Fans have been clamoring for a sequel to Hocus Pocus for years now. While they didn’t get a movie sequel in 2018, they did get something else. Disney and Freeform Press released a novelization of the original movie paired with a sequel set 25 years later - just in time for the 25th anniversary of the movie’s release.
The movie’s novel provided fans with a lot of backstory and details they wouldn’t have had before. It filled in some discrepancies, answered decade long questions, and set up a surprise for the sequel. The sequel gave even more insight into characters fans might have dismissed as one-note in the original movie. With that in mind, here are some of the most interesting details Hocus Pocus fans only get from the books.
The Binx Family Was A Longtime Target Of The Sanderson Sisters
The movie shows us that Emily Binx was lured to the home of the Sanderson sisters thanks to Sarah’s voice, but that’s not the whole story. In the novel, readers get a lot more detail about just what went down.
Both Emily and her big brother Thackery spent months dreaming about the woods where the Sanderson house was located. Those dreams culminated in Emily hearing Sarah’s song one morning and deciding to follow it. She wasn’t afraid of the sisters because she’d previously run into them in town and they always complimented her. That new information shows us that the Binx siblings were specifically targeted by the sisters, something we had no way of knowing before.
Max Isn’t As Annoyed By Dani As He Lets On
Max spent a lot of time snapping at Dani and he was seemingly annoyed with her desire to embrace their new home in the movie. The novel demonstrated that he’s not the kind of big brother who usually gets that angry with his little sister.
In fact, the novel showed us that Max regularly walked Dani to school every day because she found riding the bus a lonely experience. Getting a look inside his head also showed us that Max found himself more relaxed around his sister than anyone else. He was actually more in tune with who he was when hanging out with his eight-year-old sister than he was when hanging out with other teenagers.
Jay The Bully Was Traumatized
Jay and Ernie (excuse us, Ice) were most definitely a product of their time. There were no layers to these bullies who stole shoes, money, and candy from their classmates. They just took things and pulled pranks. In the Hocus Pocus novel, however, we do get more insight into one of them.
Jay’s point of view got a brief exploration when the Sanderson sisters captured him and Ernie. He thought back on the different things he’d done, like stealing chips from the gas station, and vowed to be better. He even felt guilty because his own family owned a small business.
What’s more is that the sequel makes sure fans understand just how much Jay was traumatized by the events of that Halloween. Jay and Ernie were ridiculed for ending up locked in cages (since no one else knew the real story of the witches), and as an adult, Jay was an overprotective parent who didn’t emotionally open up to his daughter.
Max Planned Going To The Sanderson House
Allison taking Max and Dani to the Sanderson house seemed like a spur of the moment decision in Hocus Pocus. When readers get Max’s point of view, however, we discover he planned it much earlier.
When Max gave Allison his phone number in class, he actually intentionally riled her up to get her to argue with him. He knew she would refute his claims about Halloween, and he wanted to use it as an excuse to talk to her. Max thought getting Allison to teach him about the Sanderson sisters would be a way to hang out with her. He just didn’t get the chance to truly enact his plan until he took Dani trick-or-treating because Allison returned his number.
The Daylight Saving Time Plan Was All Allison
Max presented the scheme to trick the witches into believing the sun was coming up as his own, but like using the kiln to burn them, it was all Allison’s plan. Allison even covered the headlights of the car with orange plastic to really give the illusion of sunlight.
In fact, one thing the movie doesn’t showcase is just how bright Allison was. While it’s clear from the movie that Allison was interested in town history, and the Sanderson sisters especially, Max saw her as one of the best students in school in the novel. It’s also pointed out how good Allison was at reading people, and how much of a perfectionist she was with school projects.
The Black Flame Candle Wasn’t Spent
The black flame candle, lit by a virgin, was the only way for the Sanderson sisters to return to the land of the living. Their lives only lasted as long as the flame burned - unless they stole the lives of children to extend their own.
In all the excitement of the big climax of Hocus Pocus, fans might have forgotten that the candle was sitting in the Sanderson house burning down. While the witches turned to dust with the dawn of November 1, the candle still existed. The wick might have burned out, but the wax was still there. In the sequel novel, Allison is revealed to have it locked away in her attic. Winifred Sanderson even senses its power at one point. Does this mean it could burn again with a new wick? We may never know.
Mary Sanderson Is Smarter Than You Know
Winifred Sanderson is the planner. Controlling and manipulative, her sisters may as well be her servants. She has Sarah to lure people in with a literal siren song and she has Mary to follow the rest of her orders. While Hocus Pocus initially presented Sarah and Mary as fairly dimwitted, that’s not the case.
Sarah didn’t get as much attention in the novels, but Mary did. In fact, Mary had her own sequence that would make for a great musical number if the sequel ever gets adapted for the screen. Mary proved herself a little more intuitive than Winifred as she figured out the basics of using a cellphone. There were several times she was right throughout the novels, but Winifred refused to listen to anyone but herself.
There Are More Sandersons
Winifred, Mary, and Sarah weren’t the only Sandersons who resided in Salem. One detail the book gave us that the movie didn’t was the list of owners inscribed at the front of Winifred’s spellbook. Winifred wasn’t the last one.
Instead, that name was Elizabeth Sanderson. Elizabeth plays a large role in the sequel, so we won’t spoil the details for you if you still plan on reading the novel. It did, however, make it clear that the Sanderson bloodline still exists. There are still witches in the world 25 years after the Sandersons left it for the second time.
Allison Is Not A Witch
For years fans have theorized that Allison’s quick thinking and attachment to Winifred’s spellbook indicated she was a budding witch. The books put that theory to rest.
There is absolutely nothing in the novel to indicate that Allison is a witch; she’s just highly intelligent. It’s Allison who did more research into the occult as she got older, and Allison who warned her daughter Poppy about the blood moon in the sequel. Poppy, unfortunately, didn’t listen to her mother and opened up a whole new set of supernatural problems. Allison grew up to be a lawyer with a gift for problem-solving, but she didn’t become a witch.
Max Wore The Tights
In Hocus Pocus, Max and Dani made a deal. She agreed to let him and Allison take her to the creepy Sanderson house only if he agreed to be Peter Pan and take her trick-or-treating the following year. Dani, of course, would be Wendy. “Tights,” she told him, “or no deal.” Though we never have seen evidence of it on screen, Max Dennison was a man of his word.
His daughter saw a picture of Max and Dani from that Halloween in the sequel novel. Max was decked out in Peter Pan garb, complete with green tights. Allison accompanied him and Dani as Tinkerbell.