Disney comedy, released in 1993. It was directed by
Kenny Ortega, with a screenplay by
Mick Garris and
Neil Cuthbert, based on a story by Garris and
David Kirschner. The stars included
Bette Midler as Winnie Sanderson,
Kathy Najimy as Mary Sanderson,
Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Sanderson,
Omri Katz as Max Dennison,
Thora Birch as Dani Dennison, and
Jason Marsden as the voice of Binx the cat.
Garry Marshall and
Penny Marshall had cameo appearances.
The
movie focuses on the Sanderson sisters, who were evil, child-eating
witches in
Salem, Massachusetts in 1693. Early in the movie, they suck the
soul out of a little girl and
transform her brother into a
black cat, then they're
hanged for their many crimes. However, they're able to come back from the
grave one
Halloween night in the 1990s. They hatch a plan to give themselves
eternal life by stealing the
lifeforces of all the
children in modern Salem. The only people opposing them are the kids in the Dennison family and the black cat, still alive after over 300 years.
This is a really
awful movie. You may find yourself tempted to rent it for your kids if you want a
family-friendly, semi-
ghoulish movie for Halloween viewing. Resist that
temptation. Please don't force your children to watch something this
lousy.
Here's the stuff that works well: Sarah Jessica Parker has a number of good moments as the youngest, sexiest, and possibly the
dimmest of the witches. The scene where the witches steal the little girl's soul is plenty
creepy and
unsettling, and for a brief moment, you start to think that maybe Disney made a real, live
horror movie (
Pseudo_Intellectual reminds me that Disney
has made a grade-A
horror film: 1983's "
Something Wicked This Way Comes"). Also, the scene where the kids try to convince a
police officer that the Sanderson sisters have come back to life has a
humorous twist to it, and the Marshalls'
cameos are pretty funny. The movie also does a pretty good job of recreating the
spooky-but-
silly mood I seem to associate with the Halloweens of my childhood.
Aside from that, there's not much to recommend it. Midler and Najimy are both monumentally
irritating, and all three of the witches seem to play their parts by
shrieking. Katz is
wholesome and
earnest in ways that only a Disney character can be wholesome and earnest. The
special effects are rarely convincing; the worst are probably all the cat's effects and the
zombie that the witches raise to chase the children. Marsden plays Binx as
urgently, wholesomely, and earnestly
British, which, frankly, makes me want to rewind the scene where the cat gets
flattened by a truck over and over and over. There's also a scene where the witches sing "
I've Put a Spell on You," which also irritates on a number of levels. Why would witches who can't figure out anything about 1990s America know a song written in the 20th century? Do Bette Midler's fans want to hear her
sing badly enough to inflate the anemic
box office on a kids movie?
In the end, there's just too much
overacting, too many convenient
plot holes and
logic leaps, too many
lame effects,
sketchy characterizations,
bad hair, and
Disneyfied niceness. I know it's, for some damn reason, considered a Halloween classic now, but you really shouldn't watch it. And please don't make your kids watch it. They may not forgive you.
Some research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)