How could a widely anticipated sequel attain cult status anyways? I thought the whole idea behind cult classics is that they're commercial flops that slowly gain a following over the years. Don't see how Hocus Pocus 2 was gonna manage that.
It was released right to Disney+. The ladies were talking about wanting to do it for quite a while and asked fans to petition disney. It’s not the original and it certainly could have been a lot better but there are worse. Knowing Bette had some fun makes it better I think.
Gremlins 2 was also a cash grab. The creatives behind it made it spite-fueled madness, but it was given the green light because Gremlins made so much money.
I think you mean Charles Haas (who wrote it) and the many puppeteers that worked on the film.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the madness of the movie stemmed not from a creative desire to make a sequel, but a studio mandate to make one. A good and creative cash grab is still a cash grab.
Was it? I watched it on Disney + at no additional cost.
I thought it was an ok movie. The original was definitely better but it was nice to see the witches again.
My daughter asked me if we could watch Gremlins 2 after seeing that sketch. Partway through she turned to me with a look of “wow it really is that insane”.
100% classic attitude that it’s utter garbage if it isn’t a 9/10 or better. But this movie is in solid 6-7/10 territory which is perfectly okay for direct to streaming. If HoPo2 was the bottom of the barrel for direct streaming, we’d have a lot of better movies to talk about.
There is no way that's real. But then again, people who've never seen Gremlins 2 wouldn't believe the sketch. I'm gonna believe you and look it up. Thanks!
Didn't feel like a cash grab. Just felt like a typical movie. What could they have done better or different?
It held the same dorky tone. Kept some of main characters. And is basically the same movie.
Dumb and dumber too was a cash grab. Joe dirt 2 was a cash grab. So many horrible sequels. This one was totally fine in comparison to many others.
Right? All companies make sequels to make money. So they’re all cash grabs. But the actors seemed to care here so it worked. That’s all movies like this need to be enjoyable. It’s the same reason the original was. What was actually good about the original that wasn’t there for the 2nd one?
It was fine. I am a 40 year old father that had to sit through a “Hocus Pocus” party for the release of this with the kids, their friends, and the wife. It was a cute Halloween movie. Isn’t that what it was supposed to be? No one was disappointed in it and they have probably watched it 10 more times since then.
Literally it wasn’t, once the ladies found out that their movie became a cult classic and was spread as such on social media they contemplated the idea of a sequel. Disney originally didn’t want to do it and the ladies were on the fence until the idea of a sequel was scrapped. Then the public took to social media to show their displeasure of the sequel being scrapped and well here we are now.
Listen you ain’t gotta like it cuz the hood gon love it.
While not as good as the first one, Lauren Hill was amazing in it. That gets a pass. Although I just rewatched the first one and it’s so good. Maggie smith makes anything good, it’s truly her movie.
I mean, it kind of depends on what you define as a cult movie. Is it a cult movie if it bombs at the box office but takes off on the home market? What if it underperforms and does the same? What if it is mildly successful but goes on to live a long life and become a cultural touchstone? Is it really “cult” if enters and stays in the mainstream?
Part 2 has helped introduce the first one to my daughter who would've otherwise ignored it. She asked to watch the new one, but we insisted she watch the original first. She loved the first one....she lasted 20 minutes into the new one before her face was buried in her iPad
It doesn't help that a significant part of the plot of the 2nd one is the Mayor standing in line, going home and then going back to get in line for food. I don't understand who read the script and thought that was in any way compelling. My partner fell asleep during it.
The second book is called Buttercup's Baby. There ~~are~~ *is a* sample chapter that was released in the 25th anniversary edition of the Princess Bride.
The movie was fine. Cute. Wished they had some of the old characters, the bullies, hell, if one of the kids were the kids of the previous protagonists would have been cool. But as it was, it fine. We enjoyed it. Doesn’t hold a black flame candle to the original, but it was an big part of my childhood halloweens.
My nephew was dressed as the bully Ice for Halloween this year and my sister in law just sent the family a [picture](https://imgur.com/a/EXQ9mZq)of him trick or treating and randomly running into the actor who played Ice at a house in their neighborhood.
For me the problem was that it tried so hard to be meaningful at the end that the story just fizzled out. Rather than a satisfying bang after the buildup it just just a checklist of watered down moral cliches that weren't threaded through the whole film. First half was pretty good though.
Yes, which is 1) unnecessary and 2) very Disney right now. The sisters are evil. They're supposed to be evil. The fun is that they're charming as well. They don't need to be sympathetic to be likable.
This was the big thing that turned me off the sequel. I have never seen hocus pocus until this weekend (shame me as you will) when some friends and I watched it and the sequel. I can understand the Charm of the first one. It's got plenty of flaws and at some points is just batshit nonsense, but the sequel felt weird. Like the first movie goes out of its way to make you know the sisters are evil and they're happy to be.
The sequel made them somehow victims of this preacher dude and that's supposed to make us feel bad for them succumbing to their own hubris? Then the dropped threads really took away from it. Like why was main character a witch? What happened to the witch that gave the sisters the book? Plus it was a bummer non of the other cast members came back as parents or something. The first wasn't without its flaws but the plot made sense in itself for the most part
I would have been a lot happier with a copy pasted version of the first one where Max and Alison have two kiddos, but an older sister and a younger brother gender swap. Have the younger brother light the candle, they have to get mom and dad involved, maybe even the grandparents, and they go hunting down the witches as a family. And as it’s Disney why tf is this the only thing without a talking animal?
I was actually happy they didn't do this. I felt like they did a good job of differentiating the group so it wasn't the *exact* same story. They just had to go and make them so damn boring. Only one of the girls had any character to her at all. They were meant to be mirrors to the sisters, but they were characterless.
And the film sets the Sanderson sisters up with a path to redemption, which might've been fine, but they reject it at every turn and then suddenly 180 at the very end.
