The Goonies. Mrs. Doubtfire. Jumanji. The Lion King. There are some movies that pretty much everyone who grew up in the ‘90s will have watched more times than they can count. Another of these quintessential childhood memories, family horror Hocus Pocus, is now set to get a 4K Ultra HD release.
The story follows a teenage boy who’s just moved from Los Angeles to Salem, Massachusetts, and indignant at having to chaperone his little sister going trick or treating and hoping to impress a cute girl, he ignores the warning of local legend and lights a magical candle in an abandoned cottage, inadvertently resurrecting a trio of witch sisters who were executed 300 years earlier for practicing black magic. As the candle’s magic only has the power to bring the siblings back for Halloween night, they must enact a ritual to steal the life force of young children to attain immortality, with nothing to stop them but the three youngsters and a talking black cat, the transmuted elder brother of the witches’ previous final victim, cursed to live forever with the guilt of his failure.
Despite having some quite dark themes for a kids’ film (there’s nothing much funny about child abduction and murder) and intimation of adult concepts (the candle’s magic only works if lit by a virgin), its colorful chaos, exciting hijinks and suggestion that children know everything while adults are useless, are just a few reasons why it remained such a perennial favorite of so many people’s childhoods.
There’s no word over what kind of extras and special features will be available with the new release, but given how beloved the film is by many, it’ll be disappointing if there’s only a meager assortment.
A sequel to Hocus Pocus is currently coming together with its witchy stars keen to return, but until then, if you’d prefer physical media to the 4K restoration already available on Disney+, you won’t have long to wait to relive the memories.
