It’s something I’ve seen a thousand times. I can recite every line, with the right cadence and pauses no less. I’ve caught every little joke and Easter egg one might miss on the first three watches.

Yet, like clockwork, I’ll turn it on without hesitation when the season rolls around.

I’m talking about Hocus Pocus, of course, but this applies to most Halloween movies. The Addams Family, Beetlejuice, Casper. They’re all on my annual rewatch list.

Maybe you’ve got a movie like this. Or a story you love to hear your favorite uncle tell. You beg him: “Tell the one about the goat!” You turn to a friend who’s meeting your uncle for the first time, “You’ve gotta hear this.”

Stories are funny like that.

We know how easily they can draw us in and keep us hooked. But perhaps more interesting is how a story can still be entertaining even when you already know how it ends.

You might even like it better the fifth time around. You grow to appreciate the little narrative threads you missed before. You laugh or cry at the same parts you did the first time.

That's true for all stories—not just the ones that grace the silver screen. Yours, mine, Uncle Joe’s.

In fact, I believe a good story should be told more than once.

With every new rendition, you might sharpen it a little more. Sand down the rough parts. Make it shine.

And people will happily sit through it again. Oh, this is the one about her first school dance gone horribly wrong.

That might feel like magic, but it’s simply good storytelling. Save the hocus pocus for another day.

-Erin

P.S. What’s your must-watch Halloween movie?

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