The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Pocus.” I don’t think it was just me, either. Aside from Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Amok! Amok! Amok!” entering our vernacular, it was not a movie any of my peers were eager to watch again. And yet, much to my bewilderment, “Hocus Pocus” became a thing over the years. My best guess is it was some combination of its relentless availability crossed with a lack of PG-rated Halloween content. Plus, there is the introto-camp factor of Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy as singing sisters bent on eating children to preserve their youth.
Regardless, a straight-to-Disney+ sequel made 30 years later seemed like a cynical endeavor at best. So it was a pleasant surprise to find that “Hocus Pocus 2 “is actually pretty fun. Set in a Stars Hollow-like Salem, it’s the perfect Disney+ movie — seasonally appropriate entertainment that,
for at least one night, may save a family from the doom of endless scrolling and indecision.
With a lively, witty script by Jen D’Angelo, “Hocus Pocus 2” finds the Sanderson sisters Winifred (Midler), Sarah (Parker) and Mary (Najimy) unleashed on their present day town once more. This time it’s some coven-curious teenage girls Becca (Whitney Peak) and Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) who accidentally resurrect them and then try to outwit them where they can, leading to an amusing sequence in a drug store in which the always vain Sandersons sample the serums in the beauty aisle.
“Hocus Pocus 2,” a Disney+ release streaming Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for “action, some language, macabre/suggestive humor.” Running time: 104 minutes.