eight-year period passing before Hocus Pocus began filming.
A SAFE BETTE
The key to Hocus Pocus entering production was Midler’s interest. In 2018, the actress said she had been “intrigued” by the potential to “play physical comedy and be more than a little broad”.
“She’s very, very funny,” Midler told Today in 1993 about her character, Winnie. “I’d be happy playing her for the rest of my life.”
It was also a chance to appear in something more child-friendly. Midler’s daughter, Sophie Von Haselberg, was 6 at the time.
Co-star Najimy jumped at the chance to work alongside the more established star. “The reason that I said yes to the movie … was because Bette Midler has been my idol for over 15 years,” she told ET during production
CASTING A SPELL
Although it has become one of the movie’s most popular sequences, the decision to have Winnie perform ‘I Put a Spell on You’ didn’t sit well with everyone.
“I just thought, ‘You’re going to ruin the movie,’” Kirschner told Bustle. “This is a movie that puts you on the edge of your seat and you’re going to stop it for this musical number?”
Despite those reservations, director Kenny Ortega, who would go on to direct the High School Musical series, proceeded with the song.
The version of ‘I Put a Spell on You’ was arranged for Midler by Hairspray writer Marc Shaiman, and Najimy and Parker were brought into the routine in the style of Midler’s real-life backing performers, The Harlettes.
FLYING HIGH
You can’t have witches without broomsticks – and the actresses enjoyed filming the scenes in which their characters soar through the sky.
In 2018, Midler told Entertainment Weekly those sequences were “one of the greatest joys I’ve ever experienced as an actor”, adding, “It’s joyful, it’s also a dance, and there’s a lot of trying to be graceful while not being sure you weren’t going to be turned upside down.”
That same year, Parker revealed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that she was perfectly happy being strung up.
“I found that the harness was comfortable, so I would just sit up there and read the Times while people took their breaks or changed the camera and sometimes went to lunch,” she said.
BLACK CAT MAGIC
While witches are often accompanied by a black cat companion, the feline in Hocus Pocus was out to stop the Sandersons from sucking the life out of children.
Formerly a teenager in 17th century Salem (played by Sean Murray), Thackery Binx was transformed into a cat by the trio and stalked their cottage 300 years later. The film used then-cutting edge CGI to animate Binx to make it look like the cat was talking, with Murray’s lines dubbed by voice actor James Marsden. Several cats were used for the character.
“Dogs, you can teach more than one trick; with cats, you can only teach them one,” Vinessa Shaw, who played Allison, told Entertainment Weekly in 2022. “There was literally a wall of cats – one cat for each trick. It was a cat to walk with you, a cat to sleep on you, a cat to jump on you, a cat to swipe your face. There was an animal trainer for each of those tricks.”
BOX OFFICE BOMB
Upon its release in 1993, Hocus Pocus flopped. Overwhelmed by the juggernaut that was Jurassic Park and with limited promotional activity and lousy reviews, it tanked in the US.
“After that disappointment … there was just a period of dead silence about the film,” Thora Birch, who played Dani, told TheWrap. “Nobody talked about it, nobody’s watching it. It felt like that lasted for about 10 years.”
There are many theories about why the film didn’t do well. Najimy told Entertainment Weekly in 2022, “What we think happened was, people weren’t sure if they could bring their kids or not, and wondered if it was scary or not.”
CULT CLASSIC
Like the Sandersons, the movie was revived as video and DVD sales increased and Hocus Pocus became a fixture on cable TV each October.
“The whole trajectory of this movie is so bizarre,” Midler told ET Canada in 2022. “I’ve never been through anything like it.”
Najimy added, “People were dressing up as us at Halloween, which was very surreal cause I would take my daughter out for trick or treating and she’d be like, ‘Mum, isn’t that you?’”
The cast got in on the action, with Midler spearheading a virtual performance in 2020, telling Late Night with Seth Meyers, “It was a picture that started out a little bit sleepy but somehow it found its niche.”
BACK FROM THE DEAD
After what seemed like an eternity, a Hocus Pocus sequel was released last year – and another is on the way.
What a difference a few decades can make. After being written off as a cinema turkey in 1993, Hocus Pocus is now a viable franchise, with one sequel to its name and another in the planning stages at Disney+. And it was Bette Midler who was on the case about Hocus Pocus 2 being made when she learnt the original movie had become an eventual hit.
“After I realised it was actually a phenomenon, I started asking people around my age, ‘Don’t you think they would be interested in a sequel?’” she told Collider. “This was like 15 years ago or something like that.”
In a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Midler said, “As I watched it progress, I’d call the studio once a year to ask, ‘How about it?’ It wasn’t until about three years ago that they advocated for it, and movement started.”
Parker wasn’t so proactive about making a sequel happen, but when a second film was given the green light, she was onboard.
“The minute I heard it was real, I said yes right away. It was incredibly easy,” Parker told Entertainment Weekly. “The script was the hardest part.
“The most important thing was trying to figure out a story that everybody was excited about and that was familiar enough in tone to make sense, nod to the past and pay tribute to [the first film’s] whimsy, ridiculousness, evilness and wickedness.”
Najimy took the sequel in her stride, telling The View, “When you’ve done a role before … it isn’t rocket science. I had one motivation in Hocus Pocus, and that was to eat as many children as I could and to make Winnie like me the best, so that was it.”
Also returning was Doug Jones, as zombie Billy Butcherson. “I was a zombie before zombies were cool,” he said about the reason for his character’s popularity. “I don’t want to eat anything. I just want to be left alone, really. So I think goofy, floppy fun. And he kind of matches the energy and the floppiness and the fun and the overdone characters of the sisters.”
In Hocus Pocus 2, the Sanderson sisters are resurrected once more when a black flame candle is lit by an unsuspecting teenager. Viewers learn more about their past three centuries earlier – a backstory that plays a part in the mischief they get up to this time in the present day.
“I love Winifred, Sarah, Mary and our relationship,” Midler told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s good for women. We stick together through hell and high water, but we do cause mayhem, and not many women cause that much mayhem!”
Stream Hocus Pocus now on Disney Plus with a mth-to-mth no lock-in contract. Subscribe here.
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