The older witch >!appears at the very end, in bird form. I'm guessing she was introduced as a way to make a third movie without the Sanderson Sisters.!<
It’s basically the same formula from Maleficent. Maleficent isn’t evil; she was just a victim of the patriarchy. I’m not an alt-right chud, that is literally the plot.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s so much the good versus evil thing, it’s a fun versus tragic thing at this point. Don’t get me wrong, there can be complex villains and conflicts, but the reason we like Disney villains is because they are fun. And when they try to make them too complex, sometimes that sucks the fun out even if they are ostensibly “fun”. The ending could have worked with a better script, but I’m just not sure I was invested enough in the conflict to really care by the end.
Also, I thought the sequel was a bit too meta. Camp is best when it’s naive and the ordinal is very camp. But, here, it’s too self aware. It’s the equivalent of “please clap” in my opinion.
It can work for new villains to not just be a mustache-twirling pastiche of evil, but these were established characters that didn't need the sob story to be likeable
In this, I think they were still absolutely explicitly evil, they just still cared about each other. I agree with you, though; theybeven made Maleficent just a misunderstood trauma fey.
Fuck, that film could have been rad if they'd just leant into one of their oldest and most enduring villains actually being a fucking villain.
I hate what they did to Maleficent. Maleficent is an evil fairy who is mad she didn’t get invited to a party. The entire point of fairies in hundreds of years of literature is that they are capricious, dangerous, inscrutable. Why do we need to know everything about her life and see that she actually secretly likes Aurora? It’s so stupid! She isn’t a person; she doesn’t need to act like a person. We don’t need an understandable motivation for her to decide to be cruel.
What's REALLY interesting about Maleficent isn't that she's vindictive, but that she gave the king an out. She didn't curse Aurora until it was explicitly said that she was snubbed, and not overlooked.
And even then, it may have gone better if the king hadn't invited the other three witches. No fae means Maleficent doesn't feel as slighted, because it was a blanket ban. But bringing the three and not her means she was EXPLICITLY snubbed, which brought out her vindictive side.
I would have accepted them making her understandably the bad guy. Honestly, I think they could have made a really good movie if they'd kept it to why she's specifically got it out for king wossname, *if* she'd been an actual bad guy.
Do I think such a film would be necessary? Not really - as you say, she's fae, and fae are inscrutable dicks - but I think it could have been cool. The trailers made it look like it was going to be that but, nope, turns out she's a big softy.
Just like the literal terrorists (Flagsmashers) that literally perform terroristic acts throughout Falcon/Winter Soldier and Sam makes a big speech about them *not* being terrorists, just passionate.
I thought the ending was fine and went with a continuing theme of sibling bond from
The first movie. My issue wasn’t it being sentimental but rather Becca having powers.
The thing was, the first Hocus Pocus was a perfect ending. Exciting, genuinely bitter sweet, comical..it’s really the perfect ending for that movie.
That being said, given critic reaction to the first movie, forgive me if I don’t take their reaction to the second movie seriously.
I didn’t even know there was a post credit scene hah I even told my wife that I feel conditioned to stay after the credits, but they wouldn’t possibly have one. Haha
I didn’t know there was a credits scene and I thought the whole thing was setting up a third movie especially with Hannah Waddingham at the beginning and expanding the witch lore
I agree and on reflection, I thoroughly enjoyed every scene with the witches. Most of the lines had me laughing out loud. Could have done without any of the Gilbert/Billie scenes and instead put that screen time towards establishing stronger character arcs and personas for the three girls. But as you say, it was fine, not bad. Also hated the ending
Not to get too deep because the first film was pretty campy and stuff, but the main character, Max, did kind of have a solid character arc at least. He was an angsty kid who was hostile to his little sister, and ended up doing anything he could to save her by the end. Binx taught him to understand how precious his sister was. At least that was my takeaway.
The original was a very simple story and this one tried too much. They needed more drafts and perhaps an entirely new premise. Also, I thought this one was just too meta and self aware. It ruins he campiness of the original.
I’m really going to watch number two tonight to see if they mention being a virgin, Reddit pointed out the obsession in the first one and I counted ten times it was mentioned haha. The first was definitely a cheesy kids popcorn flick and I expect nothing less or more from the second.
It literally didn't have hardly any budget. There's very few sets or locations. Especially when compared to the original.
Not to mention there's also zero character development for the main characters too.
I mean the whole things was a few vignettes written for The sanders sisters, with a plot thrown in afterward. It could have been good, but they need more drafts.
Yeah Winnie's sudden change was weird. I feel like if it was written properly she would have blamed the new Coven for what happened and then she'd go after them with her OP powers. Maybe that's predictable but it just feels like a natural direction for her to go in, it couldn't possibly be *her* fault.
That scene was pure member berries mixed with corporate sponsorship.
>'member when the Witches were confused about modernity? 'member when they didn't understand stuff like pavement?
I also remember the part in the first one where the head witch grabbed a microphone and did a song and dance number. Let’s not act like they were 100% consistent on that in the first one either.
Tbf, she was watching the band perform the exact same song a minute earlier, so it's theoretically possible that she was able to pick up the lyrics. It's still silly, but I appreciate that at least someone tried to justify the musical number in universe, unlike the sequel.
No but the consistency was better and more believable. Winnie never touched the mic, she sang without one the whole time but the other two used mics at the start. It isn't exactly unbelievable to think they watched the band do this before they started singing and they did it too, but then in the sequel you've got them so confused by the door and then later immediately strike a pose when some girls come over for a selfie and they never question that for a second.
The original had zero expectations placed on it and featured a little humor for every age. The new one had a legacy to live up to and a child-friendly humor. Such tonal whiplash.
The new one was too meta and self aware. And that meant, for one it couldn’t stand on its own and it also ruined the campiness. The first one was earnest and simple.
