![]() They’re everything that our society angrily insists women should not be: ugly, aggressive, cocky, rapacious, devoid of maternal instincts but obsessed with draining the life force of children. In fairness, Midler, Parker, and Najimy’s performances hold up. It is celebrated primarily for the outsized performances of stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimi as sisters Winnifred, Sarah, and Mary Sanderson respectively, centuries-old witches running amok in modern-day Salem. Hocus Pocus has, alas, become a cherished piece of spooky season Americana without being particularly good. ![]() It’s hard to overstate the role nostalgia plays in convincing people who should probably know better that flimsy, clattering contraptions like Hocus Pocus are timeless classics that must be passed onto our children as a sacred American ritual. Also, Sam Richardson is in it, and who doesn’t love Sam Richardson? This movie will be better than the original because more thought will be put into it than whatever was going on with the first one. Enough people have chosen Hocus Pocus through the decades that nearly three decades after receiving mixed to negative reviews and sub-par box-office a high-profile sequel is being released on Disney+. That is particularly true of scary stuff during the weeks and months leading up to Halloween and for twenty-nine years now Hocus Pocus has been extremely available. ![]() So how did it become so beloved? In a word, kids.Įarly fans were inclined to like Hocus Pocus not because it’s good but rather because it’s a movie for kids and children are undiscriminating. None of this means that Hocus Pocus is a particularly good movie. That means that multiple generations encountered Hocus Pocus when they were but tots and consequently at a pre-critical age in their emotional and intellectual development. The Disney Channel’s target audience is of course children. The movie became a cult classic thanks to constant airings on the Disney Channel throughout various Octobers. Where summer was unkind to Hocus Pocus, Halloween proved its salvation. Perhaps non-coincidentally, it underperformed at the box office. In other words, Hocus Pocus nostalgia season is upon us, which this year, will include an actual sequel, Hocus Pocus 2, hitting Disney+ a full month before Halloween, on September 30, 2022.ĭespite being a Halloween “kids movie,” in 1993 Hocus Pocus was perplexingly released in July to capitalize on children being on summer vacation or something. For pretty much all of September and October we are gently and not so gently encouraged to get into the spirit of the season and watch horror movies and Halloween specials and other bits of eerie ephemera. Spooky movies benefit from the Halloween season lasting at least two months.
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