Review of Hocus Pocus (1993) by Jacob L — 11 Mar 2017

Seeing as its October 1st as I'm writing this, I thought I'd review a Disney cult classic "Hocus Pocus." Now, this film was hated by a majority of critics including the great Siskel and Ebert who gave it very negative reviews, and usually, I am even harsher on films especially Disney films because my expectations are through the roof! However here I actually enjoyed watching this mediocre witch flick.

Sure it's clichéd, campy, and unbearable at times, but I admire it because of what a huge risk it was for Disney to produce. This film is relatively darker than most current Disney films and was a bold risk to take with a family audience as it has children having the life sucked out of them to the point of death, public hangings, a couple swear words and many more things that most family pictures of the time didn't dare to include.

What I also like about this film is the three Witches played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. These three are the highlight of the movie and pretty much the only reason I liked it as much as I did.

Every scene they are in is enjoyable which is more than I can say about any other cast member except for the cameos of Gary and Penny Marshall and the zombie thing. This brings me to the unbearable parts of the movie the rest of the characters, who are all boring, clichéd, uninspired, drab who take up way too much screen time! Every time they are on screen you just want to fast forward to The Witches or zombie Billy Butcherson again.

And that's why I think most people dislike this film because the characters we want to see are pushed aside to give us uninspired cardboard cut-outs in its place. So in closing, I give this movie a 3/5 rating.