In the movie, the three sisters are known as the legendary "Sanderson Sisters", three witches who lived in Salem, Massachusetts during the Witch Hunt Era. They were hanged on All Hallow's Eve 1693 for witchcraft, but due to a spell on themselves cast by their sister Winnie, they would rise from the dead on an All Hallow's Eve when the moon was full and a virgin lit the Black Flame Candle. They return three hundred years later on Halloween of 1993 when a disgruntled and skeptical teenager named Max lights the candle, disbelieving the legend of the "Sanderson Sisters".