DOUBLE FEATURE: HOCUS POCUS (1993) & HOCUS POCUS 2 (2022)

We live in an era when nostalgia is enough to justify resurrecting long-dormant franchises and greenlighting unexpected sequels. This is how we get shows like Girl Meets World and Fuller House, as well as movies like Indiana Jones 5, Top Gun 2, and even a sequel to Hocus Pocus. The original was unremarkable to critics upon its release, but it had enough juice with the 90s kids who saw it in theaters or on TV weekend movie marathons to turn it into an unlikely cult classic. Truth be told, few films that become cult classics are expected to wear that moniker, but Hocus Pocus is one that wears it with pride.

Three hundred years after their execution, three Salem, Massachusetts witches known as the Sanderson Sisters are accidentally brought back from the dead by two teens and young girl. The witches need to suck out the young girl’s soul in order to restore themselves to their full power, but the teens steal their magic spellbook. It’s a cat-and-mouse game as the Sanderson Sisters navigate 20^th Century marvels in their quest to capture the children and gain immortality.

I did not watch this film back in my youth, so the nostalgia factor is lost on me. I can see why young people loved it- kids are the protagonists, and they save the day no thanks to the clueless and disbelieving adults that surround them. It was a popular formula back in the 80s (ET, The Goonies, etc.), and several popular 90s kid-focused TV shows used the same format. When young people feel validated, they form an emotional bond to that which validates them. That doesn’t mean that this film is objectively good though.

Having not seen Hocus Pocus as a child, I approach it and review it as an adult. I can’t overlook the simplicity and unrealistic convenience of certain plot points, nor can I turn a blind eye to less-than-adequate acting from the trio of young protagonists. But I recognize that its intended audience is children, who aren’t as concerned about these shortcomings in a film. This puts me in a place of tension, where I personally didn’t care for the movie but I have to give credit where credit is due for a film that sets a low bar for itself to entertain the younger set. As such, I argue that it is more accurate to label this film as a guilty pleasure than a cult classic.

Did Hocus Pocus need a sequel? Of course not. But after years of successful October re-airings, and early Millennials turning watching it at Halloween into a tradition for their children, Disney recognized the appetite for more and they capitalized on it. Released through the Disney+ streaming service, Hocus Pocus 2 is technically a made-for-TV movie, but streaming service budgets (and superior large-screen TVs) are blurring the line between what counts as TV and true movies these days.

The problem that Hocus Pocus 2 faces is simple- the original film was made at a time when simple storylines and flat characters were still acceptable in children’s entertainment. The Sanderson Sisters were evil and the kids fighting them were good. Such simple black-and-white dualities fell out of favor as we moved into the 21^st Century. Bringing the witches back from the dead again risks the sequel being a retread of the original. In some ways, it is, because what else could it be? When the outline of a sequel is the same, backstory becomes the crutch to lean on.

In Hocus Pocus 2, the backstory on the Sanderson Sisters is that they were excommunicated from Salem as children for defying church authority because the eldest sister rejected an arranged marriage. This led them into the woods, where they meet a witch who took them in and trained them in the dark arts. When they come back this time, the Sandersons are out for revenge against both the town of Salem and the descendants of the religious authorities who banished them. For me, this begs the question: why didn’t they seek this revenge in the first film? It would have been far more meaningful for them than just to get back to their soul-sucking ways (though they did have a deadline to meet in the original).

The greatest sin of this sequel is not the retread elements, but rather the softening of the Sanderson Sisters as villains. The backstory creates too much sympathy for characters who were plainly evil the first time around. Conservatives were no doubt rankled by the use of religion as a catalyst for turning them toward evil, but I don’t think that audiences needed a justification or motivation for their nature as witches at all. The other alternative would have been to make the witches even darker this time around because they’ve seen the modern world and a second chance would let them learn from their mistakes from the first film. This, however, would be too dark for a children’s movie.

Disney had to do something with a Hocus Pocus sequel, but the original film wrapped up its simple story in such a nice neat bow that it didn’t leave room for many ways to inject new ideas and material into that world. The choices that were made risk dulling the enthusiasm that exists for the first film if audiences really take the backstory revelations of the sequel to heart. What I suspect will happen though is that Hocus Pocus diehards won’t let the sequel influence their love for the original. In fact, I doubt that this sequel will become firmly entrenched is Halloween viewing like the first one did.

To sum all this up, Hocus Pocus is a mostly harmless piece of kids’ entertainment, but nostalgia- not the quality of the original film- is the reason why a sequel exists. That’s a problem that Hocus Pocus 2 fails to solve. Without anything fresh to add to the mix, Hocus Pocus 2 is a passable and largely unnecessary sequel.


HOCUS POCUS - FINAL RATING: 2.75 out of 5

HOCUS POCUS 2 - FINAL RATING: 2.25 out of 5