I saw the original Hocus Pocus shortly after Disney+ came out and I was able to watch it. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the film, and I can see why it originally failed to impress critics back in the day. Thanks to reruns on TV, the movie got a quite considerable fan base for almost 30 years. So much so, that they decided to make a sequel with the original cast of witches.

The movie starts with the Sanderson sisters when they’re very young in a colonial Massachusetts ruled by the Puritans. Winnipeg Sanderson, the oldest sister, manages to tick off the whole town and they cast her out.

And not less than a morning later, they run into a witch from the Old World and she gives them advice. And then she disappears and we never see her again…

The heroes of the movie are two best friends in high school named Becca and Izzy. The whole town heard of the Sanderson sisters because of the 1993 incident and they accidentally conjured them back to life.

And the three sisters of witchcraft decide quickly to figure out how to stay in the mortal world before their candle burns out in the morning at sunrise and takes them back to the afterlife.

Without spoiling much of the movie, I will say that Gilbert the Great is definitely Gilbert the Idiot.

Hocus Pocus 2 is actually a pretty decent movie. Die hard fans (with an open mind) of the original should at least be satisfied with this one. It’s a little bit more comical and light-hearted than the first movie. So if you’re looking for a more dark and twisted tale than the 1993 (oc)cult classic, you will be greatly disappointed.