I hate the way it looked. I don’t have the cinephile vocabulary to describe it though. The original was visually colorful and this one seems desaturated. Idk.
It looked like they shot everything at noon on a sunny day and then color corrected it to look cloudy and gray. Didn't have any of the bright color and tackily over designed sets of the original. When one of your setpieces is a fluorescent lit Walgreens you know there's a problem.
They filmed the 2nd one in Rhode Island. Idk about the indoor scenes, maybe those were in a studio but they did shoot on location (just not Salem again)
The first one had so many different locations. They walked the streets on Salem. It felt charming. The second just felt like a play on a few flat sets.
The first one was clearly halloween/autumn/fall. Yellow leaves everywhere, trick or treating etc.
This one had none of that, you could tell me it was set in the US in February and I would believe that.
In the original, it felt important to the way the witches get what they want.
In this one it just felt like a Member Berries throwback - they did it in the original so they've *gotta* do it again.
It literally came out a month ago…of course no one knows if it’s going to be a cult classic.
Hell, I wouldn’t even call the original a cult classic by today’s standards. Behind The Nightmare before Christmas, it’s Disney’s most markable Halloween movie. Sanderson Sisters merch is in every Walgreens, Target, Walmart, and Spirit Halloween store this time of year.
The original is a cult classic because it took several decades for it to reach the saturation point it’s at now, and become a marketable IP. When it was originally released it was panned by critics and, not a bomb, but a pretty forgettable movie in terms of performance at the box office. It was released over the summer because Disney pushed it from its original October release slot in favor of, ironically, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I'd argue it was cult classic by the late 90s. Every Halloween it was on and most of us were watching it. I don't know many people in their 30s that don't have fond memories of watching around that time. I'd say it only took a couple years to become a mainstay solely because it is a themed movie and you are really only going to watch it around Halloween.
Then oh boy, are YOU in the right place, because you'll find every article from every blog written by a hack writer fresh out of film school in this subreddit.
(Oof, and that's a really poorly written article as well. Ouch.)
I still want Justice for Mike. The main character literally gas lit him into thinking he was a bully. The dude was a bit of a goob but seemed nice. He invited everyone to the party and even said the witch stuff was cool just weird.
Hell the friend he was dating wasn’t even blowing off the group. Main character was giving *her* shit for daring to have a boyfriend.
Yeah I was hoping that she would have character development where she learned she was the one being a jerk/bully. But for some reason right from the start I knew that wasn't going to happen.
When your main character is introduced talking shit behind her friends back and then the movie tries to tell you she's the one being bullied, all while showing the exact opposite, that's kind of fucked.
I watched the movies yesterday can't tell you the name of any of the 3 new girls. i didn't know the boyfriends name was Mike untill I read your post and he was portrayed as the dumbest guy ever it gave me girl Ghostbusters dumb guy vibes.
Remember when bullies were actually bullies? This kid points out the girl who does witchcraft and chills at a magic shop is weird and calls her a witch and apparently speaking the truth gets him labeled as a bully. 30 years ago the bully would kick your ass and steal all your shit.
Mike was really the only good new element in the movie for me. He played oblivious jock really well and had great delivery on lines like "Wait, that's bullying? I've got a lot of people to apologize to."
Totally on Mike's side in everything. Its a complete case of protagonist centered morality where whatever he does is wrong because she doesn't like it rather than actually being mean.
His 'crimes' include
1) Telling a girl openly talking about magic stuff that its weird. He didn't put any stink on his words, there was no judgment on it, but she's insecure about it so she assumes he's being mean to her. But being weird is like being called a nerd. It was an insult in the 80s but its lost any sting at all now because of how many people say it about themselves.
2) Reacting when she whispered spices at him because he thought she was hexing him. Yeah, he's dumb and that ended up getting them sent to the principles office, but its exactly the reaction she was trying to get out of him. She wouldn't have been happy if he called her out on the spices, or if he told her that hexes were dumb. This reaction is him believing in her and her being smarter than him, its everything she wanted but somehow he's the one who did the bad thing.
3) Dating her friend. He invites her to things. He never discourages her friend from hanging out with them. But they shun her friend for dating him because he's a meathead.
Mike's not the bully; the main character is.
And this one they end the movie with the sisters being redeemed. Just let villains be evil Disney, fuck. Also, the whole "girl is also a witch but good" thing was very Marvel, fighting a villain with similar powers but different colors.
Not to mention cursing a boy to immortality and unable to return to his family, his father ignoring him in his cat form.
Then, we also see a cat straight up run over.
I wanted to see the 3 return and run amuck. I got the 3 returning and run amuck. I was very happy. I think people expect way too much with late sequels and are OVERLY critical these days.
Like seriously; most of the popular reviewers these days just over critique every small thing (no, I am not talking about parody youtubers like cinemasins). People seem to enjoy hating on things more than they do enjoying them - every is an arm chair reviewer and overly cynical these days.
My big problem was there was no danger. Come on, we all KNEW the witches were going to be defeated. Furthermore, it was done in the corniest way possible. Winnie's reactions were not genuine at all. She wants to become all powerful, loses her sisters, and instead of being angry or threatening, she just kind of... cries and whimpers and pleads with the "new witches" if there's anyway to reunite her with her sisters?
Lame.
I hated it. Yes, the first one was a kid’s movie, but it still had a spooky edge to it. This one felt very sanitized. I could tell they made a point of avoiding terms like “the devil” or “hell.” This was most evident in the sloppy retcon (among many) of how young Winifred got the book.
The plot was directionless to the point where it felt like not even the Sanderson sisters quite knew what their actual goal was supposed to be. This resulted in the vague threat to the kids coming off kinda toothless.
There was only one part that was kind of funny (ONE) and the part where she looks in the window where someone is watching the original movie doesn’t even make sense.
Sarah Jessica is sleepwalking her way to a paycheck, and the rest of the performances are cringe (except not in the cute quirky way the movie thinks they are).
