The Sanderson Sisters are the main antagonists of the 1993 live-action film Hocus Pocus and its 2022 sequel Hocus Pocus 2. They're a trio of witch sisters who were the most powerful coven that ever lived, thanks to Winifred's book of spells.
The answer is more complicated than you might think. CNN reported that the Sanderson sisters are fictional characters. There were not three sisters named Winifred, Sarah and Mary who were executed for practicing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
But before they are hanged in the town square, Winifred casts a curse that will resurrect the sisters during a full moon on All Hallows' Eve if a virgin lights the Black Flame Candle in their cottage. Binx devotes his life to guarding the cottage to ensure that no one can bring the witches back to life.
The sisters possessed an in-depth knowledge of the arts of necromancy, alchemy, and other schools of black magic, which they used to remain young. Upon catching them in the act of stealing the life force of young children, angry villagers burned the Sanderson Sisters in a school furnace.
What are the personalities of the Sanderson sisters?
Mary is a powerful dark witch. She has a habit of repeating whatever her sister Winifred says and is more competent, clever, and observant than her other sister Sarah. Mary is also the most caring, but only towards her sister of course.
Hocus Pocus - Who Is The Fourth Sanderson Sister? (ft. Jon Solo)
Are the Sanderson sisters good or evil?
The Sanderson Sisters are the main antagonists of the 1993 live-action film Hocus Pocus and its 2022 sequel Hocus Pocus 2. They're a trio of witch sisters who were the most powerful coven that ever lived, thanks to Winifred's book of spells.
As the oldest sister, Winifred is the most powerful and intelligent of the three witches, with an extraordinary proficiency in dark magic. The many effects she can achieve through dark magic include: Dark Magic: Winifred Sanderson is a practitioner of dark magic she does this by casting spells from her spellbook.
Potion Brewing: The ability to create beverages that produce specific magical effects. Sarah helped her sisters brew the Life Potion. Spell Casting: The ability to cast spells to produce specific magical effects. Sarah often helped her sisters cast spells.
The inspiration for "Hocus Pocus" came from the bedtime story producer and cowriter David Kirschner would tell his kids. "Halloween is a huge deal in our home, and it has been since our daughters were little," Kirschner told Yahoo in 2015. "It speaks to me in a way that becomes so emotional for me and always has."
At first glance, it may appear as if the witches look exactly the same as they did when Hocus Pocus was released in 1993. For the sequel, however, the filmmakers wanted their costumes to look similar to the originals, but not be actual replicas. “We wanted to refresh their looks,” says costume designer Salvador Perez.
The Sanderson Sisters were executed in 1693 after taking the life force of a young girl and turning her brother into a black cat (though the people of Salem believed they had killed him, too), and they continued their evil plans in 1993 by attempting to lure the children of Salem to them so they could take their life ...
It turns out Isabella is the descendant of Elizabeth, the daughter of a fourth, secret Sanderson sister, and she discovers later in the book that she also has magical abilities, similar to Becca in "Hocus Pocus 2."
Her curse also ensured that the three sisters survived Allison's plan to burn them alive in a kiln. Necromancy: Through a spell that she cast independently, Winifred summoned Billy Butcherson from his grave as a zombie to do her bidding.
In the scene in the witches' home, Allison was supposedly meant to reveal that Winifred's dad was a warlock, Mary's was a bloodhound, and Sarah Jessica Parker later claimed that the father of Sarah was the "village idiot." Therefore, in that version of their backstory, the sisters had the same mother but very different ...
The conclusion of both movies is the reunification of family. In the original film, Binx's soul is returned and he becomes Thackery once again, and reunites with his beloved sister Emily. And in the sequel, the Sanderson Sisters are reunited forever.
Najimy said there's a simple explanation for the change. “It's on the other side mainly because it's so hard for me to do it on the side I did it on 30 years ago,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly.
The main messages expressed are your never to old to believe in the impossible, and good always conquers evil. Though not the most unique messages, the film does a great job of portraying their theme to a younger audience. Personally, Hocus Pocus is my all time favorite Halloween movie.
For their evil activities, Winifred and her sisters were sentenced to death by the Salem townsfolk in 1693, and later resurrected by Max Dennison in 1993. Upon her return, she and her sisters aspired to consume the life forces from children in order to achieve eternal youth and immortality.
Hocus-pocus is an illusion or a meaningless distraction that tricks you in some way. Some people believe in astrology, while others think horoscopes are nothing but hocus-pocus.
So there weren't three actual Sanderson sisters in real life (maybe that's a good thing). However, as this CNN report notes, three sisters were in fact accused of witchcraft in the completely boring little town called Salem (nothing ever happened in Salem!).
In 1653 Salem, Massachusetts, Reverend Traske banishes 16-year-old Winifred Sanderson after she 'defied church authority' by refusing to marry John Pritchett.
We learn that the Sanderson Sisters were orphaned at a young age. And when a young Winifred refuses to obey Salem's reverend, he tries to take Mary and Sarah out of her custody (though the girls escape). Winifred is domineering over her sisters even though they are good to her.
Towards the end of the movie, the Sanderson sisters succeed in completing their spell but it is revealed that the spell has a catch in which the user will lose what they care about the most. Winifred (Midler), the lead sister, loses her sisters, who both slowly disappear into thin air.
At one point she even resurrects her former lover, “Billy the Butcher.” She tasks him with pursuing Max, Dani, and Allison who stole her spellbook thus preventing her from carrying out the spell to drain the youth out of all of the children in Salem. Winifred also plays the role of the Completer Finisher.
Enhanced Smell: The ability to possess a sense of smell drastically beyond what was naturally possible. Mary's sense of smell was such that she could locate children both in close proximity and from great distances and could even accurately determine the children's genders and ages.
