I want some nostalgia too. 🎃

Oct 15, 2022 12:01 pm

I fully understand the consequences of what I'm about to say. I know this will make me very unpopular. I know some of you will unsubscribe to my newsletter because of it.

That's why I'm going to give you some context, and then drop the proverbial bomb.

I have a faint recollection of going to the Kickingbird Movie Theater in Edmond, Oklahoma, probably with my mom, granny, brother, and cousin, and seeing Hocus Pocus. This could also be a completely fabricated memory. I'm pretty sure I saw that movie in the theater, so it would've had to have been that theater. And that was probably the crew I was with at the time, especially since the movie came out in July of 1993, and my cousin spent a lot of time with us in the summer.

I enjoyed it, I think. It was the summer before I turned eight, and honestly, I didn't have access to a ton of movies the way we do now with streaming services. So getting to see a new movie was really a treat.

After it came out on video, I'm sure we rented it from Video Update, a rental place just a couple of miles down the road from the theater. Maybe we saw it a couple of times on TV when I was a kid if it played during the Halloween season.

Overall, I didn't think much about it.

Then maybe about five or so years ago, a lot of the lifestyle bloggers I followed talked about it. They were around my age, so it made sense they remembered it from their childhoods. But they were incredibly fond of it. Like, they really, really liked that movie and had so many memories surrounding it.

They talked about it like it was a special part of their childhoods. Like they revered the movie and made space for it every year. It was a tradition for them. It was something they kept watching, long after they grew up.

I just assumed that this was something I missed out on. Or maybe because I started watching horror movies at a relatively young age, it was something I aged out of early and went on to creepier film fare.

People kept talking about it, and when Disney+ came on the scene, everyone and their brother was obsessed with Hocus Pocus. They relived their childhoods, watching it over and over.

For what it's worth, by 1995, I was obsessed with The Craft, and watched it like a billion times. I'll rewatch that one, but I guess fans of that movie aren't as dedicated to chatting about those particular 1990s witches online.

So the year before last, I had a free night around Halloween where Chris was otherwise occupied. I thought to myself, "Hey! Why don't I watch Hocus Pocus? I like witchy stuff and it'll be a good time. Maybe I'll enjoy it the same way as everyone else."

I sat down on the couch with a glass of boxed wine (because I'm fancy) and began to watch.

I made it about fifteen minutes into the movie.

Gang. Here's where you will probably unsubscribe. Because that movie isn't good. Like, at all.

I mean, I get the nostalgia love of it. But I don't really have that sort of feeling when I watch it. It just wasn't something that was important to me growing up. And those storylines...

There was a time in the late eighties and early nineties when they made kids movies and they all had the boy in early puberty with a crush, the hot girl he had a crush on, his annoying little sibling, and an increasingly complex series of misadventures. And like, that was it. That was the story.

Everyone made it home before mom and dad were the wiser.

I enjoyed this formula when I was a kid. I thought Adventures in Babysitting was high art, but like, I tried to watch it recently and it's awful.

Granted, when you're a kid, you can enjoy stuff you can't enjoy as an adult. I fully acknowledge that. Some stuff will stick with you your whole life, and some stuff is only good while you're young. Plus, it was a different time and a different film market. There weren't as many options as there are now, and competition between movies probably wasn't as high as it is today, so the creators could get away with stuff.

Though, I did feel a particular sense of vindication when I looked at the Wikipedia page and saw that critics gave Hocus Pocus mixed to negative reviews, and it lost Disney $16.5 million. Not that I want Disney movies to fail. I just want to know that I'm not the only one that didn't like it.

So, I hope everyone is enjoying the new Hocus Pocus movie. (If not, there's a new version of The Craft on Amazon Prime!) Please don't let my dislike of the movie deter you. And judging by how many Hocus Pocus-themed yard decorations I see in my neighborhood during my morning walks, no one is deterred by my opinion.