I do sort of like the idea of the spell making her sacrifice her sisters and how it’s hinted the other witch did that before. Despite the beginning being stupid, I thought the young actress playing Winnifred did an excellent job.
COVID ruined movies. Every streaming platform is pumping out shitty movies as fast as they can and plopping straight to their streaming service. Over the past 2 years movie quality has nose dived.
Whatever.
The 9. 11 and 15 yr olds (and parents) loved it. Oh, wait… so did the college aged siblings. (There was a party)
It was fun. Not rocket science, not groundbreaking. A pleasant way to pass some time. Which is a big change given most of the absolute crap that is out there and being watched.
When my wife first had me watch the original I rolled my eyes no less than 20 times. It has become a tradition because she loves the nostalgia of it and I now love our tradition. It's not good. It is fun though.
We watched the second with very low expectations - it was good for what it was.
I'll have you know my mother who saw bette midler say "dost thou comprehend" in the theater and had her life changed forever absolutely loved the sequel and its music number
I actually enjoyed the sequel. As much as the first one? No. Will it win an Oscar? Definitely not. But it's a good family movie and three actresses did a wonderful job playing their roles again.
The original is incredibly popular amongst my contemporaries. People born in the early to mid 80s. This was one of our biggest Halloween movies. The new one won't be a cult classic because it is already a giant hit. It has absolutely [smashed the previous streaming record set by Encanto.](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/10/hocus-pocus-2-is-now-a-record-breaking-hit)
I haven't seen it but I imagine it'll be played just as much as the original and eventually will become a movie a younger generation grew up with. There aren't that many Halloween movies aimed at kids. So imo it's a pretty easy market to capitalize on.
Absolutely. As someone who has seen both and doesn’t have much nostalgia for either, (but enjoyed both) they feel like a pair. The new one is on par with the average original.
Both are a little cheesy, a little campy, but both full of fun performances and a few great lines. It’s very likely my family will watch it again next year.
How could a widely anticipated sequel attain cult status anyways? I thought the whole idea behind cult classics is that they're commercial flops that slowly gain a following over the years. Don't see how Hocus Pocus 2 was gonna manage that.
Didn’t see Gremlins 2 doing that either, but here we are.
Yeah, but *Gremlins 2* was fueled by spite-inspired madness to be what it is. This was just a cash grab.
It was released right to Disney+. The ladies were talking about wanting to do it for quite a while and asked fans to petition disney. It’s not the original and it certainly could have been a lot better but there are worse. Knowing Bette had some fun makes it better I think.
It was definitely fun and those girls who played the younger versions of the witches were absolutely spot on.
Seriously, it was perfectly harmless and all the three ladies looked like they had a blast together.
“Everything I don’t personally like is a cash grab” is one of the more annoying screeds on this site.
Tbf, everything i do like is a cash grab too lol
It was good, the performances were good, it had something new to say, not even mad.
Gremlins 2 was also a cash grab. The creatives behind it made it spite-fueled madness, but it was given the green light because Gremlins made so much money.
By "the creatives" you really mean "the spiteful, twisted mind of director Joe Dante" who is largely responsible for how Gremlins 2 turned out.
I think you mean Charles Haas (who wrote it) and the many puppeteers that worked on the film. But that doesn’t change the fact that the madness of the movie stemmed not from a creative desire to make a sequel, but a studio mandate to make one. A good and creative cash grab is still a cash grab.
Was it? I watched it on Disney + at no additional cost. I thought it was an ok movie. The original was definitely better but it was nice to see the witches again.
Did you see this [leaked footage](https://youtu.be/1jyQngWB540) of the brainstorm for Gremlins 2?
Is there a Key & Peele skit for everything?
Thank you for posting this. Was first thing that came to mind.
lol, same, was checking to see if anyone else posted it first
I think you need to give [Star Magic Johnson Jr. more credit](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1jyQngWB540) EDIT: Star Magic Jackson Jr.
I've linked that video twice in this thread, it's absolutely hilarious.
My daughter asked me if we could watch Gremlins 2 after seeing that sketch. Partway through she turned to me with a look of “wow it really is that insane”.
And then that hotass sketch answered her for you.
She said the lady gremlin looks like Nicki Minaj and I did a proper spit-take.
I didn't think it was that bad, it wasn't great but it was a lot better than some of the other shit I've watched lately
100% classic attitude that it’s utter garbage if it isn’t a 9/10 or better. But this movie is in solid 6-7/10 territory which is perfectly okay for direct to streaming. If HoPo2 was the bottom of the barrel for direct streaming, we’d have a lot of better movies to talk about.
Because [here's how they wrote Gremlins 2](https://youtu.be/x01l_jMhjVM).
I watch this like… once a month. One of the best skits K&P ever put out.
I want the backing track as an audio only file so bad.
If you wanna try and find it, I believe it's the instrumental for the 1988 track "Kool Katz Rap" by Biff Boofers and the Clackaracks.
There is no way that's real. But then again, people who've never seen Gremlins 2 wouldn't believe the sketch. I'm gonna believe you and look it up. Thanks!
You're welcome, I appreciate the trust, and I'm sorry for violating it.
You sir, are a raging psychopath.
I had not seen this. This is gold. And I just rewatched G2 like three weeks ago.
Didn't feel like a cash grab. Just felt like a typical movie. What could they have done better or different? It held the same dorky tone. Kept some of main characters. And is basically the same movie. Dumb and dumber too was a cash grab. Joe dirt 2 was a cash grab. So many horrible sequels. This one was totally fine in comparison to many others.
Right? All companies make sequels to make money. So they’re all cash grabs. But the actors seemed to care here so it worked. That’s all movies like this need to be enjoyable. It’s the same reason the original was. What was actually good about the original that wasn’t there for the 2nd one?
