Hocus Pocus

     If you follow my social media pages, you know that I have made it no secret how much I dislike this movie, but in the sake of fairness and because I am in the holiday spirit, I have decided to give it one more shot and give you my honest assessment of the film. Here we go. Right off the bat, I still stand by my original sentiments that this film is not all that good. I just feel that if you take off the nostalgia goggles and remove the way it made you feel as a child and just watch it for what it is now, it holds up poorly. The writing just is not that great and overall, the film feels sluggish from the beginning. I found myself not invested in the children that are meant to be the protagonists, and it seems like Disney was not that invested in them either because despite being the protagonists, they take a backseat to the witches which end up not only being the focal point to everything, but also the stars of this film. On every cover and every social media post you see for this film, everyone talks about Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, but not many people can tell you the names of the kids, whether it be the actor or the characters themselves.

            I do not hate everything about the film. In fact, some of the things surprisingly hold up well, like the makeup and costume designs. Those looks would end up becoming iconic and you know this because you see them every Halloween season. The Sanderson sisters are a very popular choice for a Halloween costume if you can get some friends to do it. The Sanderson sisters, as well as the actresses that portray them are easily the highlight of this film and do the very best that they can to deliver the cheesy dialogue and corny one-liners. Doug Jones also does a good job, as he often does as creatures, as Billy Butcherson. Kenny Ortega does a decent job of directing this, but this pales in comparison to his magnum opus, the High School Musical trilogy. Those are honestly the only bright spots that I found in the film as the rest of it is a clunky mess that ends up being poorly paced, uneven, and for the most part, boring. The nostalgia is really what drives this film to its cult status because I cannot fathom having to watch this every single year and pretend that it is anything more than just serviceable. The effects also do not age well. They look like the effects that you would see from a Disney Channel Original Movie. The film itself just looks low budget and the performances of the child actors are wooden at times and over the top at others.

            While I very much dislike this film, there is no denying its status as a classic around Halloween time. It is not a film that is for everyone, and if you never watched it as a kid, I imagine you will have a hard time understanding why some people are so obsessed with it. This is definitely a film that requires nostalgia to carry it, and that is okay. There will always be films like this, and they are called cult classics for a reason. While I am not a fan, I do not think that it is a film that you should go out of your way to avoid. If you have a dear friend that wants you to watch the movie, try it out, but just make sure that you go into it with an open mind. Official Rating: 2 Stars.

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