Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Nostalgia glasses are a definite thing. If you don’t know what I’m taking about, it’s the idea of loving a movie so much as a kid that you overlook it’s obviously flaws. Everyone is guilty of it, hell I still love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II the Secret of the Ooze and it is arguably not a great movie. I feel like many people (cough mostly women) in their 30s have nostalgia glasses for Hocus Pocus, so much that Disney+ just dropped a sequel to it…nearly 30 years later.
Hocus Pocus 2 is about two teenage girls that bring back the Sanderson sisters by lighting the black flamed candle. Now the movie is a fish out of water comedy and the girls race to protect Salem from the witches. The original had a very similar story, and while it is a good family Halloween flick, it has its share of cheese. Bette Midler overacts the shit out of the movie, which is what she does, but hey it is basically a kids movie. I’ve seen so many people say Hocus Pocus is the greatest Halloween movie of all time, while I obviously argue that with the titular HALLOWEEN…it is likely the best family Halloween movie, buuuut it doesn’t have much competition. Anyways…Hocus Pocus 2 takes the same basic approach as the first one and that’s ok, it isn’t the type of movie that you can really go in a different direction. There was one reason this movie was made, nostalgia. It does hit on that level for sure. The tone is basically the same, there are some odd moments throughout that feel a bit off. One in particular is when the sisters first come back and start singing about the witches being back. In the original yes they sang, but it was to put the whole town in a trance (which is repeated in this), but never randomly just breaking into a musical number.
The acting is fairly decent. The two main girls did a good job, nothing too amazing, nothing horrid, just a good solid job. Again Midler overacts, but again you expect it. Sarah Jessica Parker is overly stupid this time around, which I mean in the original she was dumb but man she’s reaching Curly Howard levels in this. Kathy Najimy seems to understand her role the best and she’s exactly like she was in the original, but she just talks about eating all the time. That whole idea is funny, because Najimy has lost a considerable amount of weight since the first film. I blame writing for that more than the actor. Doug Jones returns as Billy Butcherson and he always does a great job playing monsters. The special effects are fairly solid, theres some odd CG and green screen work while they fly that looks bad, hell it looked better in 1993. I think the biggest off tone feel in the movie that conflicts the most with the original is how the witches are basically the Stooges now. I mean Winifred was always the Moe of the group but it is turned up to 11 this time. I love the Stooges, what man doesn’t but only the Stooges can be the Stooges.
All in all the follow up was ok. It wasn’t amazing (cough, neither was the original) but it did what it set out to do, get people to try Disney+ and have a nostalgia trip. It has a good Halloween feel which is nice, but the original has that in spades. I guess if you’re a big Hocus Pocus fangirl then you’ll enjoy the sequel. I give Hocus Pocus 2 a C. An entertaining watch but too many eye roll moments to truly be great.
