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“Wench! Trollop! You buck-toothed, mop-riding, firefly from hell! I've waited centuries to say that.”
―Billy insults Winifred
William "Billy"Butcherson is a supporting character in Disney's 1993 film Hocus Pocus and its 2022 sequel, portrayed by actor Doug Jones. He was the obsession of Winifred Sanderson, whom she poisoned after she caught him cheating on her with her youngest sister, Sarah. In 1993, Butcherson was brought back to life as a zombie by Winifred as an act to retrieve her spell book.
When he was first alive, Billy shared a single kiss with a young girl named Winifred Sanderson in a graveyard as children. She fell in love with him and thought more of their relationship than it was, resulted in her obsession with him. He loved her sister Sarah Sanderson instead and Winifred felt betrayed when she learned of the scandal. She declared it cheating, flew into a jealous rage and poisoned him, sewing his mouth shut with a dull needle, so he couldn't reveal her secrets, even in death. He died on May 1, 1693.
Personality[]
Despite the children's initial impression of him, he is shown to be a fairly kind zombie, as he had only been trying helping Binx and the children rather than serve Winifred. He also doesn't seem to care that he is dead and much prefers to be laid to rest.
Billy greatly despises Winifred, but he did have a relationship with her when he was alive because they shared one kiss. He put up with it until he is fed up with her obsession and fell in love with her youngest sister Sarah. Since being murdered and later resurrected by Winnifred, he enjoys hurling insults at her, which much to her chagrin.
Physical appearance[]
After his resurrection, Billy had wrinkled skin, and his mouth was kept shut by twine. He has black hair that sticks up, and is tied in a long ponytail from the behind his head. He wears ragged brownish and black clothes, while overall appearing dirty, for he had been dead for centuries.
Three hundred years later on Halloween, Winifred resurrected him and instructed him to get her spellbook back from Max Dennison, his sister Dani, his crush Allison, and Thackery Binx. They escaped through the sewers and Max knocked Billy's head off. As the witches take the stage at Max's parents' party and hold the entire room quite literally spellbound with their singing, Max and the others run from Billy, eventually managing to escape.
Max, Dani, and his friends head straight to the hallowed ground of the graveyard, where Billy is waiting for them. Winifred, floating outside the gates, impatiently orders Billy to kill Max and be done with it, but he merely grabs Max's pocket knife and slices open the stitches that have bound his mouth for so long. His first words in three centuries are insults hurled at Winifred, who shrieked in rage and threatened that she'll kill him again. Thoroughly sick of his ex-girlfriend, he teams up with the kids.
Billy offers to let Dani stay inside his open grave where she will be safe, but just in case, Allison sprinkles salt all around it — a substance that witches can't directly touch. When the witches arrive and begin to attack, Winifred manages to knock Billy's head off. Unable to bear the sight of Billy blindly stumbling around looking for his head, Dani dashes out of the protected grave and gives it back to him. Unfortunately, Winifred takes advantage of this opportunity and snatches Dani into the air where she attempts to force the girl to drink what remains of the potion. Binx leaps onto the broom from a tree and scratches at Winifred, managing to make her drop the potion before he is flung to the rocky ground. Max catches the potion and threatens to smash it if Winifred doesn't let Dani go, but the witch promises that she'll kill her if he harms her potion. Taking the third option, Max drinks it himself, forcing Winifred to release Dani and take him instead.
Calling him a fool for sacrificing himself for his sister, she drags him high into the air and attempts to inhale his life force despite his wild struggles. Dani, Allison, and Billy manage to hold back Mary and Sarah by yanking the cord of the vacuum cleaner Mary is using as a broomstick in order to prevent her from helping Winifred steal Max's life-force, releasing it once enough momentum has built up to slingshot the two sisters into the sky. After Winifred and her sisters were turned to dust, Billy returned to his grave. Dani wished him a nice sleep, Max thanked him for his help, and, with a big yawn, he flopped back into the ditch.
Billy returns in Hocus Pocus 2. After the Sanderson Sisters return, Gilbert is cursed with the task to collect the ingredients needed for a spell known as "Magicae Maxima", with one of them being the head of a lover. Gilbert, with his knowledge of the sisters, tries digging up Billy's grave in order to obtain said head. As Gilbert does so, Billy bursts from his tomb, revealing that he had been awake ever since 1993. Billy confronts Gilbert about digging up his grave, causing Gilbert to lie about his intentions and state that he's working on a spell to defeat the witches. Billy, falling for this lie, agrees to help gather the rest of the ingredients for the spell.
As the story continues, the two gather most of the ingredients needed, the only one missing being the said head. Billy catches Gilbert taking a glance at the spellbook, and calls Gilbert out on this. Gilbert, still needing the head of a lover, decapitates Billy once again and takes off, with Billy's body unsuccessfully trying to follow.
At the forbidden woods of Salem, Gilbert sets up the ingredients needed for "Magicae Maxima". Gilbert realizes that he can kill the witches to break the spell, but Billy advises against this. The witches arrive at the forest, flinging Gilbert away and sewing Billy's mouth shut once more. Billy's head can be seen throughout the remainder of the scene.
After the spell is completed, and the sisters are gone for good, Gilbert and Billy's body arrive on scene. Billy, now that the Sanderson Sisters are truly dead and their spells are now undone, has started to fade away. Billy accepts his death with peace, finally able to attain his eternal rest.
Trivia[]
During production, Billy Butcherson's actor, Doug Jones, took about 2 and a half hours for him to put on the zombie costume while preparing for the film. Additionally, after filming, Jones had to sit for 45 minutes to remove the zombie costume after finishing the scenes.
Additionally in an early version of Hocus Pocus during the Halloween party scene, Billy became a nice zombie while enjoying his moment at the Halloween party where he makes friends and joins a conga line.[1]
Billy, alongside the Sanderson Sisters, appeared in a special Hocus Pocus reunion on October 30th, 2020 titled In Search of the Sanderson Sisters: A Hocus Pocus Hulaween Takeover. In this special, he tells the story of his relationship with Winifred, and how he cheated on her with her sister Sarah.
However, in the sequel, Billy reveals that he and Winifred were not true lovers because they only shared one kiss.
