Interviews
‘Hocus Pocus’ Star Omri Katz Returns to Salem 30 Years Later! [Interview]
In October of 1992, Hocus Pocus shot on location in Salem for two weeks (followed by several months of sound stage shoots in California). It was neither critically nor commercially successful upon its theatrical release in July of 1993, but annual airings on the Disney Channel and later ABC Family/Freeform helped an impressionable audience (re)discover the film. Eclipsing cult status, its popularity continues to grow exponentially each Halloween season.
Exactly 30 years later, Omri Katz — who starred as Max Dennison in Hocus Pocus at the age of 17 — returned to the historic Massachusetts town on October 22 for the first time since the shoot. Presented by The Horror Squad Podcast, the eventful day included a meet-and-greet and a Hocus Pocus screening with a Q&A.
Prior to the festivities, we visited some of the original filming locations. Three decades removed from the production and now sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, Katz was largely able to blend in with the crowds of tourists — but his voice still sounds exactly like it did when he delivered such quotable lines as “It’s all just a bunch of hocus pocus!”
“It’s nostalgic. Interesting,” Katz tells me regarding his return. “Many parts I don’t remember. It seems like the town has grown a lot. The flux of people is insane.” Salem — population 43,350 — has seen the number of tourists running amok exceed 100,000 on some days. Hocus Pocus, no doubt, played a part in popularizing Salem as a Halloween destination.
The informal tour included stops at the coastal house where Katz’s character lived; the Ropes Mansion, which served as the stately home of his love, Allison; Phillips Elementary School, his character’s alma mater; and Old Town Hall, which was used as the exterior for the film’s iconic Halloween party scene.
“I definitely remember the seasons. We filmed here in autumn, and it was the same thing with all the colors of the leaves.” Although Katz recalls the landmarks, as well as a visit to the historic Walden Pond in nearby Concord, his memory regarding the production specifics is hazy.
“It just felt like another job at the time. I would have never in a million years thought it would have grown to what it is. It didn’t do very well in the theaters. They obviously made some bad choices, but the fanbase grew. It’s pretty shocking.” He continues, “I think the internet really just blew the film up 100% more than it was at that time.”
Katz first took notice of the burgeoning following around the film’s 20th anniversary, when he was invited to participate in a live event alongside other cast and crew members. “I was kind of hesitant, but it was a great experience.” He stays in touch with several people from the film, often appearing alongside them at conventions. They also have a Hocus Pocus group text chain together.
Hocus Pocus was the second time Katz helped introduce young viewers to genre material. Earlier in his career, he starred as Marshall Teller on Eerie, Indiana, NBC’s Twilight Zone-esque anthology series for kids on which master of horror Joe Dante served as creative consultant. Despite only lasting for one season, syndication helped it gain a cult following.
“That was truly an amazing experience,” Katz enthuses. “I was already a big Joe Dante fan, so when I got blessed to work on that show, to me it was really one of the highlights of my acting career. Not only did I get to work with some of the most amazing talents in the industry, but the sets and the writing and Joe Dante; I was like a kid in a candy store. Every week was a new adventure.”
Working with Dante got Katz interested in the filmmaking process. “For a long time after that, I figured I was going to continue in the industry, until I got older and changed my mind, and directing was definitely the direction I wanted to go in. No matter what I was working on, I was always sitting on the camera, always trying to figure out how things were done, asking questions. Working with [Dante] and seeing his imagination, it was very inspiring. He’s like the biggest kid, and that’s another thing I think I was drawn to. He’s just a lot of fun.”
With the rise in popularity of the anthology series format and more kid-centric genre material, he agrees that the show is ripe for a reboot — and he’d be open to returning to Eerie. “I’m not out pursuing opportunities, but if the opportunity came knocking on my door, I would be happy to. There was a long moment in my life where I didn’t really want to be in the public eye, and I’m kind of opening back up to that.”
Along with Hocus Pocus, 1993 also saw Katz appear in Dante’s Matinee, in which John Goodman stars as a William Castle-esque B-movie director. Katz admits he’s not familiar with Castle’s work but looks back on Matinee fondly. “We had a great time in Florida for two months. I went from Eerie to Matinee, so I had already worked with Joe.”
The young actor was excited to collaborate with the veteran cast. “I’d say John Goodman is one of the most professional actors that I’ve witnessed working. He was very critical of his performances. He always wanted to do better. Cathy Moriarty was sweet, very humble. I’d seen Raging Bull, and I couldn’t believe I was working with her.”
Katz eventually made a conscious decision to step away from the entertainment business. “I grew up in the industry, so that’s kind of all I knew. I think I was soul searching and wanted more of a human experience; just see what else is out there, see the world, and be normal. I didn’t really have that growing up.”
That’s precisely what he did: Katz used his acting money to travel, surfing and snowboarding along the way, before returning to Los Angeles. “I wanted to get back into acting for all the wrong reasons — to make money so I could escape again — and that didn’t work out too well. I had to get a real job, the first one in my life!”
