National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Hocus Pocus was released by Walt Disney Pictures in July 1993, directed by Kenny Ortega and produced during a period when the studio was experimenting with live-action genre fare alongside its animated renaissance. The film found modest theatrical returns but built an enduring audience through home video and annual television broadcasts, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable Halloween titles in American popular culture. Its 35mm photography captures a warm, practical-lit aesthetic characteristic of early-1990s studio production.

This cell presents Winifred Sanderson across three consecutive frames from a single interior shot, her body leaning forward with one hand extended in a clawed gesture. The slight variations in hand position and exposure across the frames offer a rare glimpse into the rhythm of the original camera capture, preserving a sustained moment of one of cinema's most distinctive character performances in its original photographic medium.