So many different kinds of not-great or even not-good movies lay siege to our affections, for reasons to do with why people love movies in the first place. Maybe the star is really cute. Maybe we just enjoy the people on the screen, even if the script’s lousy and the pacing’s weird. Maybe we were sick at home and it was on and that was enough to place it somewhere comfortable in our memory.
Or perhaps it was a “kids’ movie” from Disney, and it was a lot messier and odder and frankly more out of control than the usual Magic Kingdom picture circa 1993.
Set in Salem, Massachusetts, it starred Bette Midler in her high Disney period, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as the other two Sanderson sisters trying to suck the life out of children’s souls because … well, because. It’s one of the jankiest movies ever, with mood swings that risk whiplash.
