The Darkness of "Hocus Pocus"

Tis the season to get spooky! 

Now that we begun October, I'm officially in Halloween mood. But seriously, who isn't already? 

For today's post, I want to explore a cult classic, beloved by everyone and a true masterpiece, which is of course "Hocus Pocus". 

When I talk with people about this movie, most mention how fabulous Bette Midler was, how iconic Sarah Jessica Parker looked, and how funny was Kathy Najimy. They talk about things such as: the music, the color palette, the acting, the memorable quotes, the possible sequel and even the book that was released. 

Seriously, someone give me this book
for my birthday. Thank you. 

But I believe a lot of us tend to forget the amount of darkness present in this movie. Sometimes it's a still a little hard for me to believe this is a Disney movie, considering all the messed up things shown in it. That's exactly what I will be talking about in this post, so let's get started! And yes, I know that everyone already knows these things, but I want to take them in detail.

First of all, the Sanderson sisters are all cannibals, but Mary enjoys it more. By the time when the sisters meet Dani, they believe she's the one who brought them back to life. Even though Winifred and Sarah jump into the cannibalism wagon after a few minutes, Mary is the one who considers it immediately after smelling and tracking the little girl. All she can think about is eating Dani, and even mentions a few ways she can cook her. During all this sequence, I'm here like... WTF DUDE! 

I mean... look at how Mary is evaluating the child. 
She's a monster, no doubt about it.  

I believe that if they had not been hanged, they would have eaten little Emily Binx's body after murdering her, or use her body for other spells and potions. I mean... where did they get the dead man's toes they used for their youth potion? 

I believe this artwork perfectly captures Mary's 
twisted and dark nature. Credits go to 
Isaiah Stephens. 

Now that we talked about cannibalism, let's talk about torture. The sisters all enjoy physical and even psychological torture (look at what they did to Thackery Binx and their motives to do so). But Winifred especially enjoys it. 

When they meet the false Satan and go into his house, Winifred immediately thinks it's a torture chamber. She's seen excited, elated even. Makes you wonder: how many people has she tortured, even to the point of death? What horrible things has she done to her victims? We know she's the most sadistic of all the sisters, but to what lengths does her evil truly goes? There's of course the case of Billy, the man she murdered and had his lips sewn shut; I do wonder, did she seal his lips when he was already dead? Or was he still alive when she did it? 

Winifred may be iconic, but she's one hell of a
sadistic monster. Credits go to Isaiah Stephens. 

Now, here's poor old Billy. 

I mean, no wonder he looks so pissed off. 

Speaking of torture, Sarah does have a very peculiar way of torturing people, and by people I mean men. Sarah is essentially a black widow in disguise, someone who enjoys seducing men and then probably torture and murder them. The thing is, the way she asks for permission to torture these men is "Let me play with him!" The way she says this mixed up with her body language, makes it implicit that this "play time" might involve some sort of sexual activity. This just makes her even more messed up than she already is, because she clearly states she wants to play first with Thackery and then with Max. 

Therefore, it can be implied that Sarah is an ephebophile, which is an adult that has a sexual attraction towards teenagers. Here's my proof: when Winifred first attacks Max, she uses her lightning to do so, dragging his body up the wall. While doing this, Sarah caresses his body seductively, implying she might like him. 

A very dangerous femme fatale. 
Credits are for Isaiah Stephens. 

Sarah's powers are also linked to sirens, who used their voices to lure men to their deaths. 

These are the sirens from Greek mythology. 

A siren through and though. 

Now that we've seen the sisters individually, let's look at them collectively. 

One of the darkest aspects of the Sanderson sisters is their eternal worship for Satan. They adore the man entirely, as he was the one who gave them their powers. All their magic comes from him, so they do owe him a lot. Following Satan, the sisters practice all sorts of dark, twisted things such as the already mentioned cannibalism, torture and murder.

Witches' Sabbath. 
It's believed that the horned being is Satan.

There's also of course their practice of black magic, including a very dark art: necromancy. 

