Film Review - "Hocus Pocus 2"

I'm taking a big risk with this one...

Hocus Pocus 2

Directed by Anne Fletcher

Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy

Let me start by sharing my thoughts on the original Hocus Pocus...It's enjoyable! It's campy but in a fun 90's way. The three leads are clearly having a ball. Like a lot of classic Disney, it treats its younger audience members with respect, as it can scare them as much as it entertains them. It's a good Halloween story that can be enjoyed year after year.

I saw it for the first time in 2015. I didn't grow up with it or hold it in the same regard as many people my age do. That said I never saw a need for a sequel. We got one though, and it was released on Disney Plus last month. I watched it and found Hocus Pocus 2 to be a surprisingly worthy sequel, but while in some areas it surpasses it, in others it can't compete. Let me explain.

The film opens with a flashback to 1653 in Salem (which might not add up if you remember the prologue to Hocus Pocus took place in 1963, when they were already old hags), where the young Sanderson Sisters are banished by the Reverend Traske (Tony Hale) after Winifred refuses to marry a John Pritchette. It is in their exile in the forbidden forest, where they meet Mother Witch (Hannah Waddingham), who gifts Winifred a spell book for her sixteenth birthday. This sets the three sisters on their path to become the infamous witches Salem will forever...fear? Idolize? It's a grey area.

Fast-forward to the present 2022, where best friends Becca (Whitney Peak) and Izzie (Belissa Escobedo) are preparing to celebrate Halloween and Becca's sixteenth birthday. How you ask? Why by going into the same forbidden forest The Sanderson Sisters found themselves in when Winifred was turning sixteen, of course. They light a candle for a special birthday ritual, which turns out to be another Black Flame Candle. Since it was lit under a full moon by a virgin (I along with many who've pointed this out before, am not comfortable with the whole virgin aspect of the spell in both films, considering teenagers are lighting these candles, and it's Disney, but at least Hocus Pocus 2 points out the absurdity of it) The Sanderson Sisters are resurrected once again: Winifred (Midler), Sarah (Parker), and Mary (Najimy).

This time, Winifred makes it their mission to cast a spell that will make her all powerful, and give them the ability to take revenge on Traske (His descendant is now the Mayor of Salem, also played by Tony Hale) and the whole town. Also thrown into the mix is The Mayor's daughter Cassie (Lillia Buckingham), who is also Becca and Izzie's estranged best friend, Gilbert (Sam Richardson) who runs the Old Salem Magic Shoppe currently located in the Sanderson's old home, and Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones), Winifred's former lover and back from the grave once again.

Hocus Pocus 2 is a film that falls into a category many have dubbed as legacy sequels, meaning it's a sequel that comes out decades after the original, very much like Mary Poppins Returns, Top Gun: Maverick, or Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Hocus is much more in line with Mary Poppins or Ghostbusters, where it's following the roadmap of the original (with *some* tweaks), but it's doing so with a lot of love and effort from the filmmaking team. Yes a virgin lights the candle that resurrects the witches, there's a "fish out of water" element where these women from the 1600s don't know how to handle modern times (Yet somehow they know what to do when a teenager holds up a smartphone to take a selfie...), and the heroes have one night to stop them before it's too late. But in this film...there's TWO musical numbers!! Quite catchy ones, I must say. As I said, there's a lot of love and effort on screen here. This was made for Hocus Pocus fans.

Unfortunately, I feel as though "fish out of water" humor was left behind by cinema in the 90's and early 2000's, so a fair bit of it falls flat. Actually, if you watch both films back-to-back you can get a real education on how filmmaking has changed over time. The evolution of special effects is clearly on screen. But as far as the comedy, there are some funny bits and a lot of clever callbacks to the first film. 

The supporting characters for this film sadly can't hold a candle (Heh) to those of the original. I can remember Sam, Max and Dani from Hocus Pocus easily, but I had to look up Becca, Izzy, and Cassie's names while writing this. That's not to say they're bad characters, or the performances are bad. I actually thought the actresses did a very good job, and I look forward to seeing more work from them in the future. They're just sadly not the focus of this film, and you know who is. You came for the witches. I can see and appreciate the parallel they were setting up between The Sanderson Sisters, and Becca, Izzie, and Cassie, but it's just not given enough attention in the script. That, and the conflict between the young three throughout the film is quite weak (Well, maybe from the perspective of a thirty-one year-old, but maybe not too younger viewers...).

Kudos to this film for giving more depth to The Sanderson Sisters. Not something I ever expected or thought we needed. They're not just scary, comical boogeyman for the heroes to defeat this time around. We actually get a better sense of the sisters' relationship with one another, specifically Winifred's. Also the three young girls playing the Sandersons in the opening flashback were perfect and, wever casting director found them deserves a raise.

Bette Midler is the star of the show here, displaying all her theatrics on screen. Kathy Najimy is so clearly happy to be here and loving every second of it. She is definitely the funniest of the three leads. Oddly, Sarah Jessica Parker does not stand out as much as her two co-leads. This time around her performance as Sarah is much more reserved. That said, these three cast a large shadow over the supporting cast. Tony Hale is quirky but fun as Reverend/Mayor Traske. Sam Richardson has some fun moments as Gilbert, especially when he's sharing scenes with Doug Jones as Billy, who gets more to do than lumber around as a zombie this time. Finally, Hannah Waddingham is criminally underused as Mother Witch and someone needs to pay for their crimes.

How much you love the first Hocus Pocus will factor into how much you enjoy the sequel. It's a fitting tribute to its successor, but not without its flaws. I truly feel that if the script had done a bit more heavy lifting in the character development department, this film could have surpassed the original. As it stands though it's a fun watch with a lot of heart, that may just become part of your annual Halloween watchlist.

Seriously though how did they know how to take a selfie?