Winifred Sanderson

If ever there’s an occasion for movie magic, it’s Halloween. On film the holiday always looks so right. Not true to life, mind you. Right. The moon is always full, the autumn weather perfect. Lights and decorations are old-fashioned and plentiful. Ditto the trick-or-treaters—and just look at their costumes: quality. Even in a Disney movie there’s nary an acetate princess in sight. Yeah, it may all be a bit Stepford-y, but how I love it. I want to be in it!

“Wow, check out this house!”


 
Consider Hocus Pocus, a piece of semi-amusing silliness from 1993. Presumably because it’s Salem, Mass., everybody in this town is into Halloween, starting with the witch-hatted schoolteacher (Kathleen Freeman) who introduces our so-not-into-it protagonist (Omri Katz) to the legend of the Sanderson witches. If folks aren’t giving out candy in this version of Salem, they’re throwing parties, or heading to one. So naturally when the newly reconstituted Sandersons drop into the festivities, no one bats an eye at their 1693 funhouse garb. On the contrary, the three proceed to steal the show at the civic ball with a spirited rendition of “I Put a Spell on You.”

This is Bette Midler’s moment to shine. Bridget Bishop Winifred Sanderson ain’t. Alas, Winifred’s sisters, played by Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, are significantly lesser lights. Najimy, frequently mumbly and unintelligible, at times seems to be channeling Curly Howard, while Parker comes across as a bug-eating Renfield in dumb-blonde drag. Not terribly funny, either one; in fact, kind of embarrassing.

Thank goodness there’s all that eye candy, care of the production designer, to draw the eye away.

At the “Master’s” house. Watch this scene closely and you’ll see the same kids passing back and forth.

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