I Put A Spell On You: How Hocus Pocus Unconsciously Reinforces Heinrich Kramer’s Views

Last week I presented over the movie Hocus Pocus, and as I sorted through my jotted-down notes, things like “call ‘devil’ master” and “boy crazy,” I realized that the film’s depiction of witches aligned with Heinrich Kramer’s sense of women in his Malleus Maleficarum, or The Hammer of Witches. As someone who believes that character depictions impact real-life biases and views of both oneself and others, I feel as though the ideas presented by this film deserved a little more analysis. 

Kramer suggested that women were inferior to men, the weaker sex, susceptible to both external forces of evil and their internal carnal desires. I find that the Sanderson Sisters represent both of these vulnerabilities.

To start, they worship “the devil.” Upon seeing him, the witches call him “master” and run to bow in front of him. Then, while inside, Sarah asks “Master, would thou dance with me?” before quite literally dancing with the devil. This all aligns with common notions of witches, even those we might now consider fairytale characters. Possibly more damaging is the depicted stupidity of the witches. Kramer backed his statements against women with the argument that they are mentally and physically too weak to resist. He writes that women “are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he attacks them…Women are naturally more impressionable, and more ready to receive the influence of a disembodied spirit.” The “devil” in this scene is no real evil force, but merely a man dressed in a costume, a move that emphasizes both the sisters’ connection with evil and their stupidity that makes it easy for such a force (or an average person, for that matter) to persuade them. Casting the Sanderson sisters as dim-witted plays into the idea that women aren’t smart enough to resist evil. 

According to Kramer, women also cannot resist their sexual desires. He says, “The many lusts of men lead them into one sin, but the lust of women leads them into all sins; for the root of all woman’s vices is avarice.” This idea of women is presented in Hocus Pocus’ witch sisters. We see this from the first scene when the women turn young again, and Sarah says “I am beautiful! Boys will love me!” And they do. One might even say she seduces them, as witches were often accused of. The best example of a man seduced is the bus driver. Early in their night, the driver pulls up to the Sanderson sisters, immediately looking them over appreciatively and saying “Bubble, bubble, I’m in trouble.” The women and the driver engage in flirtatious, almost sexual discussion. Not long later, Sarah sits on his lap, steering the bus. This scene depicts the witches as both too weak to resist their sexual desires. At the same time, they exhibit power over a man, as they control him purely through their looks, flirtations, and sexualized actions. The witches also exert control over Billy, Winifred’s ex-boyfriend whom they raise from the dead, ordering him to catch the fleeing children. Billy clearly doesn’t care to do this and doesn’t even like the witches, but he follows their command (though he later turns on them). These depictions affirm Kramar’s beliefs that women were highly sexual, weak to their desires, and powerful only in their ability to seduce. 

I believe that presenting messages like this in film, even in a modern era in which we can laugh about Kramer’s claims, can negatively impact women and girls in the real world. It’s likely that this movie isn’t making viewers think that all women are evil or particularly susceptible to Satan’s influence, but watching the witches worship a costumed devil might lead audiences to (subconsciously) think of women as ignorant or easily impressionable. Additionally, sexualizing the evil witches may lead to a stigma against women who choose to embrace their sexuality in whatever form. More broadly, in being unmarried and considerably sexual, the witches resist gender expectations set for women– that they commit to a single man and remain pure until married to him. Creating these images of witches, and therefore women, tells young viewers that to defy the roles set is linked to immorality, evil, and wickedness.