What Did Critics Think of ‘Hocus Pocus’ When It Was First Released? Read the 1993 Reviews
For many Disney fans, a viewing of 1993’s Hocus Pocus is an annual Halloween tradition. The fantasy comedy film — starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as the villainous Sanderson family of witches — has become a staple of October TV programming. But when it hit theaters in 1993, it fared poorly at the box office and even worse in the court of critical opinion.
Midler remarked on the show’s initial failure in a July 2024 appearance on Busy This Week. “You know, when it first came out it was like, I don’t want to use the word ‘dud,’ but I will use it in this context,” she said. “Because as the years went on, it got cumulatively got more and more and more and more of an audience until it became a cult classic.”
We doubt many film critics working in 1993 would have predicted that comeback story…
Critics initially savaged Hocus Pocus
“It’s acceptable scary-silly kid fodder that adults will find only mildly insulting. Unless they’re Bette Midler fans. In which case it’s depressing as hell,” Entertainment Weekly’s Ty Burr said in a C- review of Hocus Pocus.
Empire’s Kim Newman wrote, “Trying to break expectations isn’t always a wise idea, and here Disney [shows] how not to do it. With this supposed-family movie, they disappoint on nearly every level. The plot is weak, the action poor, and it’s got Bette Midler, simply dreadful.”
Roger Ebert, famed Chicago Sun-Times film critic, panned the film with a one-star review, writing, “It’s one of those projects where you imagine everyone laughing and applauding each other after every scene, because they’re so convinced they’re wild and crazy guys. But watching the movie is like attending a party you weren’t invited to, and where you don’t know anybody, and they’re all in on a joke but won’t explain it to you.”
Ebert added, “Of the film’s many problems, the greatest may be that all three witches are thoroughly unpleasant. They don’t have personalities; they have behavior patterns and decibel levels. A good movie inspires the audience to subconsciously ask, ‘Give me more!’ The witches in this one inspired my silent cry, ‘Get me out of here!’”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Duane Byrge, at least, found joy in the film. “While it may take downright sorcery to conjure up another box office winner amid the current bulging batch at the box office, this perky release will be a Halloween-in-July for Buena Vista,” Byrge wrote, optimistically. “It’s a veritable bagful of box office treats.”
Hocus Pocus 2 got better reviews out of the gate
The Sanderson sisters terrorized Salem again in Hocus Pocus 2, a sequel Disney+ released in 2022. “Now more than ever, people need to laugh. We should be laughing every day, and there is so much fun to be had with these three unbelievable women playing delicious characters from such a beloved film,” Anne Fletcher, who took over directing duties from Hocus Pocus filmmaker Kenny Ortega, said in a statement when the film was announced, per Deadline.
And critics, on average, looked more fondly upon the follow-up: Whereas Hocus Pocus got a 41 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 43 Metascore on Metacritic, 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2 got a 65 percent Tomatometer score and a 56 Metascore.
“As soon as the trio turn up, Hocus Pocus 2 immediately becomes compelling and enjoyable,” said the Chicago Reader’s Gregory Wakeman.
“Hocus Pocus 2 really is cute (enough). If you’re in the right mood, it’s maybe even good,” Autostraddle’s Carmen Phillips said.
And The Atlantic’s Shirley Li opined, “The film wears its ridiculousness so proudly, it’s impossible to disdain. It is both a diverting watch and a sly commentary on its predecessor’s strengths.”
Now, a threequel is in the works
In June 2023, then-Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey confirmed to The New York Times that Hocus Pocus 3 was a go. As Variety noted at the time, the second film had broken Nielsen’s record for biggest-ever opening weekend with 2.7 billion minutes viewed, and that film had become the most watched original film for Disney+.
A year later, Midler said on Busy This Week that she hadn’t seen a script. “I’ve heard rumblings, but I haven’t seen anything,” she said. “But I think they if they’re gonna, they oughta, because time is not just marching. I mean, time is like barrel-assing to the finish line. Get us while we’re still breathing, I mean, God.”
And a year later, this July, Parker said there hadn’t been much more progress on that front. “No more developments other than we would like to do it,” she revealed on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “And we’ve been having some conversations.”
Let’s hope we won’t have to wait for much more of a spell!
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