Winifred "Winnie" Sanderson is the main antagonist of the 1993 Disney live-action dark fantasy horror comedy film Hocus Pocus and its 2022 Disney+ sequel Hocus Pocus 2. She is the eldest and most intelligent witch who lived during the time of Salem Witch Trials, along with her two younger sisters Mary and Sarah.
For their evil activities, Winifred and her sisters were sentenced to death by the Salem townsfolk in 1693, and later resurrected by Max Dennison in 1993. Upon her return, she and her sisters aspired to consume the life forces from children in order to achieve eternal youth and immortality. In the sequel, in 2022, after being resurrected by a teenage girl named Becca, Winifred and her sisters sought to cast the Power Spell that would make themselves invincible and all-powerful so they could have their revenge on Salem. She is also the archenemy of Max Dennison (in 1993) and Becca (in 2022).
She was portrayed by Bette Midler.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Compared to her sisters Mary and Sarah, she's much more competent and is taken far more seriously by both the plot and the other characters.
- While she and her sisters are loyal to Satan, it is purely for self-serving reasons as they sold their souls to him in exchange for the recipe to a potion capable of stealing the youth of children.
Background[]
- She and her sisters cast a spell to set Reverend Traske's house on fire as revenge for forcing the former to marry against her will and trying to separate her from her sisters.
- When she discovered her self-proclaimed lover, Billy, cheating on her with her sister Sarah when in fact Billy didn't have feelings for her and chose Sarah as his lover by himself, she jealously poisoned him and stitched his mouth shut with a dull needle so that he couldn't reveal her secrets even in death.
Hocus Pocus[]
- When Emily is lured into entering their cottage, she and her sisters drained her life force using the Life Potion in order to restore their own youth, killing her, and taking sadistic pleasure in it.
- When Thackery tried to fight her and her younger sisters to rescue his younger sister Emily, she put a curse on him to roam as a black cat until the Black Flame Candle had completely burned down so he would never die and see his little sister again, all the while being stuck living with his guilt for what they did to her, all out of sadism.
- Before the villagers of Salem could hang her and her sisters, Winifred cast a curse, saying that a virgin would summon them back from the death by lighting the Black Flame Candle, and that the lives of children would be theirs.
- Upon returning from the death the first time, Winifred and her sisters found Dani via Mary's sense of smell and attempted to throw her in their cauldron to eat her.
- When Winifred met Max who orders her and her sisters to release his sister, she zapped him with her lightning, causing him to feel pain.
- She chased and tried to kill Max, Dani and Allison to get her spellbook back so she could steal more life force from children.
- She resurrected Billy as a zombie so that she could make him kill Max, Dani, and Allison.
- When the sisters went to a Halloween party where Max and Dani's parents attended, Winifred enchanted the adults with her singing and cursed them to dance until they die.
- She kidnapped Max's school bullies, Jay and Ice, to her cottage and locked them in small hanging cages after Jay insulted her and her sisters.
- She and her sisters attempted to lure thousands of the town's children towards their house so they could steal their life forces and gain immortality.
- She tried to force Dani to drink one of her life stealing potions to steal her life force, all because she called her ugly.
- She coerced Max into drinking the Life Potion, warning him that she would kill Dani if he smashed the vial. When Max drank the Life Potion to save Dani, Winifred taunted him, calling him a fool for giving up his life to save his sister before she grabbed him attempting to steal his life force. She even tried to steal Max's life force one last time even before she was about to be turned to stone after touching the hallowed ground and exploded into dust.
Hocus Pocus 2[]
- Upon returning from the death the second time, Winifred and her sisters planned to kill Becca and her friend Izzy after remembering they were outwitted by teenagers their last time around.
- When they realized Becca and Izzy tricked them, she and her sisters chased the girls to try and kill them, but they pour salt around themselves to fend off their magic and flee.
- She imprisoned Becca and Izzy in their basement dungeon while also making the stairs disappear so they wouldn't be able to escape. She also cursed them to be unable to call for help or let anyone hear them.
- After learning of Mayor Traske and his relation to the Reverend, Winifred decided to do the Magicæ Maxima spell despite having promised her mentor, the Mother Witch, not to do it so she and her sisters could get revenge on him.
- She cursed Gilbert to gather the ingredients and bring them to the Forbidden Wood before her hourglass fills up, and if he didn't, he would die.
- When the sisters end up at the Halloween carnival, Winifred bewitched an audience with her singing and ordered them to find the Mayor.
- In said carnival, she also had the head of a innocent man beat and probably got him killed.
- She and her sisters chased Mike to get him to find where the Mayor lives.
- She attempts to kill Becca, Izzy and their estranged friend Cassie with her lightning, but got trapped with her sisters in a salt circle by Becca instead.
- After Mary used the Roombas to clean up the salt, Winifred kidnapped Cassie and took her to the Forbidden Wood after learning that Cassie was also a descendant of the Reverend.
- She used her magic to sew Billy's mouth shut again and scratched Cassie's neck, gathering her blood.
- She blasted Gilbert away after he outlived his usefulness.
- She battled Becca and her friends before deciding to complete the spell without her spellbook after it betrayed her.
- She sacrificed her sisters, sending them to the spirit realm as a result of completing the Magicæ Maxima spell, though she later regretted it.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- She cared about some people:
- She cared about her mother, keeping her sisters around for her sake.
- Seems to actually care for her spellbook, waking it up affectionately once she is revived, calling for it while acting as its "mommy" and treating it as if it were a child or pet. She is also shocked when her spellbook betrays her and teams up with Becca after she is stubborn to read its' warning about the Magicæ Maxima spell. Despite this, she still cares for her spellbook, as shown when she asked her book to help her save her sisters one last time
- While she's taken more seriously than her sisters, Hocus Pocus is very comedic, so she still has her moments of being played comedically and not being taken seriously.
- She has a tragic backstory where she was forced into an arranged marriage against her will at a young age. Not to mention, when she refused, the Reverend had her banished from Salem and tried to separate her from her sisters. This is played for sympathy.
- At the end of the second film, she redeems herself by choosing her sisters over revenge and putting her evil ways behind her. This also confirms that despite her annoyance with her sisters, she does in fact care about them in her own way.
- She asks Becca and her friends to help her bring her sisters back and instead of being angry with them when they perform the Reuniting Spell which results in her death, she was happy with it, thanking Becca and the girls for helping her and telling them that they're lucky to all have each other.
External Links[]
- Winifred Sanderson on the Villains Wiki
- Winifred Sanderson on the Disney Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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