In the nearly 30 years since, “Hocus Pocus”The fan theory was the first to be published. It has slowly gained momentum. The notion is that Allison, Max Dennison’s (Omri Katz) love interest in the movie played by Vinessa Shaw, was herself a witch, tasked with protecting Salem with her own good magic. Shaw has finally given some clarity to that idea this year.
The theory First flightThank you to a scene Allison and Winifred (Bette Midler), share in “Hocus Pocus,”Allison makes a circle with her salt container to keep the witch away. Winifred calls her back. “a clever little white witch.”You can see the video below if you need to refresh your memory.
It’s the only time that Allison is explicitly referred to as any sort of witch, so naturally, it’s caught the ears of fans more and more with each rewatch. But there are Additional details that fans have honed in on too, from the party Allison’s family hosts, to their ownership of the Sanderson house, all the way to Allison’s clothes, that seemingly make the case for her being a witch.
Earlier this year, I spoke to you about the evolution “Hocus Pocus”Shaw giggled deviously when she was asked about this theory. But she had an answer.
“It was intentionally implied, for sure,”She said. “Because if you notice the necklace I’m wearing, it can kind of look like — because you don’t see it, obviously, when I’m wearing the full ball gown — but later, when I’m just in the normal change of you know, jeans and the turtleneck and the sweater, you can see. And the necklace, it has kind of like a pentagram-looking design with the stones. If you look really closely… it’s a gold kind of locket, with white pearls connected to the locket, and it has a kind of design on it that could, if you kind of connected it all together, would have looked like a pentagram. But again, it was never explicit.”
Shaw also pointed out the sweater, noting its twine of genuine leather through it. “could mean something like a sort of protective force that I would have on.”Shaw points out, however, that Shaw’s backstory was added by the costume designer and not the script.
“She said, ‘Look at how this twine is through here.’ But she mentioned it after she mentioned what the necklace was,”Shaw said. “And then she said ‘And then look at the twining that’s kind of going in through this sort of leather. That’s old world.’ And it was fleshing out the idea. So she didn’t explicitly say like, ‘This is a protective kind of item that would be for a person who practices white magic,’ but that the necklace was kind of white witchy.”
Shaw is a big fan of the fact that his eagle-eyed followers picked up on these details and put together the theory.
“I love the fans. Can you guys write the next script? This is amazing,”She said. “After the sequel comes out, we’ll have another one that’s just written by the fans. Because I think they’re onto something, because it was implied, again, but not explicit to me. It could have been just between the costume designer and [director] Kenny [Ortega] or, you know, there was more, there was like a richer conversation.”
For what it’s worth, David Kirschner, who created and produced “Hocus Pocus,” didn’t have this theory in mind when he wrote the story — he hadn’t even heard about it until we asked him to confirm or deny that it was intentional. However, he enjoys the idea. “so interesting.”
“I can deny that I have ever heard of that until this moment,”He told the story with a smile. “I’m unaware of that completely.”
You can view the entire history of “Hocus Pocus” — and how it came to be the Halloween staple it is today — with more from Shaw and Kirschner Here.
