Written By: Pascale Gibbs and Mackenzie Watkins, Staff Writers
SEQUEL: Cult classic turns into a tragic remake.
Halloween is a season that is filled with a spooky, warm, and whimsical atmosphere. The age-old tradition of celebrating halloween includes imagery of broomsticks, cauldrons, and witches. From these classic things associated with Halloween, movies including these images during spooky season gain popularity. A cult classic movie including such things, called Hocus Pocus, was released in 1993 and quickly became an annual watch to get into the Halloween spirit.
The original Hocus Pocus movie stars Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Majimy as the main characters, the Sanderson Sisters. The sisters are a small coven of witches that aim to stay young by consuming the lives of children. This movie has beautiful costumes, scenery, and music that all contribute to the spooky feeling that the Halloween month provides. Now that it has been almost three decades since the movie was released, Disney decided to release a sequel, in an attempt to soothe those who have been yearning for more.
Hocus Pocus, I dare you to focus, because this movie is a difficult watch. Hocus Pocus 2 begins with the background of the Sanderson sisters and how they got the ability to use magic. The beginning of the movie presents the three girls as pre-teens encountering a witch in the forest. This witch provides for them a book full of spells and warns that “a witch is nothing without her coven.” Although it is exciting to learn of the sisters’ upcomings, the commentary and scenery are, quite frankly, boring. The movie takes the approach of creating vaguely accurate historical commentary, but this dialect becomes irritable after listening to so much of the old-fashioned English. All of the characters in the beginning of the movie, and the Sanderson sisters throughout the rest of the movie, read lines with heavy use of words such as thee, thou, thy, etc. The commentary becomes corny and unsatisfying to hear. Not only this, but the visual aspects of the movie are not in line with that of its predecessor. The imagery does not give the warm and spooky Halloween vibe, rather a dull Hollywood-ified version of such. The movie has its funny moments, for example, featuring the sisters in a Walgreens looking for children to munch up, but end up finding the beauty section instead. Despite its other flaws, the new provided information about the main characters does add to the lore of the movie and engages fans with the story.
With the rest of the movie, two teenage girls in current times bring the Sanderson sisters back to modern day life, 29 years after they were resurrected in the original movie. The rest of the story follows the two girls in their attempt to stop the Sanderson witches plans that will cause havoc to the world. This sequel puts a modern twist on the classic, but in its remake, loses the feeling of Halloween in the process. Although the sisters perform a fun number to the song “One Way or Another” by musical artist Blondie, their entertaining stage show does not take away from the fact that this movie is tired and does not live up to the standards of its mother.
Remakes of classic movies have been on the rise since the early 2000s. Rather than the motive of expanding the series or lore, these movies are remade usually plainly for profit. Popular movie franchises like Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre had sequels made to revitalize their name in the media. Attempting to keep these hits relevant in pop culture, the film industry changes plots, introduces new characters, and are never as interesting as the first movie. These movies pioneered the essence of halloween; they don’t need sequels to enhance the story, they were impactful and successful on their own.
Originality in the film industry appears to be fading away with its excessive amount of sequels and remakes, as unique works disappear. More original ideas need to be added to the main media instead of remakes and sequels that diminish the once beloved classics. When browsing for a fun and spooky movie for Halloween movie this year, keep yourself away from disappointment and stick to the classics.