Freedom Fry and Vinessa Shaw Are Bringing Hocus Pocus Back to Life With a Haunting New Sound

More than 30 years after Hocus Pocus became a Halloween cult classic, indie folk-pop duo Freedom Fry teams up with actress Vinessa Shaw, who played Allison in the original film, to reimagine its haunting song “Come Little Children.” Featured on their new EP Haunts, the collaboration blends 1960s psychedelic folk, ghostly harmonies, and childhood nostalgia. In an exclusive conversation with MUNDANE, they discuss the magic of Halloween, musical reinvention, and the unexpected creative freedom of revisiting a beloved classic.

Some songs have a way of transporting us back to childhood, conjuring memories that feel simultaneously comforting and unsettling.

Few capture that contradiction quite like “Come Little Children,” the haunting melody performed by Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus.

More than three decades later, Los Angeles indie folk-pop duo Freedom Fry, consisting of Bruce and Marie, have brought the song back to life with an unexpected collaborator: Vinessa Shaw, the actress who portrayed Allison in the original film.

Their reinterpretation appears on Freedom Fry’s five-track EP Haunts, released October 9, 2026, alongside acoustic reimaginings of other Halloween favorites.

Rather than reproducing the original’s sweeping orchestral arrangement, the trio transports the song into an entirely different musical universe, drawing inspiration from the psychedelic folk-pop of the 1960s.

The result is intimate, nostalgic, and quietly unsettling.

For Freedom Fry, the idea emerged from an annual tradition of watching Hocus Pocus.

“Every time the scene with Sarah Jessica Parker singing ‘Come Little Children’ comes on, it really makes us feel things. Spooky, magical, dark things.”

Unable to find the original recording on streaming services, they decided to create a version of their own.

And in doing so, they discovered an opportunity to reconnect the film’s past with an entirely new creative chapter.

A Halloween Classic Reimagined Through 1960s Psychedelia

Freedom Fry approached “Come Little Children” as what they describe as a sonic time capsule.

Instead of modernizing the song, they looked toward the early Bee Gees, particularly the group’s Beatles-influenced recordings, with their reverberant vocals, subtle orchestral arrangements, and occasionally eerie atmospheres.

“We knew that if our version didn’t feel spooky and dark, we’d have failed.”

When Shaw joined the project, she immediately recognized similarities to The Mamas & the Papas and contributed additional vocal harmonies that pushed the arrangement further into its retro-inspired direction.

The collaboration itself began through an unexpectedly ordinary connection.

Both households had children around the same age and had previously shared a nanny. After learning that Shaw was working on music, Freedom Fry invited her to join the recording.

She contributed ghostly backing vocals, harmonies, and a spoken-word passage.

For Shaw, the experience was particularly meaningful because “Come Little Children” became her first official music release.

Although she had sung in a barbershop group and contributed vocals to children’s folk recordings earlier in her life, releasing music professionally had long been a personal ambition.

“Doing my own music has been a lifelong dream of mine that’s finally coming true.”

The studio also offered a different creative experience from acting, allowing her to experiment freely with musical ideas.

That freedom has encouraged her to continue exploring music beyond the collaboration.

Haunts: Finding the Beauty in Darkness

Freedom Fry’s Haunts EP extends the same atmospheric approach to other familiar songs associated with Halloween and horror cinema.

The collection includes reinterpretations of “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” and John Carpenter’s Halloween theme, alongside “Zombie Love (Acoustic).”

The concept was to remove the elaborate production associated with these recordings and discover what remained.

“We wanted to strip them down to their bare bones, so to speak.”

For Freedom Fry, the appeal of Halloween music lies in its emotional flexibility.

Unlike other holidays, Halloween allows artists to explore romance, melancholy, fear, humor, and nostalgia within the same imaginative space.

“There’s something wonderful about making music that’s meant to become part of people’s traditions.”

Shaw agrees, describing Halloween as a particularly open creative environment where almost anything goes.

And while Haunts celebrates the familiar, it also creates something new: an alternative musical world in which horror becomes intimate rather than overwhelming.

Vinessa Shaw’s New Musical Chapter

For Shaw, the collaboration is only the beginning.

She has already recorded two original songs, “Free Yourself” and “Help Me,” which explore soul-pop and dance-pop influences.

The former addresses her journey through personal darkness toward self-discovery, while the latter examines the disappointment of a relationship.

“I’m still developing my sound and voice,” she explains.

Although she hadn’t expected pop music to become her primary form of expression, she is following her instincts and embracing the possibility of creating music with a cinematic quality.

Given her acting background, that direction feels particularly natural.

“I like drama, fun, and discovering the unknown.”

Her involvement in “Come Little Children” therefore represents both a return to an important part of her past and the beginning of something entirely different.

And Freedom Fry has a playful theory about what the collaboration might mean within the Hocus Pocus universe.

They imagine their version as something performed by a 1960s band in Greenwich Village, with Allison secretly possessing supernatural powers.

Shaw enthusiastically embraces the fantasy.

“Allison in the reimagined version is the fourth Sanderson sister from the 1960s vs the 1690s!”

Perhaps nostalgia is most interesting when it gives us permission to imagine an alternative version of the stories we thought we already knew.

