The Sanderson Sisters are back for a nostalgic, fun-filled sequel, stacked with easter eggs and
deep-cut references to the original movie. Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers, I'm Jan and I've
been re-watching and pausing Hocus Pocus 2 to uncover all the amazing
little details you might have missed! The movie begins with a wicked flashback to
Salem 1653 and Winifred's sixteenth birthday. And the creepy spider that young Sarah
gifts to Winnie… You will love it!
…is a sly reference to Sarah's love of spiders in the original movie.
What a pretty spider! The costume department
also honoured Sarah's affection for the creepy crawlies on her new costume, which has sleeves
made to look like crocheted spider webs. And if you look really closely,
you'll spot some spiders embroidered among the floral and thorn design on her bodice.
After fleeing the Salem mob into the Forbidden Woods, the three young sisters form a calming
circle and amusingly think about the Reverend screaming and other deliciously terrible things.
Think soothing thoughts. The smell of fresh mud.
The Reverend's scream when he saw the spider. This moment calls back to how the adult Sandersons
form a circle when they're stressed out in the first movie and the hilariously awful
things they think about. Think soothing thoughts.
Rabid bats Black death.
Mummy's scorpion pie. The "Come Little Children" tune
that the young Sisters hear in the woods is the same one in the original film.
And notice how it's young Sarah who becomes entranced by the song, reflecting the fact
that she's the one who will sing it to lure the children of Salem over 400 years later.
Now, pay close attention to the Witch Mother and her costume in this scene,
as the embroidered eye on her outfit reappears many times throughout the movie.
It's a reference to the eye on the spell-book that she gifts to Winnie.
And Winifred also has eyes embroidered on her costume when she returns later on.
The broach around the Witch Mother's neck is also identical to the one used as Winnie's
belt buckle, and the stones match the colour of each of their outfits.
Moving on to present-day Salem, and the name of the school Becca, Izzy and Cassie go to
is Samuel Skelton, the name of a real-life Puritan who settled in Salem and founded
the First Church in the town. And notice when Izzy arrives,
the scarf she's wearing is covered in eyes, another creepy little reference to Book.
While Becca is waiting outside the principal's office, the assistant may
be wearing a ladybird outfit, but these look a lot like Mickey or Minnie Mouse hands.
In the sequel, we discover the Sanderson Sisters' old home has been converted into
Gilbert's Old Salem Magic Shoppe. And the cauldron of cats filled with
stuffed toy black cats is likely a nod to Thackery Binx who knocked over the witches'
cauldron of potion in the first movie and was transformed into a black cat.
There's also a ton of Sanderson Sisters merchandise in the shop,
including these doll versions of them here. When Gilbert reveals the Book of Spells to his
audience at the shop, pause and look really closely at the straps holding Book down,
in particular the little grill over the eye, which is a deliberate homage to Hannibal Lecter's mouth
restraint in Silence of the Lambs. And the costume Gilbert wears during
his presentation has eyes on both the hat and the cloak, referencing book.
Plus, there are eyes on the door he emerges through here.
After Becca and Izzy arrive at the shop, you'll need to pause really quickly here
to spot the Houdini poster on the wall when Cobweb appears out of nowhere.
The question "Do spirits return?" is some sneaky foreshadowing for how Becca and Izzy,
who are also in this shot, will accidentally bring the Sanderson Sisters back to life later on.
It's an awesome moment when the sisters finally return with Winnie slapping both Sarah and Mary
in the stomach, in a deliberate hat-tip to how she gut-punched Sarah in the original movie.
Amok, amok, amok, amok, amok... The song they sing here,
"The Witches Are Back", is an amusing take on Elton John's "The Bitch Is Back".
After the trio catch Becca and Izzy, the girls play a trick on
them by pretending they're witches too. We only look young, but really, we're 40.
Oh, 40? Old folks, huh?
Very fine physician. This reminds me of the ruse Max plays to
escape the witches in the original movie. You've messed with the great and powerful Max.
I summon the Burning Rain of Death! The Burning Rain of Death?
Burning Rain of Death? I don't know.
(ALL GASPING) The hilarious supermarket scene in the new
film, where the Sanderson Sisters gulp down beauty creams and lotions in the misguided
belief they contain the souls of deceased children, is a deep-cut reference to a deleted
scene from the first movie. Delicious!
Floral, but with a woodsy finish. Tis tingly.
My favourite feeling. So far, the full deleted scene hasn't been
released but one of the original trailers for the 1993 movie does show Mary downing various liquids
in a supermarket and looking to eat a child. And the sisters' funny walk they do as they
explore the store is a call-back to the walk they did after they came back to life in the
first movie. Get him.
Becca, Izzy and Cassie also pay homage to the walk at the end of the movie when they suddenly
find themselves doing it without realizing it. When Becca and Izzy use salt to protect themselves
from the sisters' dark magic, it's a nod to how Allison used salt in the first movie.
