| “ | So let's light the sucker and meet the old broads. | „ |
| ~ Max Dennison foolishly daring Allison and his sister Dani to light the Black Flame Candle. |
| “ | A virgin... lit the candle. | „ |
| ~ Daniella "Dani" Dennison to her brother Max who ignored her warning about never lighting the Black Flame Candle. |
The Black Flame Candle is a magical candle that lit a black flame composed of not just fire but of darkness and it brought back the Sanderson Sisters Winnie, Sarah, and Mary, from beyond the grave, and it plays a role in the 1993 Disney movie Hocus Pocus.
History
As written and explained in the Sanderson Sisters' Spellbook, made from the fat of a hanged man, the Black Flame Candle, if lit by a virgin on All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) during a full moon, would raise the spirits of the deceased for as long as the flame burned (which was for one night only).
The Black Flame Candle also formed some sort of mystical link between individuals cursed by those the Candle revived and the party who lit it as shown in Thackery Binx's case. After being cursed into the immortal black cat by Sanderson Sisters, Binx could never tell anyone about his fate to his grieving father during their hanging, yet Dani, Max, and Allison can understand him since it was them who had messed with his 3 nemeses' Black Flame Candle in the first place.
Just as the name describes, the Candle literally burns a black flame but it shines no candlelight, likely because it is dark magic and the fire itself that candle lits, is composed of pure darkness.
In 1993, Max Dennison, making fun of the legends of the Sanderson Sister witches, lit the candle, ignoring his sister Dani's warnings and in doing so, arose the Sanderson Sisters from the dead. The talking black cat who helped Max, Dani and his girlfriend Allison escaped from the Sanderson Sisters, was actually the immortalized Thackery Binx, a teenager who cursed by the same 3 witches to live forever, was preventing anyone from trying to lit the cursed candle and guarding the Sanderson house for 3 centuries but now failed due to Max's ignorance. When the sun rises at dawn, it reveals that the fire of the Black Flame Candle is depleted and gone, and with it, the magic that resurrected the Sanderson Sisters is no more. Winnie along with her 2 sisters dies and are gone forever.
In 2022, Gilbert provides another, much more crudely constructed, Black Flame Candle to Becca and Izzy who light it, resurrecting the witches once again. Gilbert later explains that having seen the Sanderson sisters in 1993 and their deaths, he recovered the Spellbook and it taught him how to make another Black Flame Candle. However, as Gilbert did not fit the requirements for the spell anymore, he had to trick Becca and Izzy into doing it. After the witches perform the "Magicae Maximus", the Black Flame Candle goes out and they are unharmed. However, the nature of the spell turns Mary and Sarah to dust and Becca, Izzy and Cassie perform the Spell of Reuniting on Winnie, turning her to dust as well so that she can be reunited with her sisters and breaking all of Winnie's spells.
However, Gilbert's cat Cobweb watches over a box containing a second Black Flame Candle that Gilbert had created, suggesting that the Sandersons may not be gone for good.
Description
The Black Flame Candle Spell
The mystical power of the Black Flame Candle is dubbed "Black Flame Candle Spell" as written in one of the pages of the Spellbook. The words and even the incantation describing the Black Flame Candle's magic are read:
Words:
One all [All] Hallows' Eve, when the moon is around
A virgin will summon thee from under the ground.
Spell:
Solaten omnes saculorem tuba nriirum est
Gallery
Trivia
- Because of the grim nature of Black Flame Candle's major ingredient (fat of a hanged man), fans and audience alike understandably could not help being curious whether Gilbert went to great lengths in making new, cruder Candles since his pacifistic side ruled out the prospect of him hanging someone for their fat, let alone buying the fat off of a hanged man from any credible source. A plausible explanation is that he may have found the Sanderson sisters' stash of ingredients for their evil magic, which was, fortunately, left undisturbed during their capture and subsequent execution.