He found joy in hairdressing for a period before pursuing his passion for cannabis in 2002. “Obviously I had to be discreet, stay under the radar, but I’ve been doing it ever since. I have my own brand called The Mary Danksters. We’re doing everything the legal way, and I’m really excited to see where this industry takes me. It’s been a tough thing to navigate, but I feel confident that I’ve got something to contribute.”
As our chat comes to a close, I ask Katz why he thinks Hocus Pocus continues to connect with people. “It’s kind of baffling. I think part of it is the witches; people love the spirit that they brought to it. Digging a little deeper, there’s this human relationship aspect to it that feels really heartwarming and touched a lot of people. So many people grew up with having those experiences, and now it gets passed on generationally.”
He concludes, “It’s really a trip. It seems surreal. I’m excited to see what the future has in store.” He’s certainly not the only one; that rabid fanbase we discussed was out in full force for a non-stop 4+ hour meet and greet at Silver Moon Comics followed by a sold-out screening and Q&A hosted by The Horror Squad at Cinema Salem.
Many fans were quick to express how much they missed Katz and co-stars Thora Birch and Vinessa Shaw in Hocus Pocus 2. Although he would have been happy to return for the long-gestating sequel, Katz’s lack of involvement didn’t stop him from watching it. “It was palatable. At first glance, I was kind of disappointed. I watched like 30 minutes of it and fell asleep, but then I watched the rest of it and surprisingly enjoyed it.”
He elaborates diplomatically, “We’re in a different time now, and I think Disney has a different formula. The movie just seems to be missing certain elements, in my opinion. I guess I’m entitled to critique it! The witches were great. I’m glad to see the franchise continue. it leaves the door open to continue, so if they want to bring us back and do a different story, I’d be grateful.”
What does Katz think his character is up after 30 years? “Max is either in a psych ward or moved back to Cali. Maybe he’s running a cannabis collective,” he chuckles, alluding to his own trajectory. Wherever he may be, Hocus Pocus fans of all ages are eager to see. So, Disney, let’s light this sucker and meet the old broads again!
Interviews
“Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” Series Creators on Bigger Slasher Season, Horror Influences, and Spooky Spaghetti
The slasher-themed relaunch of “Pretty Little Liars” from series creators/writers/executive producers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (“Riverdale,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) and Lindsay Calhoon Bring (“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) is back with the brand new season “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School,“ plunging the final girls into a summer of horror.
“Summer School“ begins TODAY (May 9), only on Max.
After surviving last season’s Millwood massacre and unmasking “A,“ Mouse (Malia Pyles), Noa (Maia Reficco), Faran (Zaria), Imogen (Bailee Madison) and Tabby (Chandler Kinney) are back to process their trauma and get on with their lives. Except they’ll be forced to take on summer school. When a mysterious new villain emerges, summer school won’t be the only thing derailing the girls’ plans for summer fun and romance (read our review).
Bloody Disgusting spoke with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring about the second season, which continues the heavy emphasis on horror and packs in the references. That even includes an homage to Bloody Disgusting!
The pair also reveal more about this season’s threat, and what lies ahead.
“Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin“ saw the core five survive their violent confrontation with “A,“ presenting a unique scenario in creating a slasher centered around not one but five Final Girls. That presented a unique challenge for the writers this season.
Aguirre-Sacasa explains, “It’s funny, your first question literally cuts to the heart of basically every conversation we have in the writer’s room, which is most slasher movies or shows have one final girl. But the very essence, heart, and DNA of our show are that we have five final girls. Six, if you count Kelly [Mallory Bechtel]. One of the tropes of a final girl is that there’s always an amazing chaser test at the end of the movie. We landed, I think, pretty early on the idea that Bloody Rose would test each girl as though preparing them to be the final girl for the final test. So that was a very conscious decision early on, and that would be a cool way to create horror set pieces for each girl.“
“It was,“ Calhoon Bring adds. “In season one, our ultimate final girl ended up, story-wise, thematically, with our sins of the mothers being tied to the child, and the ultimate sinner being Imogen’s mother. Our ultimate final Final girl was Imogen. This season going in, we knew that we wanted to test each girl, as Roberto said, but we also did love this idea of one of our little liars being the final Final Girl. So without giving too much away, our finale does center on one of our liars as the ultimate Final Girl this season.“
There’s a distinct tonal shift this season, with “Summer School“ much lighter than the grim “Original Sin.“ While the setting contributes to that, Bloody Disgusting asked the showrunners whether the shift in horror – embracing everything from creepypastas to cult horror – informed that tone shift in any way.
