Entertainment Weekly - October 20, 2017

David Koepp’s thriller

permanently drilled

into our skulls a cringe-

inducing scene in

which Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon), who

is plagued by haunting visions of a

ghostly girl from beyond the grave,

yanks out his own tooth during a super-

natural fever dream. Nearly 20 years

later, watching it is still as painful

as getting a root canal.

DAVID KOEPPIt was based on a night-

mare I had. It’s a classic aging dream.

KEVIN BACONTeeth are a symbol of

vibrancy, health, and youth. Every-

thing’s crumbling around [the charac-

ter].... Without your teeth, you’re a

shadow of your former self.

KOEPPWe blacked out Kevin’s tooth...

so he’s pulling out a cap that comes

off fairly easily. He gives some grunts

and groans, and we added grotesque,

crunching flesh noises.... He’s [also]

palming a real tooth in his other hand

[to drop into the sink]. Everybody

did it like a magic trick.

BACON[The tendril of blood] was

a happy accident, and it was f---ing

fantastic. [Horror often uses] bells,

whistles, jump scares...but when

you can do it with such a simple,

uncomplicated gesture, it’s f---ing

creepy and horrific.

KOEPPThat was just lucky! Kevin

knows enough as an actor, when

he’s got a good thing going, to keep

going.... I was behind the monitor

trying not to giggle.

STIR OF

ECHOES

DIY DENTISTRY

Star Kevin Bacon and

director David Koepp deconstruct

the infamous sequence.

By Joey Nolfi

5-MINUTE ORAL HISTORY

H

O

C

U

S

P

O

C

U

S

Guess what: The beloved

film you watch every Hallow-

een almost had a different

title! WriterMICK GARRIS

shares those details and

more.By Samantha Highfill

The Sanderson sisters.

The black-flame candle.

Thackery Binx.Hocus Pocus

fans know it all—maybe a

little too well. But long

before the 1993 film was made, Mick

Garris wrote the very first draft for the

film, which was then titledHalloween

House. “David Kirschner, who [was one

of the writers of]An American Tail for

Steven Spielberg, had this great idea

about children in Salem, Massachusetts,

coming up against the three Sanderson

sisters, who were resurrected from the

Salem of 1692, and he’d sold it to Dis-

ney.” With both Kirschner and Garris

having worked with Spielberg—Garris

was a writer forAmazing Stories—they

put together an elaborate pitch for the

director’s company, Amblin Entertain-

ment. Spielberg was interested, if only

for a brief moment. “He loved it until he

found out that Disney was already

involved,” Garris says. “At that time,

Disney and Amblin were very competi-

tive in the family-film market, so neither

of them wanted to be in business with

the other. [But] it was very close to

being a project with Steven Spielberg.”

With Spielberg out of the picture,

Garris wrote the first draft for Disney’s

Halloween House in the 1980s, crafting

what he says was a much darker ver-

sion of the story than what ended up

on screen nearly eight years later.

“What I had written originally was

about 12-year-olds,” Garris says. “The

kids being younger and in more jeop-

ardy was certainly something more

explicitly frightening.” Multiple writ-

ers would become attached to the film

over the years, and by the timeHocus

Pocus arrived, the kids were 16 and the

tone was more “broadly comedic,”

according to Garris. That scene with

Garry and Penny Marshall? That wasn’t

in the first draft. But Billy Butcherson

losing his head? That was.

Reporting by Bill G. Grandberg

1993

THE ORIGIN

STORY OF

1999

Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker

JOE HILL

STRANGE

WEATHER

AUTHOR

 Kevin Bacon

HILL: STEPHEN LOVEKIN/GETTY IMAGES;

HOCUS POCUS

: ANDREW COOPER/DISNEY