Hocus Pocus

Release Date: July 16, 1993

Watch Date: October 16 – October 17, 2023

“You’re in for a devil of a time when three outlandishly wild witches—Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy—return from 17th-century Salem after they’re accidentally conjured up by some unsuspecting pranksters. It’s a night full of zany fun and comic chaos once the tricky 300-year-old trio set out to cast a spell on the town and reclaim their youth…but first they must get their act together and outwit three kids and a talking cat.”

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    I have a confession.

    I love fall.

    I love the Halloween colors, the smells, the sounds, the crispness of the air, the fall storms, the fashion. I love an excuse to wear a toque and a scarf, to bundle up with a good book, to watch a fire. I love fall.

    I don’t love Halloween so much. I’ve always said that I’m always too afraid of things anyways, that I don’t really need to add to it for fun. Every day is Halloween when you have generalized anxiety disorder.

    So a lot of the ‘Halloween classics’ aren’t my thing, and I’ve avoided them like the plague, because no matter how innocent they may seem, they might be terrifying. ‘Hocus Pocus’ was one of those films. Why watch it? It’s so clearly meant to be about Halloween, and cult classic or not, Halloween is best avoided.

    Somehow, don’t ask me how, I decided to watch ‘Hocus Pocus’ for the first time last year, alone, without my husband or children. And pretty much at the same time I was doing that, Bob decided to watch ‘Hocus Pocus 2’, alone, without his wife or children, having never seen the first one but loving Halloween movies and wanting to watch the sequel to the cult classic everyone was making such a big deal about.

    Imagine our surprise as the film started and we were discussing our history with the movie franchise, only to realize I’d seen the first, only recently, but never the second, and he’d only seen the second, and neither of us was quite sure how we’d gotten to the age that we had without ever really having this cult classic be a big part of our lives, especially Bob’s, with his love of all things Halloween. We were also not quite sure how we both managed to watch a movie from the same franchise in the same year without each other, it’s not something that happens very frequently. But we did. And we have, since, corrected the issue, for at least one of the films.

    ‘Hocus Pocus’ has just become this thing. It’s a movement. You either were a Halloween girl, and therefore loved ‘Hocus Pocus’ or you weren’t. I have a cousin who was born on Halloween, and come October ‘Hocus Pocus’ feels like her identity. And having now watched it, twice, I think I kind of get it? It’s campy, and fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. It wants to entertain and tell a silly story, and it does just that, without pretending to be scary, or even particularly good.

    Which is a good thing, honestly, because ‘Hocus Pocus’ just…isn’t that good? The acting of the witches is over-the-top, which is totally on brand for the Sanderson sisters, makes them entertaining, and I’m not complaining. The children cast to lead this film are dry, have no chemistry, and every single thing they do feels forced. The cat is, well there’s no way the cat was passable even in the 90s, right? It’s creepy. The CGI on the face is so bad. And as Bob pointed out, if you’ve lived three hundred years as a cat, and only maybe fifteen as a human, you’re more cat than human, but it’s still a little bizarre to be cuddling up with a seven-year-old.

    If you’re looking for a fun, campy, Halloween movie, this is it. I don’t think I loved it as much as I could have, but I still had fun with it. I think you have to grow up with it, honestly. I think ‘Hocus Pocus’ is a lifestyle you have to be raised in, and I think to talk about it as an outsider would only show how poorly educated I am in it. Maybe the next one will be better for me.