“Hocus Pocus” stars got stuck in the air during flying scenes: 'It was funny until it hurt'

It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus — until the crushing burden of being a human suspended in the air on a thin, thin broomstick kicks in.

Filmmaker Kenny Ortega, who directed Disney's 1993 Halloween classic about a group of evil witches terrorizing children in Salem, tells EW that some of the film's most visually impressive scenes — which saw Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy suspended from the air on rigs to recreate the act of flying — sometimes ended in yelps of pain for the main cast.

Disney Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy in 'Hocus Pocus.'

"I can't count how many times we stopped filming because we were laughing our heads off, all of us, the crew, the witches, whether the fly rigs failed and everybody was stuck up in the air, to just funny, spur-of-the-moment things that happened. Wonderful, magical little things," Ortega tells EW, noting that the practical effects used to hoist the Sanderson Sisters into the air on broomsticks (and, later, a mop and an iconic vacuum cleaner) caused some slight issues as the shoot progressed.

"The technology then was, really, pulling ropes. Often, during the flying sequences — and with no disrespect to the folks that were in charge of all of that — we had three witches flying on a soundstage, and, on occasion, there would be near-misses," he remembers. "On occasion, there would be electrical failures where they would be left up there, dangling. It was funny until it hurt, right?"

Disney Thora Birch and Bette Midler in 'Hocus Pocus.'

Ortega stresses that the witches weren't left in the air for very long, and that it only happened "a couple of times" — but enough to leave a lasting impression in his memory.

"Again, good laughs that turned into, 'Okay, this isn't funny anymore, get a ladder!'" he says with a laugh.

Hocus Pocus, which celebrated its 30-year anniversary in July, got a long-awaited sequel in 2022, which also saw the three stars soaring over the skies of Salem. This time, though, in place of a vacuum cleaner, Mary (Najimy) updated her mode of transportation when she swapped the traditional sweeper for a pair of Roomba-style robotic vacuums.

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