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IN DARK REVIEWS
Skyline has double
does of scary stuff
he Skyline Drive-In
I Theater this weekend
is giving kids a double
helping of Halloween treats
from 1993 with “Hocus Po-
cus” and “The Nightmare
Before Christmas.”
I’ve long since lost count
of how many times I’ve seen
Tim Burton’s stop-motion
animated musical cult clas-
sic, which makes perhaps his
most effective use of tune-
smith Danny Elfman, to celebrate
the holidays of both Halloween and
Christmas in an endearingly subver-
sive fashion.
’ ’ And yet, despite it being released
the same year as “The Nightmare
Before Christmas,” I’d never seen
“Hocus Pocus,” so especially consid-
ering the esteem it seems to have
earned in recent years, I decided to
give it a shot.
It’s strange in retrospect that “Ho-
cus Pocus” was neither critically nor
commercially successful during its
original theatrical release. Looking
back now, it clearly anticipated the
aesthetic of the entire modern era of
Disney Channel sitcoms, which sell
seriocomic teen drama to preteen au—
diences in a funhouse color palette.
Granted, when they were build-
ing the California sound stages
that were meant to pass for Salem,
Massachusetts, I’m not sure they
consul-ted any photos of the actual
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By KIRK
~ BOXLEITNER that cast itself comes armed
Salem, but this film’s visuals
possess an undeniable candy
store charm nonetheless,
with costumes, sets, props
and prosthetic makeup that
are all vividly realized and a
delight to behold.
Likewise, the film’s script
calls upon its cast to emote in
swaths of primary colors, but
with actors talented and en-
thusiastic enough to sell even
.some off-key clunkers of dialogue, to
the point that it’s clear Bette Midler
wasn’t lying when she told one inter—
viewer that making “Hocus Pocus”
was “the most fun I’d had in my ca-
reer'up to that point.”
From 1991-92, actor Omri Katz
had starred in a network sitcom
called “Eerie, Indiana,” about'a hip
New Jersey kid who had just moved
to a weird Midwestern town, so it
made sense that 1993’s “Hocus Po-
cus” would cast Katz as Max, a hip
California kid who had just moved
to Salem, which the film depicts as
a well-established den of similar
weirdness to the fictional town of
Eerie.
Katz is good-looking and charis-
matic enough to evoke the audience’s
sympathies when Max endures some
genre-standard moments of adoles-
cent embarrassment — getting shot
down by his classmate‘crush Allison
(Vinessa Shaw) and having his ex-
Iméti
'- Shelton (360)426-1000
www.5heltoncinemas.com
IIIIIIIII
111mm
“III”-
‘Week of 10/16 22
UNHINGED (R)
FIRST ADMISSION
NIGHTLY @ 6:30 PM.
Week of 10/16 - 22 on screen-2
FIRST RUN ADMISSION
THE LAST SHIFT (R)
NIGHTLY 6:00 P.M.
ammuth
"Transfer
Hear all the plays that
Plays are freebut res
Space is limited. so ma
Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A—25
Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker star in “Hocus
Pocus.” Courtesy photo
pensive shoes stolen by bullies — as
he gets ropedinto taking his little
sister Dani (future “Ghost World”
costar Thora Birch, cute enough here
that diabetics should exercise cau—
tion) out for trick-or-treating.
It’s during a second bid to impress
Allison, during that same Halloween
night, that Max accidentally resur-
rects the Sanderson sisters - bossy
Winifred (Midler), buffoonish,Mary
(Kathy Najimy) and bubbly blonde
Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker, five
years before the premiere of “Sex
and the City”) who were hanged
as witches exactly 300 years ago,
and now seek to drain the lives of
Salem’s children so their coven can
live forever.
Given that the Sanderson sisters
are essentially gender-reversed ver-
sions of the Three Stooges, it’s im-
pressive that Midler has no shame
about playing up her rep as an ar—
rogant diva in the role of Winifred,
the Moe Howard of the bunch, while
Parker likewise throws herself into
her character’s airheadedness with
an abandon seldom seen in her per-
formances since. .
There’s no shortage of folks who
are adults today for whom “Hocus
Pocus” was as much a formative part
of their childhoods as any number
of cartoon/toy franchises from the
1980s were for me.
I don’t doubt those folks will still
N
5'"
DRIVE-I H
ATE
get a nostalgic kick out of seeing it
again, more than a quarter-century
later, but even for relatively older fo-
geys like me, it was amusing to spot
performers I’d grown up with among
the film’s cast, from the intimidating
Kathleen Freeman (the ruler-wield—
ing nun in “The Blues Brothers”) to
the smarmy Charles Rocket (who
dropped an F—bomb on “Saturday
Night Live” in 1981).
As the time—displaced trio of
witches elicit some chuckles by seek-
ing to navigate the “modern day” of
the early 1990s, we’re even treated
to appearances by film director and
“Laverne & Shirley” costar Penny
Marshall, and her brother, veteran
TV producer Garry Marshall, as an
unhappily married couple whom the
witches (not unreasonably) mistake
for Satan and Medusa.
If you enjoyed Guillermo del
Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” you
can even look for Doug Jones, who
played that film’s humanoid amphib-
ian creature, cast in “Hocus Pocus”
as William Butcherson, the zombie
ex-boyfriend of both Winifred and
:. . Sarah, forced to do their bidding.
“The Nightmare Before Christ-
mas” remains my favorite family-
friendly Halloween film, but as long
as they’re willing to go with the
film’s flow, skeptical parents and
Burton fans shouldn’t be afraid to
give “Hocus Pocus” a chance.
Tee Times Required
Call the Pro-Shop (360) 426-6290
GollproolakellmickooanwWLaKeLimerickGolLOom
811 E Salm Andlews Drive >
Shelton WA. 98584
Offer good from 09/28 to 10/31/2020
Monday Fnddv
mm Pruneal and 6011mm MW
Servingthe Publlc and our HOA community
182 Brewer Road 0 Shelton
360-426-4707
www.5kyLineDrive-ln.com
Gates Open 6:00 pm.
Show at dusk, aprox. 7:00pm
Week of 10/16 18
FRIDAY SATURDAY 10/16&17
HOCUS POCUS (PG) followed by
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PG)
SUNDAY 10/18
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PG) followed by
HOCUS POCUS (PG)
—— MONDAY THRU‘WEDNESDAY CLOSED —
THURSDAY 10/22
POLTERGEIST (PG) fol/owed by ADDAMS FAMILY (PG-13)