Hocus Pocus

“My favorite Halloween tradition comes in the form of a kid’s movie starring Bette Midler in a set of fake buck teeth: Walt Disney’s 1993 cult classic, Hocus Pocus…

The film opens in 1693 at the Salem, Mass., home of the Sanderson sisters, three witches who maintain their immortality by poisoning children and sucking out their souls — kind of like dementors in bad perms and heels. Midler is the leader of the trio, Winifred, who’s joined by a slapstick Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays — wait for it — Sarah, a slightly ditzier version of Sarah Jessica Parker.

In the middle of one ritual soul-sucking, the witches are interrupted by a local boy named Thackery (No, that’s not a typo, and until I actually sat through the credits in 2009, I thought all the actors had lisps that only surfaced for the word “Zachary.”). The sisters are hanged in the tradition of so many misunderstood Salem women in those days, but not before they cast a spell to ensure their eventual return.

Flash forward 300 years to Halloween 1993, and a brooding teen named Max who’s just moved to Salem from California. With his tie-dyed T-shirt and bedroom drum kit, Max is too cool for school, and far too jaded for all this stuff about the Sanderson sisters that everyone’s warning him about. Max lights the Sandersons’ legendary black flame candle in a misguided attempt to impress a crush, and the three witches bound back to life with just one night to claim a child’s soul.