Hocus Pocus 2 had a really weird effect on me. In the week leading up to its release, I was so excited, like a little kid! It was really fun for me as someone who vividly remembers watching the original movie in theatres and who watches it every Halloween. It is not an exaggeration to say that this was one of my most anticipated movies of the year.
How to Download Hocus Pocus 2
You can download or stream the film from Disney+. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
Hocus Pocus 2 came out on Disney Plus on a Friday, but I was waiting until Saturday evening to watch it. While I avoided spoilers, I did notice that the reception to the movie seemed to be rather mixed. Some people who say that they loved the original even going as far as to say that they hated it!
I am kind of dumbfounded by this, I thought that this movie was fantastic and just as much fun as the original. We get an awesome start to the movie where we get to see The Sanderson Sisters as kids and how they are living and treated in Salem during the Witch Trial days. After meeting a powerful witch in the woods and getting their beloved magic book.
Once the movie returns to the modern day, we see two friends, Becca and Izzy, Becca has just turned 16, and she and her best friend Izzy have a Halloween tradition that they do for her birthday. Their other friend, Cassie is not really part of the group anymore and things are strained with her as she would rather throw a “cool” party than partake in the traditional Halloween birthday festivities with Becca and Izzy.
At their local magic shop, the proprietor, Gilbert, gives Becca a candle as a gift for her birthday and this candle, but it is a trick! This is the same kind of Black Flame Candle from the first movie and Becca and Izzy accidentally bring the Sanderson Sisters back! From here we get a similar kind of movie to the first one where the girls need to try and stop the Sanderson sisters and return them back to where they came from.
Look, Hocus Pocus 2 is not going to win any awards for originality, but it is a lot of fun. One thing I got a kick out of was Tony Hale who plays the mayor, but he is also Cassie’s dad and is part of the bloodline that was responsible for hanging the Sanderson Sisters back in the Salem Witch Trials.
As you would expect, Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy are fantastic in these roles once again. The way they walk, talk and to an extent look all makes you reminisce about the first movie, but still, have fun with this new one too. The musical numbers in the movie are great too and it is just a whole lot of fun.
One of my favorite parts of Hocus Pocus 2 is when there is this lightning storm and things keep going black. I have criticized Disney Plus and its HDR before, but this lightning scene looked incredible on my 4K TV! However, for as good as the movie looks, there is one area that drags it down and that is the green screen work. When the witches are flying, there is no other way to say this, it looks so fake it is terrible!
Apart from the rather poor special effects when the witches are flying (which admittedly only happens a couple of times), this is a movie that I thought was fantastic. My nostalgia tells me that it is not as good as the first one, but I will say it is much closer than I thought. I am sure this will be a movie I watch each Halloween season, probably in a back-to-back special with the first one.
