Hocus Pocus (1993)
Directed by Kenny Ortega
After 300 years of slumber, three sister witches are accidentally resurrected in Salem on Halloween night, and it is up to three kids and their newfound feline friend to put an end to the witches' reign of terror once and for all.
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What critics compared Hocus Pocus to
The Goosebumps screenplay by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After, Jack the Giant Slayer) – with Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, Agent Cody Banks) credited for the screen story – borrows story and character elements from many a previous film, especially 1990s kid adventure movies like Hocus Pocus and Jumanji.
Though this isn’t the first attempt at bringing the YA horror series to the big screen (Tim Burton was attached to produce a film version in 1998 that never came to fruition), it’s a harmless slice of family entertainment that evokes the goofy humor and PG-rated scares of other Halloween classics like “Hocus Pocus.”
"Gremlins," 1993's " Hocus Pocus ," and 1995's "Jumanji"?are…
If anything, Goosebumps will serve as an ideal followup for Hocus Pocus, or Ernest Scared Stupid, or Monster Squad in future Halloween marathons.
However, I’d say it’s more like Hocus Pocus, or a horror story told by the Pitch Perfect Bellas while they sit around the campfire.
An illegal gun trade goes up in smoke to tequila lyrics, while Wright solidifies the single-best usage of Focus’ “Hocus Pocus” in all of cinema.
When Baby turns on the gang, he’s forced into an explosively violent foot-chase scored to the epic 1970 yodel-prog madness of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus, lifting me out of my seat like long-ago, visceral highs such as John Woo’s Face/Off, or Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (I’m thinking of its opening scene, another bank-job gone wrong).
For lovers of the dark, otherworldly and macabre, delighting through the 93-minute "ParaNorman" will be akin to attending a horror-themed amusement park, exploring a desolate and foreboding haunted house, and simultaneously watching 1985's "The Return of the Living Dead" and 1993's " Hocus Pocus " all rolled up into one.
Pfeiffer, playing her second shrew of the season, looks like she's enjoying herself in a part that shows off her severe beauty and her comedic prowess, but the role is a dud that seems borrowed from that Bette Midler Halloween turkey "Hocus Pocus."
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I know some folks think that timing the gunfire to the beats of Focus’s “Hocus Pocus” is a mite bit hokey—a little too cutesy—but I couldn’t disagree more.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for an agreeably silly bit of seasonal entertainment aimed squarely at viewers who are perhaps too old for "Hocus Pocus" and too young for "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "Love and Monsters" should adequately fit the bill.
Oh yeah, and a group of creatures led by Rosie the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) on the prowl, sucking the life out of kids Hocus Pocus style so they can live for centuries.
Aurora’s three color-coded fairy godmothers (renamed Knotgrass, Flittle, and Thistletwit, and played by Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, and Juno Temple, respectively) are thrown in as badly judged comic relief, but they feel more like the dotty witches of Hocus Pocus than like a reasonable part of this film’s grimmer-than-Grimm world.
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Look out for a cameo role from Big director Penny Marshall.
Kenny Ortega, the choreographer of "Dirty Dancing" who turned director with "Newsies," doesn't dawdle over the material, but he doesn't manage to unify it either.