Halloween isn’t just the best holiday because of the candy and costumes, it also has the greatest movies – Christmas comes in at a close second with National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” and “Home Alone”.

As a kid, my next door neighbors had a copy of Hocus Pocus, and every October, or random rainy day, we’d all cuddle up on their couch to watch the Sanderson sisters clumsily try to navigate the 21st century after being dead for 300 years.

Yesterday Nico Lang, one of the contributors for the amazing website Thought Catalogue, wrote a post highlighting 25 little-known anachronisms and facts about Hocus Pocus! I thought I’d share my favorites with you as my Halloween treat:

* When Max offers to let his buxom love interest Allison light the black flame candle, she smiles and coyly declines. This is because only a virgin can light the black flame candle. The implication is that she’s not a virgin.

* The cat’s name is Thackery Binx, not Zachary Binx. This is a common misspelling of the surname of William Makepeace Thackery, an 18th century novelist.

*The movie claims that the Sanderson sisters were hanged in Salem on October 31, 1963, despite the fact that the Salem Witch Trials ended in 1962.

* Sarah Sanderson’s hair constantly switches from curly to straight throughout the film. Dorothy’s hair famously changes lengths throughout The Wizard of Oz. As the film features a number of allusions to Oz (and directly features the witch theme music at one point), this could be another of the movie’s many in-jokes.

* In the scene where the Sanderson sisters meet “Satan,” Satan and his wife are played by the well-known directors Penny and Garry Marshall. This is creepy because the Marshalls are brother and sister.

* While chasing Max down on her flying broom, Winifred Sanderson asks to see his driver’s permit. Before this point, we see that she doesn’t know what a blacktop road, a car and a bus are, and thus, she wouldn’t know what a driver’s permit is. Also, she would not have known the police procedure for pulling over a driver, which she suddenly is aware of.

* Of all her films, Bette Midler claims that Hocus Pocus is still her favorite. It’s listed as her main credit on IMDB.

* The Sanderson sisters’ brooms are taken by three girls, who got more than they bargained for when they accidentally fly away on them. Those little girls were dressed up as the sisters for Halloween, thus giving the film instant sequel potential.

XX

Molly Conant
Rackk and Ruin
http://www.rackkandruin.etsy.com