Hocus Pocus (1993)
directed by Kenny Ortega
★★★½☆
Hocus Pocus is a movie I never saw as a child. In fact, I never saw it until I had children of my own. With that in mind, it should be noted that my opinions will not be blinded by nostalgia, but as critically objective and personally subjective as possible.
So let’s start with what should be obvious: Hocus Pocus is neither a great movie nor a bad movie. It falls comfortably into that middle-of-the-road space in which Disney thrived throughout the ’80s and ’90s. What it lacks in objective quality, however, it more than makes up for with memorability and a sense of free-wheeling whimsy.
The cold open introduces us to our antagonists, the Sanderson Sisters, who are about to be hanged by the citizens of Salem on All Hallow’s Eve, 1693, for practicing witchcraft and the murders of two siblings, a young girl and her teenage brother. The Sandersons, obsessed with maintaining their power, youth, and beauty have stolen the life force from the young girl, Emily, then transformed her brother, Binx, into a cat for eternity until the witches are destroyed and their curses lifted.
The rest of the film takes place in modern day (well, modern for 1993) Salem, where the Sanderson Sisters are the subjects a legend told that if a virgin lights their black-flame candle on a Halloween night with a full moon, the witches will return (coincidentally, there actually was a full moon at the end of October, 1993, but it was October 30th, not 31st). To the surprise of no one, this is exactly what happens, setting into motion the zany and occasionally scary events of the movie.
Look, I’m not going to pretend that Hocus Pocus is a masterpiece of storytelling. The plot is trite and predictable, the characters are flat and archetypal, and everything that’s wrong is turned up to 11. But within this complete disregard for subtlety and taste is precisely where Hocus Pocus finds its charm. Everyone, from the Sanderson Sisters themselves — played to campy perfection by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker — to Binx, the cat — voiced by Disney mainstay, Jason Marsden — to Billy Butcherson — a nearly unrecognizable Doug Jones in another mostly nonspeaking role under a mountain of makeup — to the stereotypical kids, chew the scenery like they’re in a live-action cartoon.
Much of the runtime is spent on fish-out-of-water comedy of the Sandersons trying to make sense of the modern world. This includes a cringy ride on a city bus with a handsy driver, a prolonged and pointless excursion into the home of an over-enthusiastic old man dressed as Satan and his increasingly irritated, Medusa-attired wife (played by actor/director/producer siblings Garry and Penny Marshall), and several instances of the witches being misled by Halloween’s costumed frivolity. All of this goofy filler culminates in their now iconic rendition of “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You.
Throughout the ridiculousness are some genuinely (if saccharinely) touching moments, a few good scares, and many jokes clearly aimed over the heads of the target audience. For the most part, Hocus Pocus has persisted throughout the years due to it being a box office failure upon its initial release, making it cheap to license for annual television broadcasts during the month of October wherein there is otherwise disappointingly little media aimed at children.
So gather the family, pop some popcorn, fill a punch bowl with candy, and enjoy the nonsensical goofiness and shameless camp of this seasonal guilty pleasure.