In Conversation With Freedom Fry and Vinessa Shaw

MUNDANE: What initially sparked the idea to revisit “Come Little Children” after more than 30 years?

Freedom Fry: Watching Hocus Pocus is an annual tradition in our house, and every time the scene with Sarah Jessica Parker singing “Come Little Children” comes on, it really makes us feel things. Spooky, magical, dark things. It’s a perfect song, and we couldn’t find the original on streaming services, so we felt it was our duty to right that wrong in the universe. For the sake of all of our collective Halloween playlists.

MUNDANE: Vinessa, how did transitioning into the recording studio compare to your background on film sets?

Vinessa Shaw: There’s a lot of freedom in the recording studio. I find there’s so much room to play, try new ideas, and not care about how you look or even how you’re dressed! On set, you can play too, but as an actor you are performing as more of a finished product that you hand over to the director.

Doing my own music has been a lifelong dream of mine that’s finally coming true. Freedom Fry have been so kind in showing me the ropes of the biz and helping me get my feet wet with this first single.

MUNDANE: How did you approach creating an arrangement that honored the original while reflecting Freedom Fry’s musical style?

Freedom Fry: We kept coming back to the vibe of Bee Gees’ 1st, from their more Beatles-influenced era. Some of those songs are surprisingly spooky, with simple instrumentation, heavy vocal reverbs, and subtle orchestral textures.

Vinessa immediately heard The Mamas & the Papas in what we were doing, which we loved. She came in with all kinds of harmony ideas that pushed the song even further into that 1960s world.

MUNDANE: How did the collaboration come about?

Freedom Fry: It’s a very LA story. We both have kids around the same age, and we shared a nanny for a while. We’d recently connected in person, and she’d mentioned that she was working on music herself.

We’d already started recording “Come Little Children” on our own when it suddenly occurred to us that we knew the perfect person to join us. We shot her a text with our rough version, and thankfully, she was game!

MUNDANE: What inspired the stripped-down, atmospheric direction of Haunts?

Freedom Fry: All of the songs we covered on Haunts hold a special place in our hearts, and we wanted to strip them down to their bare bones, so to speak. We’d never heard an acoustic version of “Thriller” or some of the other songs, and we thought it was an opportunity to make something timeless, intimate, and maybe somehow even eerier than the originals.

MUNDANE: Was there anything about the original “Come Little Children” that felt essential to preserve?

Freedom Fry: We really just tried to capture everything we love about the original, and having Vinessa on it made it feel that much more special. There’s something pretty magical about having someone from the actual film become part of the song’s story.

MUNDANE: How did you choose the other songs on the EP?

Freedom Fry: Recording “Come Little Children” got us thinking about all the other songs we love from horror films. “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is such a great, sinister song, and it’s become synonymous with the Scream films. John Carpenter’s Halloween theme is one of the eeriest pieces of music ever written, and we’d never heard anyone attempt it on acoustic guitar.

And “Thriller” just sounded so good stripped down to acoustic guitar. It worked almost immediately.

MUNDANE: Vinessa, what can listeners expect from your upcoming original music?

Vinessa Shaw: I’m still developing my sound and voice. But what I will say is the first two songs are along the lines of soul pop and dance pop. My song Free Yourself came out of my struggle with my own darkness and uncovering my true self, while Help Me is about the dashed dreams of a relationship.

I feel I may be going down a road of writing songs with a cinematic feel. Which definitely tracks with my day job!

MUNDANE: What makes Halloween such an inspiring setting for music?

Freedom Fry: Working on holiday music is so freeing. It’s inherently unpretentious. The assignment is simple: capture a mood that gets you and everyone else into the spirit of that holiday. But within those parameters, there’s so much room to play.

Vinessa Shaw: With Halloween music you can explore! Other holiday music seems to require more specificity. With Halloween music you can have a romantic song, a dark spooky song, or a wacky song—anything goes!

MUNDANE: What do you hope fans take away from this reinterpretation?

Freedom Fry: We hope fans of the original film and song feel like they now have a new cozy, spooky version to put on every Halloween when they’re in the mood for something eerie but relaxing.

And of course, having THE Allison from Hocus Pocus singing on it makes it feel like it genuinely belongs in the Hocus Pocus universe. We kind of love the idea that it’s an alternate reality where Allison was secretly a witch all along.

Vinessa Shaw: Ha! Yes! Allison in the reimagined version is the fourth Sanderson sister from the 1960s vs the 1690s! How clever of her!

A New Kind of Halloween Tradition

What makes Freedom Fry and Vinessa Shaw’s reinterpretation compelling is its ability to preserve the emotional magic of Hocus Pocus without attempting to recreate it exactly.

The original song belongs to a particular cinematic moment.

The new version belongs to a different musical world, one shaped by psychedelic folk, intimate harmonies, and the freedom to imagine what a familiar story might sound like in another era.

For Shaw, it also represents the beginning of a musical journey that has been waiting years to unfold.

And for Freedom Fry, Haunts is an opportunity to turn the familiar sounds of Halloween into something quieter, stranger, and unexpectedly comforting.

More than three decades later, “Come Little Children” proves that the most enduring childhood memories don’t have to remain frozen in time. Sometimes, they can become the beginning of an entirely new story.

Freedom Fry & Vinessa Shaw — Haunts

Released: October 9, 2026

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