Movie Magic Monday: Hocus Pocus

Since it’s the week before Halloween, I thought I’d do a nice, definitive Halloween movie for you this week, and the first one that popped to mind was Hocus Pocus.

This movie starts out in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600s, where three witch sisters are luring a little girl into their home to drain the lifeforce out of her.  Her brother tries to stop them, but instead he’s forced to watch as she dies, and then when he angrily insults the witches, he’s turned into a talking cat and made to live forever—which is a little ridiculous, sure, but I never said this was great drama.   The witches get their due and are hung, but before they die one casts a spell saying that they will be resurrected if a virgin ever lights a black candle in their home.  Binx (the immortal boycat) (I’m going to call him that from now on) spends generations guarding the house, and for over three hundred years he’s successful in stopping the black candle from being lit, but one Halloween Max and his sister Dani, new to the town, go up to the witches’ house—now a museum—and what does Max do?  He lights the candle, of course.  All to impress a girl.

Of course he happens to be a virgin, and the witch sisters come back to life—and then hilarity, along with some vaguely creepy (in a fun, corny way) kind of stuff happens.  Can Max save his sister from being the witches’ next lifeforce meal? Can they ever break the curse on Binx the Immortal Boycat?

This movie is just a lot of fun.  Any movie with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi as witches is BOUND to be a lot of fun.  And with those three, you’d better believe there’s a musical number involved.

Kitschy, corny, and classic.  I give this an A.

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