Where wasHocus Pocusfilmed?

EXT. MAX AND DANI'S HOUSE – SALEM

Max and Dani's house

as The Dennison family home, with Max's attic bedroom in the cupola

The exterior at 4 Ocean Avenue: Dani nagging Max to go trick-or-treating, the witches leaving with Dani on their brooms. The 1870 house with the concave mansard roof and the cupola looks as it did on screen. The bedroom and every interior were built in Burbank.

NOTEDestination Salem lists the house as 'not accessible', and the walking tours stop across the street. Ten seconds, one photo, move on.

EXT. ROPES MANSION – SALEM

Ropes Mansion

as Allison's house – the Halloween party the Dennisons gatecrash

The Georgian mansion at 318 Essex Street is the exterior of Allison's home, where Max and Dani arrive as trick-or-treaters. The party inside was shot in a house in Altadena, California.

NOTEThe mansion tour is worth it for the house, not the film – nothing inside was used. The garden is the better Hocus Pocus stop, and it is free.

EXT. OLD TOWN HALL – SALEM

Old Town Hall

as The town Halloween party – 'I Put a Spell on You'

The 1816 hall on Derby Square is the exterior of the party the Sandersons crash. The ballroom where Winifred sings is the Park Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

NOTEDerby Square is the centre of the October crowds. Come before 10 am for a photo of the facade without three hundred people in it.

EXT. PHILLIPS SCHOOL – SALEM

Phillips School

as Jacob Bailey High School – 'a prison, for children'

The brick school with the tower at 86 Essex Street, on the corner of Salem Common, is the outside of Max's high school, where the sisters are lured into the kiln. Classroom and kiln were shot at a school in Whittier, California.

EXT. SALEM COMMON – SALEM

Salem Common

as Max and Allison after school – 'it's all just a bunch of hocus pocus'

The park on Washington Square is where Max cycles home and Allison hands back his phone number. The school is on its corner; the Hawthorne Hotel and the Witch Museum are across the road.

NOTEThree locations within 200 m of each other: the Common, the school on its corner, and the Witch Museum for the tourist photo. Start here.

EXT. OLD BURIAL HILL – MARBLEHEAD

Old Burial Hill

as The graveyard – Max loses his sneakers to Jay and Ice

The daytime cemetery scenes: Max cutting through on his bike, the bullies, the view over the harbour. The night scenes at the graveyard – Billy Butcherson rising, the finale – were rebuilt on a stage in Burbank.

NOTEThe one location the walking tours cannot reach – Marblehead is 6 km from Salem Common. Combine it with the harbour and lunch in Old Town Marblehead; go by car or taxi.

EXT. CHANDLER HOVEY PARK AND MARBLEHEAD LIGHT – MARBLEHEAD NECK

Chandler Hovey Park and Marblehead Light

as The lighthouse under Sarah's flight – 'Come Little Children'

Sarah Sanderson sings the children out of their houses while flying over the lighthouse on Marblehead Neck; the causeway visible in the sequence is Ocean Avenue. Aerial shots only – nobody landed here.

NOTEOnly for completists and people who like harbours. Ten minutes by car from Old Burial Hill.

EXT. PLIMOTH PATUXET, PLYMOUTH – PLYMOUTH

Plimoth Patuxet, Plymouth

as The 1693 village from the air

The aerial shot over the settlement at the start of the prologue, with a witch's shadow crossing the water, was flown over the 17th-Century English Village of the Plymouth living-history museum, 100 km south of Salem.

NOTESkip it for Hocus Pocus. Go if you want the Mayflower.

EXT. CHARTER STREET CEMETERY (OLD BURYING POINT) – SALEM

Charter Street Cemetery (Old Burying Point)

as Not a location – the Salem graveyard everyone assumes

Salem's oldest cemetery, 1637, next to the Witch Trials Memorial. It appears nowhere in Hocus Pocus; the film's graveyard is in Marblehead. It is here because half the visitors photograph it as the location.

NOTEWorth twenty minutes for the 1692 memorial next door, not for the film.