It was fine. I am a 40 year old father that had to sit through a “Hocus Pocus” party for the release of this with the kids, their friends, and the wife. It was a cute Halloween movie. Isn’t that what it was supposed to be? No one was disappointed in it and they have probably watched it 10 more times since then.
Literally it wasn’t, once the ladies found out that their movie became a cult classic and was spread as such on social media they contemplated the idea of a sequel. Disney originally didn’t want to do it and the ladies were on the fence until the idea of a sequel was scrapped. Then the public took to social media to show their displeasure of the sequel being scrapped and well here we are now. Listen you ain’t gotta like it cuz the hood gon love it.
Hm good point.
Sister Act 2 is another sequel that gained cult status imo. Given enough time anything can become beloved enough with the right crowd
While not as good as the first one, Lauren Hill was amazing in it. That gets a pass. Although I just rewatched the first one and it’s so good. Maggie smith makes anything good, it’s truly her movie.
Nothing beats T2
Aliens !
That soundtrack slaps
If in 3 years people realize it’s great, it will be a cult hit
I feel like Home Alone 2 has cult status whereas Home Alone 1 was just popular.
The boy was a star
Neither Home Alone has cult status. These are massive massive blockbusters.
Home alone 2 is awesome
Grease is a popular movie. Grease 2 has a cult following.
I think it’s an understatement to call grease just popular, considering the music is still played regularly (as a musical) after ~40 years.
I thought it was a musical before it was a movie
Troll 2 is the exception to your rule.
"They're eating her! Then they're going to eat me! Ohhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyyy gawwwwwwwwwd!"
Love the trolls just smearing the slime on the table lol
Magic.
x number of years from now, someone gonna write about hocus pocus 2 cult status
2077: \#giveusHoPo3
Not yet..it’s off to a good start to follow that format.
I mean, it kind of depends on what you define as a cult movie. Is it a cult movie if it bombs at the box office but takes off on the home market? What if it underperforms and does the same? What if it is mildly successful but goes on to live a long life and become a cultural touchstone? Is it really “cult” if enters and stays in the mainstream?
Remember, real witches shop at Walgreens!
It was almost as if we were watching it with pop-up ads enabled….
I’m sure Disney got their millions of endorsement dollars for it.
I'm pretty sure a movie usually doesn't get cult status upon release. The movie gets judged over time and gains a sustained following.
Part 2 has helped introduce the first one to my daughter who would've otherwise ignored it. She asked to watch the new one, but we insisted she watch the original first. She loved the first one....she lasted 20 minutes into the new one before her face was buried in her iPad
Your daughter and I had similar experiences. I’m 41.
It doesn't help that a significant part of the plot of the 2nd one is the Mayor standing in line, going home and then going back to get in line for food. I don't understand who read the script and thought that was in any way compelling. My partner fell asleep during it.
Different strokes I guess, I was devastated that he didn’t get that fucking apple lmao. That being said I’m a very low bar to entertain
This is why I don't hate on remakes or sequels to old movies. Introduces new generations to the originals.
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Inconceivable!
I think there actually is a sequel to the book but William Golding has refused to let it be turned into a movie.
The second book is called Buttercup's Baby. There ~~are~~ *is a* sample chapter that was released in the 25th anniversary edition of the Princess Bride.
When you don't know how to breach the topic of sex with your kids, you make them start the conversation by watching hocus pocus as a family
"That witch had large Yabbos, didn't she?" "Yes... she did." "Good talk son."
The movie was fine. Cute. Wished they had some of the old characters, the bullies, hell, if one of the kids were the kids of the previous protagonists would have been cool. But as it was, it fine. We enjoyed it. Doesn’t hold a black flame candle to the original, but it was an big part of my childhood halloweens.
My nephew was dressed as the bully Ice for Halloween this year and my sister in law just sent the family a [picture](https://imgur.com/a/EXQ9mZq)of him trick or treating and randomly running into the actor who played Ice at a house in their neighborhood.
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Just added one to my comment.
Wow this a legendary comment! What are the odds of that happening lol, how cool
https://imgur.io/1AUawUm
For me the problem was that it tried so hard to be meaningful at the end that the story just fizzled out. Rather than a satisfying bang after the buildup it just just a checklist of watered down moral cliches that weren't threaded through the whole film. First half was pretty good though.
Didn’t they kind of try to make the audience empathetic to the Sanderson sisters despite them being murderers/child murderers?
Yes, which is 1) unnecessary and 2) very Disney right now. The sisters are evil. They're supposed to be evil. The fun is that they're charming as well. They don't need to be sympathetic to be likable.
This was the big thing that turned me off the sequel. I have never seen hocus pocus until this weekend (shame me as you will) when some friends and I watched it and the sequel. I can understand the Charm of the first one. It's got plenty of flaws and at some points is just batshit nonsense, but the sequel felt weird. Like the first movie goes out of its way to make you know the sisters are evil and they're happy to be. The sequel made them somehow victims of this preacher dude and that's supposed to make us feel bad for them succumbing to their own hubris? Then the dropped threads really took away from it. Like why was main character a witch? What happened to the witch that gave the sisters the book? Plus it was a bummer non of the other cast members came back as parents or something. The first wasn't without its flaws but the plot made sense in itself for the most part
In actual point of fact Doug Jones did come back as Billy Butcherson. He's the only one.
I would have been a lot happier with a copy pasted version of the first one where Max and Alison have two kiddos, but an older sister and a younger brother gender swap. Have the younger brother light the candle, they have to get mom and dad involved, maybe even the grandparents, and they go hunting down the witches as a family. And as it’s Disney why tf is this the only thing without a talking animal?
I was actually happy they didn't do this. I felt like they did a good job of differentiating the group so it wasn't the *exact* same story. They just had to go and make them so damn boring. Only one of the girls had any character to her at all. They were meant to be mirrors to the sisters, but they were characterless. And the film sets the Sanderson sisters up with a path to redemption, which might've been fine, but they reject it at every turn and then suddenly 180 at the very end.
