I was a Halloween kid.
I grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s. As soon as the calendar turned to August, I switched into Halloween mode. I coveted JC Penney’s seasonal catalog that included a section of costumes. Each year, I would flip through the pages and debate what I wanted to be. Inevitably, I picked the same costume I already had in the closet: a witch.
I recycled that costume multiple years in a row. It was a tattered purple, orange, and black dress with a pointy black hat. It was a generic witch outfit off a rack at Walmart or Kmart, but I imagined myself as Sarah from Hocus Pocus, luring unsuspecting masses with an enchanted song.
Back then, I thought my obsession with Hocus Pocus was a singular, exclusive anomaly. I watched it repeatedly for a quarter of the year—from August 1 through October 31, I would retrieve it from our towering shelf of VHS cassettes and slide it reverently into the VCR. No one seemed to love it as much as I did.
That changed about fifteen years ago. Nostalgia is a powerful force, and suddenly the 1993 movie about the wacky Sanderson sisters terrorizing kids and teens achieved cult classic status. Every millennial and a healthy dose of Gen Xers seemed to love the movie as much I did. Sales of the DVD increased. Its streaming numbers climbed. Merchandise exploded in the stores—T-shirts, mugs, stickers, magnets, plushies, knick knacks. It became a staple of Halloween outings for all ages; a few years ago, Ottawa, Illinois, closed a block of Jackson Street and set up an outdoor screen for people to watch for free. My sister and I were there in our lawn chairs.
For years, rumors circulated of a Hocus Pocus sequel. My initial hopes were dashed when it turned out to be a hoax—a fan created a movie poster and it rippled out across social media. The rumor resurfaced every couple of years until I got suspicious at every whisper of a sequel.
When Disney officially announced Hocus Pocus 2, my skepticism turned to elation.
The new movie hit Disney+ on September 30, 2022. In honor of the premiere, I scheduled the afternoon off work, bought myself a theater-sized box of candy, and settled in to watch it. In the opening minutes, I loved it. For starters, there was the structural parallel to the 1993 version by opening in 1600s Salem, during the Sanderson sisters’ original lifetime. And I liked the new modern trio of Becca, Izzy, and Cassie. I also liked their subplot—in the 1993 version, Max had to navigate being the new kid and a big brother; in this 2022 version, Becca is navigating the changing dynamics of her friend group as they get older.
But then, it started to fall flat. Specifically with the scene when the Sanderson sisters return to the 21st century. The movie became too self-aware when the sisters immediately launched into a song and dance routine, like they did during the iconic “I Put a Spell on You” scene. Izzy asked, “Who are they performing for?” and then got startled when one of the sisters appeared shouting, “You!” (the way you’d expect a ghost to pop out and shout “Boo!”). That their performance was acknowledged as weird even within the movie’s universe made it harder for me to appreciate the gag. I worried the entire film was going to rely on references to the original.
After the credits started rolling, I turned it off, and that was that. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it the way I had hoped. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I liked it. I just felt a vague disappointment.
To be fair, there were forces at work that would be challenging for a filmmaker to overcome. The first being nostalgia—it’s hard to compete with a long-rooted, beloved piece of media from childhood. A film written in the 2020s isn’t going to be the same as its predecessor written in the 1990s, no matter how much it tries to honor its source material. It’s going to resonate on a different frequency. As it should—it’s a family movie geared heavily toward kids today. It needs to be relatable to them, and current youths are going to relate differently to media than my peers when we were their age. Moreover, as an adult, it’s hard to fall in love with a children’s movie with the same devotion I had in childhood. I’m viewing the story through a different lens now. I’m not internalizing it and imagining myself as part of it like I did back then.
But lately I started to ask myself: Was Hocus Pocus 2 really as disappointing as I remembered it? I never rewatched it after that first screening. So three years later, I decided to give it another try—and I discovered my initial reaction might have been too hasty. It’s still no match for the original, but I found a pretty even list of good and bad in the new version.
What didn’t work for me [SPOILERS AHEAD]:
- The Sanderson sisters breaking out in song with “The Witches Are Back” when they return to Salem. (They perform the song in the credits, too—this was the better fit for it.)
- The conclusion: The first time I saw it, I didn’t like Winifred’s vulnerability, sudden praises for her sisters, and begging for help from Becca, because all of that seemed out of character for her. Upon rewatching, I do think it’s in character for her to praise her sisters as long as they aren’t around to hear it, but I still don’t like that she lost all of her bite in the end. I would’ve rather had her DEMAND that Becca help her.
- Winifred’s saccharine goodbye to Becca, Izzy, and Cassie when she said, “Thank thee, and how lucky art thou to have each other.” Can’t our wicked witches remain wicked?
- The background of every scene in the forbidden woods. What was with the ridiculously huge moon in the background that never moved, no matter how many hours had passed? That’s the only setting in the film that felt low-budget and unfinished, hovering in an odd limbo between what we’d see in a stage play and a network TV episode.
What worked for me:
- The entire opening scene of teenage Sanderson sisters in 1600s Salem
- Some of the references and themes from the 1993 movie: I’m a big fan of the “17th century women encounter the 21st century” gags, like using automatic doors at Walgreens. And I laughed at their updated modes of transportation—Winifred had a broom in both movies, but Sarah upgraded from mop to Swiffer Wet Jet, and Mary upgraded from a vacuum cleaner to Roombas. Then there was the small bit where they get freaked out by an Alexa.
- I love Book, and I especially love that Book has more character and personality
- The Sanderson sisters costume contest scene: This is the perfect nod to the “I Put a Spell On You” scene in the 1993 version. It’s a fun routine and fits better into the narrative of the story. I think “The Witches Are Back” at the beginning of the movie stole a little of this scene’s thunder, but it’s still fun, and I enjoyed the choreographed horde of enchanted people marching to find the mayor.
- The theme of sisterhood among friends and about finding power in each other.
- BONUS: The moment when Gilbert is talking about a virgin lighting the Black Flame Candle and a little kid in the crowd asks, “What’s a virgin?” made me laugh. I have to believe Disney inserted that because so many little kids probably asked the same question of their parents after the first Hocus Pocus. (Watching it with my older sisters at seven years old, I asked them the same question, and they said, “Go ask mom.”)
All in all, I enjoyed it on the second viewing. And I’ll probably watch it again someday.
(Just not as much as I watched Hocus Pocus as a kid.)
Julie Stroebel Barichello | Author 