Calhoon Bring answers, “We always approach every episode, every season with story first, character first, and what are our little liars going through? We knew that with season two, we didn’t want to forget the events of season one. We didn’t want them to jump past them. We wanted them to live in them and move through them. At the same time, per your tone question, we thought, ‘Gosh, season one was really heavy. The girls were grappling with really dark, grounded horrors and dramas, as well as the heightened horror of having a Michael Myers chase them with a knife.‘ We did want to infuse more fun into this. Summer, to us, did feel like the perfect backdrop for fun, slasher horror, a little more fun for the girls bringing in Dr. Sullivan [Annabeth Gish] to help them work through their traumas, but also give them permission to have summer flings, have summer jobs, have a good time. So we did consciously do a bit of a tonal shift as well.“
Creepypastas influence the horror in a huge way this season, both with the villain, Bloody Rose, and the mysterious “Spooky Spaghetti“ website. Aguirre-Sacasa breaks down the idea behind “Spooky Spaghetti“ and a surprising source of inspiration for its creation.
“Obviously, one of the inspirations for season two was the Slender Man,“ the showrunner says. “Lindsay and I love not the Slender Man fictional movie but the Slender Man documentary, and we are obsessed with the Slender Man true crime case. I think one of the things we think is so terrifying about the Slender Man is that you kind of don’t know if he’s real or not. You don’t know if it’s this supernatural figure that crossed over into the real world. So, we needed a website that held that legend, and thus Spooky Spaghetti was born. One of the really fun things about it that we liked was that it took one of our favorite Pretty Little Liars, Mouse, and put her at the heart of the mystery in a really organic, cool way. Sometimes, that can be the hardest thing to do. But I remember when we got the cut of the first episode, I think, Lindsay, you got to see it before me, and you called, and you were like, ‘Oh my God, here’s what really works. Spooky Spaghetti.‘ We agree.
“But for sure, listen, I think we all check Deadline and Bloody Disgusting ten times a day, so it’s an homage to Bloody Disgusting as well.“
The default aim for slasher sequels is to go bigger than before, and “Summer School“ takes that to heart with more elaborate, visually creative set pieces this season. Especially the more Bloody Rose tests the Liars.
“We have such an amazing team, and we love talking about them,“ Calhoon Bring says of this season’s sets. “Our production designer, Brett Tanzer, and his set decorator, Lauren [Crawford]. We also have an amazing locations manager, Dave Lieber, who has so much fun. Sometimes, the locations will inspire a story for us, too, because as he’s looking around the locations in the upstate New York towns that we’re seeing, he’ll send us photos and say, ‘Hey, I found this amazing roller rink.‘ Then we think, ‘Well, we have to use that amazing roller rink. We have to find a space for this.‘ ‘Hey, there’s this an abandoned campground. What could we do? Can we do an outdoor movie at an abandoned campground? That would be amazing.‘
“We worked very closely with our team to make sure that every episode was very special and had a special set piece. A big ongoing conversation for us that was a tricky thing to do actually was that we knew early on that we wanted Faran to be a lifeguard, and we knew that we wanted to have a pool as a summer set piece. Those conversations happen so early, and finding a pool isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s like finding the right pool, making sure that it’s the right aesthetic, that it’s broken down, that there are woods nearby, that it feels scary, that it’s operational, that we can use it. So, those conversations happened even sometimes earlier than we were writing the episodes.”
Aguirre-Sacasa elaborates, “Just to piggyback off that, the day that Lindsay and I got emails from Dave, our locations manager, for the church where Redemption House, that storyline was set. When we toured it, it was like, ‘This is the creepiest.‘ Literally, it’s next to a cemetery, and across the street from it is another cemetery. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to be setting up shop here.‘ We just moved in for the season. It was really great.”
While the series creators won’t spoil all the horror fun ahead in “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” – but definitely expect the new season to really embrace all of your summer horror favorites in a big way – the pair do offer some exciting teases for what’s ahead.
“We’re so happy that we have Annabeth Gish with us, reprising her role as Dr. Sullivan,“ Calhoon Bring tells us. “Roberto, you’ve mentioned this; one of our favorite things in horror movies is the amazing monologue that a harrowed, usually final girl gives talking about her trauma. Roberto invoked Phoebe Cates in Gremlins, talking about that ill-fated night. We love those. We think that Annabeth, as Dr. Sullivan, delivers a tour de force horror monologue and a horror sequence in our penultimate [episode] that we’re very, very excited for people to see.“
“Yeah, it is kind of like Jason’s mother’s monologue about Jason drowning,“ Aguirre-Sacasa added. “It’s about Dr. Loomis talking about Michael Myers and the devil’s eyes. We love that. I think we can also tease in our finale. It’s our favorite episode of the season, the finale, and knowing that we had done essentially a handful of final girl chases and tests throughout, we knew that our finale had to be pretty apocalyptic and pretty epic. So we looked at some of our favorite movies like Midsommar and Texas Chain Saw Massacre for those truly apocalyptic horror movie endings that are just so gonzo, and without spoiling much, we wanted to do our version of that.
“And it is pretty harrowing, pretty harrowing.”
Which Final Girl will become the ultimate Final Girl this season? “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” debuts exclusively on Max on May 9 at 12:00 a.m. PT with two episodes, followed by one new episode airing weekly through June 20.
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