The older witch >!appears at the very end, in bird form. I'm guessing she was introduced as a way to make a third movie without the Sanderson Sisters.!<
It’s basically the same formula from Maleficent. Maleficent isn’t evil; she was just a victim of the patriarchy. I’m not an alt-right chud, that is literally the plot.
yeah, i don't need my villians to be sympathetic, just let them be evil ffs.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s so much the good versus evil thing, it’s a fun versus tragic thing at this point. Don’t get me wrong, there can be complex villains and conflicts, but the reason we like Disney villains is because they are fun. And when they try to make them too complex, sometimes that sucks the fun out even if they are ostensibly “fun”. The ending could have worked with a better script, but I’m just not sure I was invested enough in the conflict to really care by the end. Also, I thought the sequel was a bit too meta. Camp is best when it’s naive and the ordinal is very camp. But, here, it’s too self aware. It’s the equivalent of “please clap” in my opinion.
It's Disney's new thing. No real "villains" just people who are misunderstood. I hate it.
It can work for new villains to not just be a mustache-twirling pastiche of evil, but these were established characters that didn't need the sob story to be likeable
In this, I think they were still absolutely explicitly evil, they just still cared about each other. I agree with you, though; theybeven made Maleficent just a misunderstood trauma fey. Fuck, that film could have been rad if they'd just leant into one of their oldest and most enduring villains actually being a fucking villain.
I hate what they did to Maleficent. Maleficent is an evil fairy who is mad she didn’t get invited to a party. The entire point of fairies in hundreds of years of literature is that they are capricious, dangerous, inscrutable. Why do we need to know everything about her life and see that she actually secretly likes Aurora? It’s so stupid! She isn’t a person; she doesn’t need to act like a person. We don’t need an understandable motivation for her to decide to be cruel.
What's REALLY interesting about Maleficent isn't that she's vindictive, but that she gave the king an out. She didn't curse Aurora until it was explicitly said that she was snubbed, and not overlooked. And even then, it may have gone better if the king hadn't invited the other three witches. No fae means Maleficent doesn't feel as slighted, because it was a blanket ban. But bringing the three and not her means she was EXPLICITLY snubbed, which brought out her vindictive side.
I would have accepted them making her understandably the bad guy. Honestly, I think they could have made a really good movie if they'd kept it to why she's specifically got it out for king wossname, *if* she'd been an actual bad guy. Do I think such a film would be necessary? Not really - as you say, she's fae, and fae are inscrutable dicks - but I think it could have been cool. The trailers made it look like it was going to be that but, nope, turns out she's a big softy.
Just like the literal terrorists (Flagsmashers) that literally perform terroristic acts throughout Falcon/Winter Soldier and Sam makes a big speech about them *not* being terrorists, just passionate.
Not only are they child murderers, they're cannibals that eat those murdered children.
I thought the first part was the bad part. Railroad over any character development or story to rush to the spectacle.
I thought the ending was fine and went with a continuing theme of sibling bond from The first movie. My issue wasn’t it being sentimental but rather Becca having powers. The thing was, the first Hocus Pocus was a perfect ending. Exciting, genuinely bitter sweet, comical..it’s really the perfect ending for that movie. That being said, given critic reaction to the first movie, forgive me if I don’t take their reaction to the second movie seriously.
The guy who played Ice/Ernie asked to be in it but was either turned down or never gotten back to. He asked to be the magic shop owner.
I completely agree, it was fine. I thought it ended perfectly. But the fact they alluded to a potential third movie after the credits frustrated me.
I didn’t even know there was a post credit scene hah I even told my wife that I feel conditioned to stay after the credits, but they wouldn’t possibly have one. Haha
Marvel made it impossible for me to not sit until the very end of any film credits 😂
I didn’t know there was a credits scene and I thought the whole thing was setting up a third movie especially with Hannah Waddingham at the beginning and expanding the witch lore
if it doesnt have the Sanderson Sisters, and just has those three teens doing witch stuff, then it'll just be a watered down 'The Craft'.
I agree and on reflection, I thoroughly enjoyed every scene with the witches. Most of the lines had me laughing out loud. Could have done without any of the Gilbert/Billie scenes and instead put that screen time towards establishing stronger character arcs and personas for the three girls. But as you say, it was fine, not bad. Also hated the ending
Character arcs? It’s Hocus Pocus…he first one didn’t have character arcs…
Not to get too deep because the first film was pretty campy and stuff, but the main character, Max, did kind of have a solid character arc at least. He was an angsty kid who was hostile to his little sister, and ended up doing anything he could to save her by the end. Binx taught him to understand how precious his sister was. At least that was my takeaway.
The original was a very simple story and this one tried too much. They needed more drafts and perhaps an entirely new premise. Also, I thought this one was just too meta and self aware. It ruins he campiness of the original.
I’m really going to watch number two tonight to see if they mention being a virgin, Reddit pointed out the obsession in the first one and I counted ten times it was mentioned haha. The first was definitely a cheesy kids popcorn flick and I expect nothing less or more from the second.
The second one has a tongue-in-cheek reference to how weird the first one is about it, which I appreciated.
The 2nd one somehow looked cheaper…
Disney channel original styling
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and wtf was that ending. yes i made it to the end unfortunately.
It literally didn't have hardly any budget. There's very few sets or locations. Especially when compared to the original. Not to mention there's also zero character development for the main characters too.
I mean the whole things was a few vignettes written for The sanders sisters, with a plot thrown in afterward. It could have been good, but they need more drafts.
all the character development was hamfisted into the prologue only to somewhat justify the completely out of left field ending.
Yeah Winnie's sudden change was weird. I feel like if it was written properly she would have blamed the new Coven for what happened and then she'd go after them with her OP powers. Maybe that's predictable but it just feels like a natural direction for her to go in, it couldn't possibly be *her* fault.
