Hocus Pocus (1993)

User Review

• 

  d_riptide

  6 / 10

  Back in the day, I didn’t get Hocus Pocus.....and a part of me still doesn’t. It’s been immortalized as a cult classic and Halloween staple by a litany of fans and critics alike since the 2000’s but in the back of my head, I asked “What really was there to this movie?”.....this coming from someone who watched the film five times in his youth and never got around to finishing the whole thing. As I’m sure I mentioned in the past, I don’t celebrate Halloween but I am aware of some of the more festive, kid friendly content that do celebrate the holiday so I decided, just this once, to get into the spirit by actually finishing the movie the entire way through.
  
  I don’t know black magic had befallen me but by god and by golly, it worked.
  
  
  Acting was solid for the most part with Milder, Naijimy and Parker chewing up the scenery every opportunity they could with fluent chemistry between each other, I appreciate how the film doesn’t trivialize any of the central characters involved, there’s an ethereal delicacy to the music that’s easy to appreciate, production design is vivid and colorful, you can tell from the offset how the ridiculously ludicrous script and tone coexist with and play off of one another, most of which is due to Kenny Ortega having a proficient balance within improbable goofiness (of which he perfected in the High School Musical series) and granted, this was a time period where Disney wasn’t so fixated on being so safe and generic so the fact that they actually took liberties with the films content and themes regarding sibling love and friendship, specifically the Sanderson sisters being an interesting metaphor for the desires of power, hunger, and sex.....was nice to revisit.
  
  Honestly though, even the fun, zany Halloween spirit it possessed wasn’t enough to fully deter me away from the formulaic, kids-save-the-day plot, not to mention how it’s riddled with inconsistencies in its story and cursed by an unwavering sense of not knowing where to go despite being predictable as all hell. Special effects don’t really hold up and it’s riddled with cliches everywhere but I think that’s the beauty behind this cheesy piece of 90’s nostalgia. I can't necessarily vouch for Hocus Pocus' "classic" status, but what I can vouch for is the movie's wholesome family spirit.

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