31 Days of Halloween: Hocus Pocus 2

2022, Anne Fletcher (The Proposal) -- Disney+

After an abandoned attempt to watch My Best Friend's Exorcism (far too amateurish, and with my "horror" standards, that's saying a lot) on Amazon, we grabbed the next obvious thing. As we loved the original ("amuck amuck amuck"), we expected to watch this one during this run, so why not now.

The thing is, and I didn't realize until we started it, but I have absolutely no recollection of the original. It was almost twenty years ago, and I guess there haven't been many re-watches since the days of VHS faded out. The performances of Sarah Jessica Parker and Bette Midler are somewhat in the pop culture lexicon, but really, its not really out there. But in today's era of resurrecting anything with the most remote connection to nostalgia, I was not at all surprised to see this come about. But no, not really eager or excited. Still, it filled a slot.

After watching, yeah... it filled a slot.

So, despite being dead and then resurrected and then dead again, the three Sanderson Sisters,  Winnie (Bette Midler, Freak Show), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker, Mars Attacks!) and Mary (Kathy Najimy, Veep) are summoned to life once again via the virgin & black flame candle spell. This time, the teen girls, Becka (Whitney Peak, Chilling Adventures of Sabrian) and Izzy (Bella Escobedo, The Baker and the Beauty) are conned into it by Gilbert (Sam Richardson, Werewolves Within), the guy who runs the local magic store. Since he saw the three sisters their last time around, back in the late 90s, he's been obsessed with getting them back, and getting access to real magic. That should make him a villain, but he's a nice guy and we all like him and he redeems himself, so yeah, no real villains in this movie, not even the Sanderson Sisters who are given a mild reason to dislike Salem (you know, beyond being hung) and therefore justify them eating all those children. No, not really, but they are far too stupid and funny to be real villains. We need a mockbuster where they are truly horrendous resurrected witches. Ex-BF, not really, zombie Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones, The Shape of Water) is back, losing his head and helping foil the sisters again.

OMG, was this a product of the Disney Machine !! So many scenes felt like they were just setting up material for events at the theme parks: dance numbers, an intricately designed "old Salem" and the magic shoppe built in the witch's old cottage. You can see them just moving all the props from the movie into a lot in Disney World and charging people by the cauldron loads. That said, that design was quite glorious. Every little detail is bright and clear and built with great care to attract children, catch the eye and be genre appropriate. Not horror genre, but teen and younger, to have their babysitters rent it and all watch together. Do babysitters rent (digitally?) movies to watch with their wards anymore? I am old/out-of-touch.