Dir: Anne Fletcher. Starring: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Whitney Peak, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Belissa Escobedo, Lilia Buckingham, Tony Hale, Hannah Waddingham. Cert PG, 104 minutes
Hocus Pocus has had quite an afterlife. It’s been 29 years since a virgin first lit the black flame candle, resurrecting a trio of Salem witches and igniting the breathless disdain of film critics. An overboiling cauldron of garish performances, baroque plotting, and immortal cats, the 1993 Disney comedy was called “an unholy mess” by The New York Times, while the venerable critic Roger Ebert said the film was “desperately in need of self-discipline”. But this October the Disney-run US channel Freeform will air Hocus Pocus 13 times across 31 days. One studio’s mess is a wholly owned subsidiary’s black magic.