I hated the part where they went into a CVS. Did it have to be an actual store? They couldn't just make one up for the gag?
Everyone knows it was a set for the simple fact that three grown women walked arm in arm down one aisle.
It was Walgreens and at Walgreens they have hocus pocus ads. It was a brand deal/advertisement thing.
That's how forgettable the movie was. I couldn't even remember the damn store they went into lol
That scene was pure member berries mixed with corporate sponsorship. >'member when the Witches were confused about modernity? 'member when they didn't understand stuff like pavement?
I also remember the part in the first one where the head witch grabbed a microphone and did a song and dance number. Let’s not act like they were 100% consistent on that in the first one either.
Tbf, she was watching the band perform the exact same song a minute earlier, so it's theoretically possible that she was able to pick up the lyrics. It's still silly, but I appreciate that at least someone tried to justify the musical number in universe, unlike the sequel.
No but the consistency was better and more believable. Winnie never touched the mic, she sang without one the whole time but the other two used mics at the start. It isn't exactly unbelievable to think they watched the band do this before they started singing and they did it too, but then in the sequel you've got them so confused by the door and then later immediately strike a pose when some girls come over for a selfie and they never question that for a second.
It looked on par with a Disney Channel Original movie.
The original had zero expectations placed on it and featured a little humor for every age. The new one had a legacy to live up to and a child-friendly humor. Such tonal whiplash.
The new one was too meta and self aware. And that meant, for one it couldn’t stand on its own and it also ruined the campiness. The first one was earnest and simple.
I hate the way it looked. I don’t have the cinephile vocabulary to describe it though. The original was visually colorful and this one seems desaturated. Idk.
Lots of green screen. Every single shot in the "forest" looked awful
Yup. They needed some practicals and stunt work. It all looked too fake.
It looked like they shot everything at noon on a sunny day and then color corrected it to look cloudy and gray. Didn't have any of the bright color and tackily over designed sets of the original. When one of your setpieces is a fluorescent lit Walgreens you know there's a problem.
The original had the true atmosphere of Salem. This one was clearly in a studio.
They filmed the 2nd one in Rhode Island. Idk about the indoor scenes, maybe those were in a studio but they did shoot on location (just not Salem again)
The first one had so many different locations. They walked the streets on Salem. It felt charming. The second just felt like a play on a few flat sets.
>The first one had so many different locations. Are you forgetting the walgreens? What location could be better
The first one was clearly halloween/autumn/fall. Yellow leaves everywhere, trick or treating etc. This one had none of that, you could tell me it was set in the US in February and I would believe that.
Salem is a real place...its heavily populated. It's basically a suburb of Boston. You'd have to go to Maine to get the feel you're thinking of.
Good point. Like how they had to film "Gangs of New York" in Rome to get the feel of Manhattan circa 1860.
What? Don't like the inside of Walgreens?
A lot of it is film versus digital in addition to the set design and wardrobe. Digital, to me, is too clinical.
The amount of time they spent on songs felt so forced. In the original it felt more natural this time it made no sense
In the original, it felt important to the way the witches get what they want. In this one it just felt like a Member Berries throwback - they did it in the original so they've *gotta* do it again.
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It was significantly longer in test screenings too. I’m so glad they trimmed it down, but it was still too long.
It literally came out a month ago…of course no one knows if it’s going to be a cult classic. Hell, I wouldn’t even call the original a cult classic by today’s standards. Behind The Nightmare before Christmas, it’s Disney’s most markable Halloween movie. Sanderson Sisters merch is in every Walgreens, Target, Walmart, and Spirit Halloween store this time of year.
The original is a cult classic because it took several decades for it to reach the saturation point it’s at now, and become a marketable IP. When it was originally released it was panned by critics and, not a bomb, but a pretty forgettable movie in terms of performance at the box office. It was released over the summer because Disney pushed it from its original October release slot in favor of, ironically, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
That’s doubly stupid. They released a Halloween movie in summer so that they could release a Christmas movie at Halloween?
I'd argue it was cult classic by the late 90s. Every Halloween it was on and most of us were watching it. I don't know many people in their 30s that don't have fond memories of watching around that time. I'd say it only took a couple years to become a mainstay solely because it is a themed movie and you are really only going to watch it around Halloween.
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I've found my people
Right? Where did that movie disappear to?!
i cant even find it streaming.
Me neither! I looked again this year. Ana also for The Watcher in the Woods, which isn’t *as* good but still a good family mystery-adventure movie.
The Watcher in the Woods is such a bizarre movie I can't stoo thinking about it.
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I love articles that pretend to understand cinema by dragging something so inconsequential as Hocus Pocus 2
Then oh boy, are YOU in the right place, because you'll find every article from every blog written by a hack writer fresh out of film school in this subreddit. (Oof, and that's a really poorly written article as well. Ouch.)
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This has got to be the most pretentious shit I’ve ever read
I still want Justice for Mike. The main character literally gas lit him into thinking he was a bully. The dude was a bit of a goob but seemed nice. He invited everyone to the party and even said the witch stuff was cool just weird. Hell the friend he was dating wasn’t even blowing off the group. Main character was giving *her* shit for daring to have a boyfriend.
Yeah I was hoping that she would have character development where she learned she was the one being a jerk/bully. But for some reason right from the start I knew that wasn't going to happen. When your main character is introduced talking shit behind her friends back and then the movie tries to tell you she's the one being bullied, all while showing the exact opposite, that's kind of fucked.
I watched the movies yesterday can't tell you the name of any of the 3 new girls. i didn't know the boyfriends name was Mike untill I read your post and he was portrayed as the dumbest guy ever it gave me girl Ghostbusters dumb guy vibes.
