On Sept. 30, “Hocus Pocus 2,” the sequel to the 1993 movie “Hocus Pocus,” was released. Rotten Tomatoes has positive feedback on “Hocus Pocus 2” with a 63% rating, but then there are some people who have reviewed it who were disappointed. I was curious, to say the least, about what made people either go completely one way or the other and not fall in the middle. I just had to watch the movie for myself. It is October after all. I thought it was time to get in the spirit.

The movie begins in the past with the Sanderson Sisters as kids in Salem. It goes over how they came to be and I really liked how they portrayed the girls and their origin story. It fits absolutely perfectly for how they are as grown up adults. It shows how mischievous they really are. It also introduces the villain in their story and why they need the Reverend Traske’s ancestor for their spell, Mayor Traske.

Then we’re thrown into the present, where the three girls Cassie, Izzy and Becca are introduced. I was confused at first because they were making the high school portion of the movie so detailed and important, but the movie is meant to be about the conflict with the Sanderson Sisters. Cassie used to be close with Izzy and Becca before she started dating a popular boy, like every high school movie I’ve ever seen, then they grew apart. Halloween night was Becca’s sixteenth birthday and Cassie’s Halloween party as well. Trust me, those are important events. So far, with this whole High School Musical school drama going on, I’m just not a fan. It’s a Halloween movie about witches and spells, the high school portion doesn’t seem very on topic in the beginning.

The movie goes on to Izzy and Becca in the Olde Salem Magic Shoppe where they know the store owner who gives them a candle for their little birthday ritual they’re having in the woods that night. He knows that if they light the candle it’ll bring the Sanderson Sisters back for Halloween night, and he does this because he was obsessed with them. I’m not sure just how I feel about this new character who’s so obsessed with the witches, but I digress. The storyline so far is solid and has the proper backbone and backstory needed for a sequel movie. The characters are solid and have lots of personality, except Cassie but I’ll get into that later, and I appreciate how they brought back the old ones as well.

However, I begin to have a problem with how they handled Cassie’s character the entire movie. She was completely out of the picture and was in the dark until the last maybe 15 minutes of the movie where she joins in on their crusade and helps defeat the witches like she was there the whole time. The way she just jumps into the adventure without barely an explanation as to why she wasn’t there in the first place doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like doing all the work in a group project and everyone gets the credit; it just isn’t fair. Her character feels so grossly underdeveloped by the end of the movie and I’m left wondering what happened.

Another side show that was way more important and interesting than Cassie’s little party was of Billy and the weirdo with the candle, I mean the store owner Gilbert, trying to obtain all the ingredients the witches needed for a spell. The reason why he was there was because you need the head of a lover, aka Billy. Gilbert dug up his grave and he was still alive so he took him along. They start bonding and Billy reveals to Gilbert that he never loved Winifred, so Gilbert promises to tell his true story. Their friendship was short lived, weird, forced and kind of creepy but I see where they went with it. Billy was still used in the ritual anyway though.

By the end of the movie the witches, of course (almost sadly), lost to the young girls Izzy, Cassie and Becca and went into sweet somewhere with each other. This is where the spell book sheds a tear. That was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve seen. It’s definitely up there with all of the other things I’ve experienced. The ending in general though was perfect. The sisters were all together, the teenage girl trio were all friends again, the legacy of the spell book is carried on in the girls and there’s still another candle which they showed at the very end of the movie teasing a third Hocus Pocus.

Overall, this movie was a good one and had lots of orignality in it. It was witty, spooky and completely out of pocket which is what I expect from the Sanderson Sisters. I’d for sure watch this again in the future and I’d recommend this to any other spooky season lover as well. It’s for sure going on my Halloween movie marathon list.