Kenny Ortega's Halloween cult classic resurrects three 17th-century Salem witches, played with unhinged comic relish by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, after a virgin unknowingly lights a candle that breaks their 300-year imprisonment. A trio of kids and a magically resurrected black cat scramble to stop the sisters from achieving immortality before sunrise by draining the life from Salem's children. A box-office disappointment on release, its campy musical numbers and genuine gothic imagination turned it into an annual October tradition for a generation raised on VHS.