Hocus Pocus: 5 Times The Sandersons Were Scary (& 5 They Weren't)
Hocus Pocus is the cult classic 1993 Halloween film starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, and Bette Midler as the three memorable witches. They primarily look like bumbling fools who don't have a clue throughout the film, but they do have their moments where they are truly frightening and vicious, especially where their well-being is concerned. They want to live forever and look beautiful while doing it, but their regimen isn't necessarily cruelty-free, especially to kids.
The film proves that they can be messed with to a certain degree, but once a line is crossed, they take all that they can get and show no mercy.
10 Scary: When They Sidelined The Adults
While chasing the kids, trying to retrieve Winifred's beloved spell book, the Sandersons follow them into the party where Max and Dani's parents (alongside pretty much all the adults in Salem), are celebrating Halloween. When the sisters begin singing, the kids realize that they're really casting a spell and thus cover their ears, but it renders the adults unavailable, and leaves the kids and Binx on their own. It's scary because it isolated Max, Allison, Dani, and Binx, and because the witches were once more demonstrating the power of their magic.
9 Not Scary: When They Had To Substitute Their Brooms
Sarah, Mary, and Winifred look more like the witches they are when they initially use their actual brooms. However, those brooms are eventually stolen, and the sisters have to use other means of transportation. The best one was Mary using a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom--it is resourceful, but it loses any element of terror on Mary's part, making her appear less intimidating overall.
8 Scary: When They Turned Binx Into A Cat
One of the most significant demonstrations of just how powerful the Sandersons are was when they turned a human Thackery Binx into an immortal black cat. Thackery was forced to live out his days as a cat from then on, eating mice and watching his family and friends pass on while his life continued. It was an awful curse, but Thackery made the best of it, and thanks to Max, Allison, and Dani, he was eventually freed.
The Sandersons might seem inept most of the time, but there are a few tricks, such as this, that they pulled that proved how menacing and how mighty they really were.
7 Not Scary: Every Time The Sandersons Fell For A Trick
The Sandersons were pretty gullible, and Max, Dani, Allison, and Binx took advantage of that. The first instance was when Max used a lighter and brought on the fire sprinklers in the Sanderson house, convincing the sisters he could conjure up fire out of nowhere and that he was a threat. Another instance is when he and Allison used a car's headlights to convince the sisters that the sun was rising earlier than it was supposed to due to daylight savings time. The sisters may be evil, but they're no match for the kids' wit and intelligence.
6 Scary: When They Appeared At The Dennison House
The scariest part of this scene was the fact that Dani, Allison, Max, and Binx had believed the Sandersons were dead, so they weren't expecting the surprise visit. The Sandersons used that element of surprise well, retrieving their book, kidnapping Dani, and evading Max and Allison in one fell swoop. Sarah is like a creepy jack-in-the-box when she snaps up from her position in bed, and Winifred and Mary emerge from the closet with Dani captive and Binx in a sack. It's a scene akin to a true horror movie, but made appropriate for a Disney film.
5 Not Scary: When They Hailed Their Master
The Sandersons made mistakes throughout the night, but one of the funniest was when they mistook a man dressed as the Devil for their actual master. They're horrified when a little girl dressed as an angel says "bless you", they happily accept an invitation into the man's home, and they mistake more modern conveniences for things they are not; for example, when Winifred believes the kitchen is the "torture chamber."
They just look silly in this particular scene.
4 Scary: The Final Fight
In the final showdown in the cemetery, the sisters are especially desperate, which makes them that much more dangerous. If not for Max ingesting the last of the potion, they would have killed Dani, basically recreating the tragic circumstances of siblings Emily and Thackery Binx three hundred years before. It demonstrates how ruthless they truly are, especially Winifred, who was sucking Max's life force for herself. Thankfully the sun came out just in time, but the battle leading to it was certainly brutal.
3 Not Scary: When They Waited For Death
The Sandersons are supposed to be dangerous and evil, but even they have their moments of weakness. When it seems like they won't find the book needed to concoct the potion that will render them immortal in time, they're found to be hanging out at their house, waiting for death to claim them with the onset of the rising sun. Winifred is quite dramatic, asking her sister Mary to take her to the window to bid the world farewell. They gave up quite easily for a bit, and it makes them seem far less threatening.
2 Scary: When They Killed Emily
In the film's very beginning, the Sandersons make it known how dangerous, and how evil, they truly are. They not only want to look younger, but they also need the life force of children in order to live forever, and they clearly have no regard for lives other than their own.
They suck away young Emily Binx's life force, rendering her helpless, and they do so in front of her older brother, Thackery, who was attempting to rescue her. They laugh and don't hesitate to take what they want; taking a life is bad enough, taking the life of a child is another awful thing altogether.
1 Not Scary: When They Screamed At Approaching Fire Trucks
The Sandersons have evil tendencies, but one of the funniest aspects of Hocus Pocus is how they fear certain modern conveniences that obviously didn't exist when they lived three hundred years before. One of those things is fire trucks, and subsequently, firemen. As the fire trucks approach their house, due to smoke alarms set off by Max, they scream in fear and hide, and they consider the firemen to be witch hunters, given the axes they carry. Their misconceptions of what firemen and fire trucks are is hysterical, and makes them more comedic than scary.
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