And given Becca turns out to be a witch in the sequel and Winnie remarked about Allison…
What a clever little white witch. …it adds to the popular fan theory that
Allison was a secret witch herself all along. The brooms the sisters fly off on in the sequel
get a fun update to modern cleaning and vacuum tech in 2022, compared to the 1993 movie.
Sarah gets an upgraded mop and Mary finds a pair of robot vacuums, which also play a crucial
role later on when they break the salt circle keeping them trapped at the Traske household.
Now, if you're wondering why Mary says "Cowabunga" as she flies off, it's a wink to Kathy Najimy's
role as Mayor of Witch Town in the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show.
And as the three hatch their plan which ends up being suspiciously similar to the
one in the first movie, Sarah responds to Winnie with a line from the original film.
Then we run amok in Salem! Amok!
Amok, amok, amok, amok, amok... Stop that!
The first step in their scheme is to return to their old cottage, and the way the door swings
open amid flashes of light is a tribute to the same way they returned in the first movie.
This time though, Sarah is disappointed at the state of the place…
Where are all the cobwebs... and my rat tails?
This is an amusing nod to the first thing she did in the OG movie after arriving back.
My lucky rat tail! And the way she goes
searching for her rat tails by hanging from the rafters is a throwback to when she swung from
the cemetery gates in the original movie. Sarah's response to Gilbert revealing himself
to the trio… A boy.
…is a shout-out to the three sister's reaction when they first saw Thackery Binx.
(GASPING) A boy!
…as well as to Sarah's generally boy-crazy ways back in the 90s.
Boys will love me! When Gilbert tells the sisters he saw them
on Halloween night in 1993, he mentions "a bunch of boys stole his candy", referencing the bullies,
Jay and Ice, who harassed Max and Dani for their Halloween candy in the original movie.
And the empty cloth container Gilbert used for his candy also looks like it's probably
this Mickey and Minnie Mouse pillowcase. There's some pun-tastic stall names at the
Scare Fest, such as Apple Plectic, which is a play on the word apoplectic, and a stall where
participants have to bob for apples. They're drowning a man.
How charming. There's also Lifestyles of the
Witch and Famous, a nod to the 80s and 90s reality TV series "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".
And there's a "Bone Appetit And Grave E" food stall with a wicked witch
selling poisoned apples strolling by, a reference to Disney's Snow White.
And while mayor Traske is waiting in line for his caramel apple, there's a man behind him
dressed like the devil and a woman wearing a dressing gown and rollers in her hair.
These are a sly reference to the scene from the first movie when the sisters thought
they were meeting their master, Satan himself, and also met his wife who was
getting ready for bed at the time. Sisters, Satan has married Medusa.
See the snakes in her hair? And the scene with that couple
from the first film actually appears when Winnie stumbles across another
couple watching the original Hocus Pocus movie. The fact the events of the first film exist as a
movie in this universe shows just how famous the Sanderson Sisters are in that world.
Just like the first movie, the Sisters sing a song at the Halloween festival in the sequel.
I bet you're looking for the stage. Always.
And if you pause here, there's some nice details for the various other acts like
"The Broom Brigade", "The Acro Bats", and "Hades Hotties" which is a reference
to the Greek god of the underworld, who's the villain in the 1990s Disney movie Hercules.
When the sisters put a spell on the Scare Fest audience, and have them dance down the street,
there's a definite vibe of the music video for Michael Jackson's Thriller.
There's also some great easter eggs in the crowd, such as this lady with a Madonna outfit,
a reference to the costume worn by Max and Dani's mum on Halloween night.
And it also looks like someone's wearing the Sorcerer Mickey Mouse hat from Fantasia.
After the sisters discover Becca hiding, Winnie can't remember her name…
What's her name again? Uh...
Shishka-baby? …which is the same thing
Mary calls Dani when she finds her in the first movie, which is a pun on the food shish-kebab.
Shish kebaby! As Traske arrives back home to find
the sisters trapped in his garage, he gets out of his car and Winnie calls it a very small bus,
an amusing reference to their first encounter with motorised transport in the first movie.
What is this contraption? I call it a bus.
When Sarah and Mary fade into dust as the price Winnie pays for the Magicae Maxima spell, they
say goodbye in the same way they bade farewell after the sun came up in the first movie.
Bye-bye. Goodbye.
Although Billy says the final destruction of the sisters is what has now released
him from the curses placed on him by Winnie, if you watch to the very end of the credits,
there's a bonus scene where Cobweb reveals that Gilbert has a second Black Flame candle in his
possession, which means we could easily see the Sanderson Sisters return again for a third movie.
Let me know what you think about that and any other comments below.
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Thanks for enjoying this movie with me and hope you have a
marvellous movie-loving week! Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!