Necromancy is known to be the dark art of bringing people back from the dead. Every account of necromancy is different, but they all agree on something: it's one of the darkest and most twisted forms of magic. 

Misty Day is the only known witch to use this power for good. 
Credits to the artist. 

The sisters, specifically Winifred, practice necromancy. That's how she resurrected Billy. And again it makes you wonder: where did they get all those dead man's toes from the beginning of the movie? 

Another part of their evil beings is their book itself, which contains a tremendous amount of dark magic, deadly spells and dangerous potions. 

The book is bound by human skin... this reminds me of horror movies such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "House of a Thousand Corpses" and "Silence of the Lambs", and even television series such as "American Horror Story: Asylum" or "Game of Thrones". These works of fiction all have one thing in common: villains murdering people and flaying them, using their skin for various purposes. Sometimes the victims were still alive when they were flayed in these other works, which makes me wonder: who was the person the sisters took their skin from? Was the person still alive or was it dead when the sisters flayed them? 

Of course, there's the content of the book itself. From sucking little children's souls, to resurrection spells, to inflicting plagues such as cholera! What other dark and horrifying things were in this book? 

Part of the sisters' evil is clearly their open infanticide. They murder children and they take delight from it. It makes me think how twisted and messed up you must be to murder innocent children. It is one of society's most depraved acts, as you need to be really soulless to do something like that. 

In the first minutes of the movie, we see Sarah kidnapping Emily Binx, and later all three of them murder the poor girl. It's done so quickly that it barely gives you a chance to come to terms with what just happened. I mean, right after murdering Emily, the camera focuses on how the sisters changed, being young again and all that; Emily becomes part of the background. Makes me reflect on how our society brushes off infanticide, including the kidnapping of young girls. 

Children are kidnapped every day, and society simply ignores that problem. Little girls especially are taken daily, and the horrors they face are too heartbreaking to imagine. Sadly, they become part of the background, just like Emily Binx. 

Evil people always take advantage of the innocent. 

Last but not least, I realized there are several elements from "Hocus Pocus" that were present in the television series "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina". Here's a little list I made with their similarities: 

1- The witches' magic from Sabrina is very similar to the Sanderson's sisters magic, if not the same. 

2- In Sabrina, the witches' powers also come from the Devil himself. 

3- Witches from Sabrina also practice cannibalism. In the tv series, the witches' Thanksgiving (so to speak) involves choosing a witch to be eaten that year by the coven. Also in a dream sequence, Zelda kills a little warlock boy to serve him as a dish to Satan. In the comics, the aunts move to their house because it's in a cemetery, which would give them plenty of human meat to eat. 

4- The witches from Sabrina also believe in revenge and the occasional torture. They even use magic to seduce men, just like the Weird Sisters (Dorcas, Prudence and Agatha). 

5- The Weird Sisters also follow a color pattern most of the time, just like the Sanderson sisters. Winifred used green, Mary red and Sarah purple. As for the Weird Sisters, Agatha uses blue, Prudence purple and Dorcas a very dark-almost-brown green. 

6- Witches from Sabrina are no strangers to very dark arts as well. We see Zelda, Hilda, Agatha, Dorcas and Mambo Marie using voodoo. And we also see Sabrina, Prudence, Nick and Dorcas practice necromancy. 

7- Both works of fiction include a black cat. In "Hocus Pocus" is the cursed Thackery Binx, while in Sabrina it's her familiar Salem.

8- Salem is a name shared between the town where the Sanderson sisters lived, and Sabrina's cat. 

My favorite witch of all time. 

Well, here's the end for my post! I hope you guys enjoyed it. This Halloween be very careful; remember the pandemic isn't over, and lots of other horrible things are happening nowadays. Please be safe and stay at home this Halloween. Watch your favorite spooky movies, indulge in candy and get a good scare. See you guys next Sunday. 

P.S. I love "Hocus Pocus" with my life. This was only a movie analysis, not a rant.