Movie: Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) Caution Spoiler Alert

 Hocus Pocus 2

Came out; 2022

Time; 1 hours 43 minutes

Watched: Disney Plus

Rated: G for action, macabre/suggestive humor and some language

IMDB Rating; 6/10

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Bette Midler as Winifred Sanderson

Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Sanderson

Kathy Najimy as Mary Sanderson

Whitney Peak as Becca

Belissa Escobedo as Izzy

Lillia Buckingham as Cassie

Froy Gutierrez as Mike

Sam Richardson as Gilbert

Doug Jones as Billy Butcherson

Tony Hale as Mayor and Preacher

Story Line.

Two young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern-day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world. The world may have been free of Winifred, Mary, and Sarah and the fear they invoked in us all, but what happens when you mess with magic? It messes back.

Thoughts:

Clearly, I'm not a super fan since I didn't watch this until October 11, 2023, and it came out last year.

The first one is just a fun movie; this one had some funny moments, but it isn't the same.

I really liked that all 3 witches were the same and able to come together again to make this. That would have changed everything.

CAUTION; Major Spoiler Alert

In 1653 Salem, Reverend Traske banishes a young Winifred Sanderson after she 'defied church authority' by refusing to marry John Pritchett. Rather than allow her sisters, Mary and Sarah, be taken from her, Winifred escapes with them to a nearby forbidden forest. There, they cross paths with the Mother Witch, who gifts Winifred her magic book for her sixteenth birthday, but who also explicitly warns the sisters against ever casting a specific spell, known as the Magicae Maxima, which makes the user 'all powerful'. The Mother Witch also teaches the sisters to retain their youthfulness by killing children. The Sanderson sisters then get their revenge on Reverend Traske by casting a spell that burns down his house.

In 2022, twenty-nine years after the Sanderson sisters were resurrected by the Black Flame Candle, Salem teenagers, Becca and Izzy, prepare to celebrate both Halloween and Becca's sixteenth birthday but turn down a party invitation from their estranged friend, Cassie Traske. Becca and Izzy visit a magic shop (formerly the Sanderson's cottage) run by Gilbert, who gifts Becca a candle for their annual birthday ritual. The girls light the candle and discover that it is another Black Flame Candle. As there is a full moon and the girls are both virgins, the candle resurrects the Sanderson sisters once again. The girls outwit the sisters in a local Walgreens and escape to the magic shop where they discover that Gilbert tricked them into reviving the witches, having seen them on Halloween in 1993 and been taught how to make the candle by Book.

The sisters catch up to the girls and see a campaign flyer belonging to Mayor Jefry Traske, Cassie's father and Reverend Traske's direct descendant. Winifred decides they will cast the Magicae Maxima spell to eliminate him and take revenge on all of modern Salem. The sisters trap Izzy and Becca in the basement and leave to hunt down the mayor, whose blood is needed to complete the spell. They force Gilbert to collect the other ingredients.

The girls escape and head to the Traske house to warn the mayor while the sisters find their way to the town's Halloween carnival and enchant the citizens to help them find the mayor. Meanwhile, Gilbert digs up Billy Butcherson, who has been awake but entombed since 1993. He needs Billy's head for the spell but tricks him into helping him collect the other ingredients first. The girls reunite with Cassie and trap the sisters within a salt circle in Cassie's garage before Mayor Traske returns home. The three teens make amends with one another, but their reunion is interrupted when the sisters escape the circle and kidnap Cassie to use her blood instead. Becca and Izzy follow them to the forbidden forest where Gilbert has assembled the ingredients and soon discover that Becca, like themselves, is also a natural witch.

The sisters partially cast the spell and increase their power, but Becca distracts them while Izzy rescues Cassie. Becca convinces the Book that it does not have to answer to Winifred, and she and the Book flee further into the forest. The Book shows them the warning against the Magicae Maxima spell, stating that whoever casts it must give up what they cherish most as the price for the power. The girls agree to warn Winifred of the price of the spell but are unable to do so: she becomes all powerful as Mary and Sarah fade to dust. Winifred grows despondent and begs the teenagers to use their newfound powers to save her sisters. While they cannot save them, Becca, Cassie and Izzy join together in a coven and cast a reuniting spell, so Winifred happily fades away to be reunited with her sisters.

Gilbert and Billy join the girls. Billy starts to fade away, realizing that all of Winifred's spells have been undone and relieved to finally head to his long-overdue eternal rest. The girls decide to give Book a new home and continue practicing their magic as they walk off into the night in a similar manner as the Sanderson sisters. As they leave, a crow, identical to the one that Mother Witch had shapeshifted into, flies overhead.