Hocus Pocus 2

Wishlist approved!




Alright, made it to dawn and perhaps the witching hour has passed me by unscathed so let's talk sequels! I know this had a lot of anticipation and years worth of fan craving, so how does it all stack up in my novice eyes? I think I honestly like it more than the first. So it's been 29 years (sweet Jesus) since the Sanderson sisters plagued Salem as we are introduced to our three main characters, Becca, Izzy, and Cassie who are teenage friends and are kinda duped into resurrecting the Sandersons' once more and have to deal with the problem with some very appreciative and nice twists thrown into it. Already our protoganists have a fair bit more to do, and I was kinda surprised how much they got right with modern day witchercraft cause Becca and Izzy frequent a proper magic shop so they're super familiar with the history and items of magic. The crystals, the herbs, the candles, how to charge items with magic, a great attunement to nature, I severely must applaud the movie for that! So it's pretty neat to see two covens go at it and use tricks of the trade to best one another. I feel a lot more attention is put upon Winnie in this movie, not that Sarah and Kathy are wasted they still do fine work and Kathy is still my favorite of the three, but Bette really has some acting moments and yes, several musical numbers to bask in. I quite honestly forgot that we were going to get backstory to the sisters becoming witches, and I know they couldn't have spent half the movie on it but man I genuinely wish we got more of it considering their witch mother we only briefly meet and I know how much she is revered by them in the first movie. It's one of the very few things I can complain about. They throw their hat just a teeny notch in the nostalgia tripping but thankfully it's brief and used to better know the characters. Regardless, we get Billy back and I shall now do a wee happy dance because he's the best. I feel he gets more screentime to and God bless it I wouldn't mind for a second if it was just Billy and the magic shop owner Gilbert trying to deal with the ladies for almost 2 hours. The production is very good, when I watched the trailer I was just like man this looks good! The fog filled streets at night, the quiet forest while the moon is shining bright, the Halloween festival full of light, I dare say it's pretty tight. Obviously the effects for the magic have improved and yes the book weirds me out a fair bit still, so well done on that. And okay, this is just my nerd ass going on a tangent but I seriously got some Star Wars sequels flashbacks here. When the witches come back it's all super dark with light strobes and eerie sound design and I was like.....Palpatine have they somehow ressurected you again? Winnie flat out does the super mega ultra lightning shoot into the sky and random lightning strikes all over Salem like on Exegol. They even do the friggin' lightsaber flies straight to Rey instead of Kylo, except it's Book! I love that stuff man. Anywho! The comedy still worked for me but I will say it didn't make me laugh as hard or frequent as the first. But the entertainment factor is still very good and I am happy I watched it, as a heavy casual viewer of this newly crowned series I enjoyed it and would watch it again with family or friends during the season. 3.5 stars, 7.5/10, and now I just have the urge to listen to The Witch's Ghost by The Hex Girls, oh bollocks the magic is still on me!! FRICK! Well hell if the cosmos want me to be a magical man, then I shall be a magic Dude. See you in October.