Hocus Pocus Movie Review (2024)

Positive Messages

some

Teamwork and self-sacrifice will help you beat difficult odds. Bullying has negative consequences.

Positive Role Models

some

Max, Dani, and Allison support one another and tackle the witches with intelligence. Older brothers Max and Thackery sacrifice themselves to protect their younger sisters. But parents and adults are portrayed as unreliable -- they don't listen when kids need them most. The teens who bully the main characters and "evil" witches Winifred, Sarah, and Mary are very clearly in the wrong. The three witches fall into gender clichés, obsessed with their looks and willing to kill children to maintain power, though their wickedness is meant to be comical rather than sinister.

Diverse Representations

a little

Women and girls outnumber male characters and play main roles as villains and heroes. Allison and Dani are strong and smart, fighting the witches and briefly saving Dani's brother Max. But there are slight gender clichés with the witches: They cast a spell to be "young and beautiful" and are obsessed with their looks. All characters are White except minor Black characters who briefly appear at a crowded party. There's a very quick glimpse of racist 1960s-era packaging for Cherry Clan candies, showing characters with squinty eyes wearing conical Asian hats. Fatphobic lines include a well-fed cat who's worried about becoming a "fat, useless house cat," and a teen calls his friend "oinker" for eating too much candy.

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Violence & Scariness

some

Most scares are campy, magical, and meant to be comedic, but they're realistic and could still disturb younger kids. The villains take a child's life force while she's in a trance-like state, and she quietly slumps over in a chair (implied dead). A teen is zapped with electricity and appears to pass out, then gets turned into a cat. Characters stand at the gallows with nooses around their necks -- they cheerfully joke around before dying (legs visible above toppled barrels). Teens bully younger teens and kids, stealing their shoes and Halloween candy. A corpse named Billy is reanimated and breaks out of his crypt to chase kids, getting decapitated (he isn't hurt and eventually befriends the main characters). Villains are trapped and burned inside a pottery kiln (not gory); they leave uninjured. A few gross-out scenes include a character eating spiders, a cat getting run over by a bus, and a zombie cutting his stitched mouth open with a knife. Items that play key roles are a book bound in human skin and a candle made from the fat of a hanged man.

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

a little

A candle must be lit by a virgin to bring the witches back to life -- there are several mentions of "the virgin." Passing reference to an unfaithful lover. Characters flirt and nearly share a kiss. One person hugs a pillow and says "Oh, Allison, you're so soft." Innuendo when the witches tell a bus driver that they "desire children" (to kill and use for a potion) and he replies, "It might take me a couple of tries, but I don't think that'll be a problem."

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Language

a little

A few uses of "hell" (including "go to hell") and infrequent uses of "damn," "wench," "moron," and "oh God."

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Products & Purchases

very little

Many off-screen tie-in products available.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

very little

References to "hash" and "smokes" by teens. An adult smokes in her home.

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