Walt Disney Pictures has released “Hocus Pocus 2,” and it naturally opens the door to writing about Marblehead filming locations.
But first a primer: The movie — a blend of horror, comedy and fantasy — opens on All Hallows Eve in 1693, a year after the actual Salem Witch Trials. Salem residents, carrying torches and wooden pitchforks, hang the Sanderson Sisters — Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary (Kathy Najimy), a quirky trio of wicked witches who suck the souls from children to prolong their lives and youth.
Over 300 years later, skeptic and virgin Max Dennison, the new kid in town lights the Black Flame Candle, resurrecting the sibling witches on Halloween night. An stay-up-all-night romp plays out to make right Max’s misdeeds. It’s up to Max, his sister, Dani, and his love interest, Allison Watts, as well as an immortal black cat — Thackery Binx — to put an end to the witches’ reign of terror.
The principal cast arrived on the North Shore in the fall of 1992 to shoot roughly a half-dozen scenes in Salem and Marblehead.
“If memory serves, we shot about a month on location, in Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts, after prepping for months there,” the “Hocus Pocus” production designer, William Sandell, told Set Design in 2018.
Disney budgeted $2 million for the film’s set design. The movie is an amalgamation of scenes shot in Burbank, California studio, Salem and Marblehead.
“We vowed we wouldn’t use any store-bought Halloween decorations. So we made everything from scratch. From carved pumpkins, to scarecrows, witches, ghosts, you name it,” Sandell told Set Design. “It was a blast. There was a layered quality to ‘Hocus Pocus’ that I continue to strive for in my work.”
The Marblehead and Salem scenes capture two New England coastal communities in all their autumn glory. Max pedals through the town’s streets on his way home. He first passes the former town common abutting Abbot Hall; notice the fence of cement and metal bars. He passes the Old Town House and Bus Stop sign before cycling down State Street.
Max cuts through Old Burial Hill, Marblehead’s historic cemetery, to get home. “Wham!” reads ‘Hocus Pocus’ screenplay. “He runs into Jay and Ernie, town jerks emeritus.” The two bullies steal his Nike sneakers on the spot.
After the bullying incident in Old Burial Hill, Max pedals to the top of a hill with Abbot Hall in front of him. This recognizable view of Marblehead’s tallest building may even be from Crocker Park.
Later in the film, you’ll notice Max, Alison and Dani enter a cemetery to seek safety on holy grounds, land on which the Sanderson Sisters cannot step on foot on. When the sisters do arrive, they stand outside the cemetery’s front entrance – with the name Old Burial Hill above an iron fence. This set was actually built on a Disney studio in Burbank, California.
MARBLEHEAD FILMING LOCATIONS
- The fence around Abbot Hall
- Old Town House and State Street
- Old Burial Hill
SALEM FILMING LOCATIONS
- Salem Pioneer Village
- The old Phillips Elementary School
- Old Town Hall
- 4 Ocean Ave.
- The Salem Common
A Google Map pinpointing “Hocus Pocus” filming locations in Salem and Marblehead with a little context provided for each:
Earning cult-classic status
It would take time before this little gem found its tribe and earned cult-classic status. To 1993 movie critics, “Hocus Pocus” was a cinematic mystery. Walt Disney Pictures put “Hocus Pocus” out to an underwhelming reception — both critically and financially.
Its Rotten Tomatoes score among top critics registers in at 38%: “Harmlessly hokey yet never much more than mediocre, ‘Hocus Pocus’ is a muddled family-friendly effort that fails to live up to the talents of its impressive cast.”
That original release earned $39.5 million, an $11.5 million return. That was a serious disappointment in a bygone era when theaters screened movies for months.
Maybe “Hocus Pocus” bombed because Disney put out this holy grail Halloween of Halloween movies dead smack in the middle of summer: July 16, 1993.