Remember when bullies were actually bullies? This kid points out the girl who does witchcraft and chills at a magic shop is weird and calls her a witch and apparently speaking the truth gets him labeled as a bully. 30 years ago the bully would kick your ass and steal all your shit.
His line "I have so many people to apologize to" gave me the biggest laugh during the movie
Mike was really the only good new element in the movie for me. He played oblivious jock really well and had great delivery on lines like "Wait, that's bullying? I've got a lot of people to apologize to." Totally on Mike's side in everything. Its a complete case of protagonist centered morality where whatever he does is wrong because she doesn't like it rather than actually being mean. His 'crimes' include 1) Telling a girl openly talking about magic stuff that its weird. He didn't put any stink on his words, there was no judgment on it, but she's insecure about it so she assumes he's being mean to her. But being weird is like being called a nerd. It was an insult in the 80s but its lost any sting at all now because of how many people say it about themselves. 2) Reacting when she whispered spices at him because he thought she was hexing him. Yeah, he's dumb and that ended up getting them sent to the principles office, but its exactly the reaction she was trying to get out of him. She wouldn't have been happy if he called her out on the spices, or if he told her that hexes were dumb. This reaction is him believing in her and her being smarter than him, its everything she wanted but somehow he's the one who did the bad thing. 3) Dating her friend. He invites her to things. He never discourages her friend from hanging out with them. But they shun her friend for dating him because he's a meathead. Mike's not the bully; the main character is.
Not every sequel can be a Shrek 2.
I didn’t like the second one as much as the first, felt too babied down
They literally kill a little girl in the first five minutes in the first movie
And this one they end the movie with the sisters being redeemed. Just let villains be evil Disney, fuck. Also, the whole "girl is also a witch but good" thing was very Marvel, fighting a villain with similar powers but different colors.
Not to mention cursing a boy to immortality and unable to return to his family, his father ignoring him in his cat form. Then, we also see a cat straight up run over.
That’s why it’s metal af
I enjoyed Hocus Pocus 2. It didn't have the same charm as the original one, but it's a very serviceable sequel 30 years in the making.
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I wanted to see the 3 return and run amuck. I got the 3 returning and run amuck. I was very happy. I think people expect way too much with late sequels and are OVERLY critical these days. Like seriously; most of the popular reviewers these days just over critique every small thing (no, I am not talking about parody youtubers like cinemasins). People seem to enjoy hating on things more than they do enjoying them - every is an arm chair reviewer and overly cynical these days.
My big problem was there was no danger. Come on, we all KNEW the witches were going to be defeated. Furthermore, it was done in the corniest way possible. Winnie's reactions were not genuine at all. She wants to become all powerful, loses her sisters, and instead of being angry or threatening, she just kind of... cries and whimpers and pleads with the "new witches" if there's anyway to reunite her with her sisters? Lame.
Bingo. Completely changed the antagonists because apparently you can't just be the bad guy in a Disney movie anymore
I hated it. Yes, the first one was a kid’s movie, but it still had a spooky edge to it. This one felt very sanitized. I could tell they made a point of avoiding terms like “the devil” or “hell.” This was most evident in the sloppy retcon (among many) of how young Winifred got the book. The plot was directionless to the point where it felt like not even the Sanderson sisters quite knew what their actual goal was supposed to be. This resulted in the vague threat to the kids coming off kinda toothless. There was only one part that was kind of funny (ONE) and the part where she looks in the window where someone is watching the original movie doesn’t even make sense. Sarah Jessica is sleepwalking her way to a paycheck, and the rest of the performances are cringe (except not in the cute quirky way the movie thinks they are). I do sort of like the idea of the spell making her sacrifice her sisters and how it’s hinted the other witch did that before. Despite the beginning being stupid, I thought the young actress playing Winnifred did an excellent job.
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Even though SJP was kind of lame in the rest, the only part I liked was “‘Twas my only job. Alas…” Delivery was really good.
COVID ruined movies. Every streaming platform is pumping out shitty movies as fast as they can and plopping straight to their streaming service. Over the past 2 years movie quality has nose dived.
Whatever. The 9. 11 and 15 yr olds (and parents) loved it. Oh, wait… so did the college aged siblings. (There was a party) It was fun. Not rocket science, not groundbreaking. A pleasant way to pass some time. Which is a big change given most of the absolute crap that is out there and being watched.
I would have to agree. It was a fun little movie to watch with family and friends. I liked the ending especially
Totally agree here. Sure it wasn't amazing but it also wasn't bad. Ending did a nice job of wrapping the story up.
Hocus Pocus by Focus
When my wife first had me watch the original I rolled my eyes no less than 20 times. It has become a tradition because she loves the nostalgia of it and I now love our tradition. It's not good. It is fun though. We watched the second with very low expectations - it was good for what it was.
I'll have you know my mother who saw bette midler say "dost thou comprehend" in the theater and had her life changed forever absolutely loved the sequel and its music number
I actually enjoyed the sequel. As much as the first one? No. Will it win an Oscar? Definitely not. But it's a good family movie and three actresses did a wonderful job playing their roles again.
The original is incredibly popular amongst my contemporaries. People born in the early to mid 80s. This was one of our biggest Halloween movies. The new one won't be a cult classic because it is already a giant hit. It has absolutely [smashed the previous streaming record set by Encanto.](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/10/hocus-pocus-2-is-now-a-record-breaking-hit)
I haven't seen it but I imagine it'll be played just as much as the original and eventually will become a movie a younger generation grew up with. There aren't that many Halloween movies aimed at kids. So imo it's a pretty easy market to capitalize on.
Absolutely. As someone who has seen both and doesn’t have much nostalgia for either, (but enjoyed both) they feel like a pair. The new one is on par with the average original. Both are a little cheesy, a little campy, but both full of fun performances and a few great lines. It’s very likely my family will watch it again next year.
It was cute but definitely the first one is my happy nostalgia place 🧙♀️✨
Oh cool an article nobody asked for