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Hocus Pocus 2: Teaser Trailer Breakdown and What We Know So Far
THE WITCHES ARE BACK!
It’s been almost thirty years since Hocus Pocus first premiered. The film starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker as the legendary Sanderson sister witches who are bent on stealing the lifeforce from children on All Hallow’s Eve is regarded as a Halloween classic.
Directed by Kenny Ortega, this movie still tops the charts for most-watched Halloween movies today. It has appeared on Eli Roth’s History of Horror, fourteen “Top 10” episodes of WatchMojo, and has dozens of lines that fans immediately recognize. After all, what Hocus Pocus fan doesn’t know the ending to the line, “Oh look, another glorious…”
While Max (Omri Katz), Dani (Thora Birch), and Allison (Vinessa Shaw) stole our hearts as the protagonists of the original film, we are ecstatic to see that Hocus Pocus 2 is finally on the horizon with new protagonists and a new story to tell, this time directed by Anne Fletcher.
While many details are still unknown, the recent release of a teaser trailer left us ecstatic and anxiously awaiting more. Let’s “form a calming circle” and break down the trailer moment by moment and see what it means for this highly anticipated sequel.
Will Hocus Pocus 2 Introduce a New Familiar?
The trailer opens with a scenic shot of a black bird with red and yellow plumage flying over the water. Immediately we are left to wonder if this peculiar bird will make more of an appearance in the sequel.
Remember, the first Hocus Pocus saw the assistance of Binx: the boy (Sean Murray), who was turned into an immortal, talking cat (Jason Marsden) by the witches. This cat served as the protagonists’ familiar. Given Thackery Binx’s transition into the spirit world at the end of Hocus Pocus, it begs the question of whether there will be a helpful animal friend for the adversaries of the Sanderson sisters once more.
Or could it be that Hocus Pocus would follow in the footsteps of other Disney counterparts such as Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty which see magical villains utilizing a bird as a companion? Will evil have a familiar of its own this time?
If that’s the case, the new protagonists undoubtedly have a difficult journey ahead.
Meeting New Characters
The next shot of the trailer sees the introduction of the sequel’s new protagonists. Pictured is Becca (Whitney Peak) and Izzy (Belissa Escobedo) standing by a bike rack in a schoolyard. In the background of the next shot, a partial name can be observed: “…Skelton High School”. Given that the original Hocus Pocus took place at Jacob Bailey High School, it seems our newcomers attend a different school. However, according to the synopsis, the story still takes place in Salem.
In the foreground of the shot, we are introduced to the third protagonist, Cassie (Lilia Buckingham), who wishes Becca a happy birthday.
“What are you guys going to do tonight?” she asks the girls.
Becca replies that they plan to binge scary movies, although the following scenes indicate otherwise.
The Next Generation of Salem Witches
The ensuing frames of the trailer follow Becca striking a match, bringing the flame to a candle nestled in the ground. She and Izzy are huddled around it, in the forest with a full moon glowing brightly in the background.
The shot cuts away, and shows the two girls in the daytime, walking their bikes to a Salem Magic Shoppe. Gilbert (Sam Richardson), who is presumably the shopkeeper, is on the screen, explaining:
“You know legend has it, on her sixteenth birthday is when a witch gets her powers.” A black cat is shown. (Are you my familiar?)
The spoken line at the magic shop reveals a huge plot point of this sequel: the emergence of another witch. Lest we forget that the original Hocus Pocus did not initially feature protagonists that had mystical forms of magick.
Old Magick vs New Magic
In the beginning, the protagonists of the original used the magic of technology to outsmart and confound the evil witches. Most notable examples of this came from:
- The scene where Max seemingly conjured fire in his hand via a lighter, which he then used to set off a sprinkler system he introduced as “the burning rain of death”.
- Then, who could forget the headlights that shone brightly as sunlight as Max proclaimed the witches forgot about Daylight Savings Time.
- Finally, the moment where a recording led the Sanderson sisters into a furnace, and they eventually emerged smoke-filled, saying “Hello, I want my book” in French:
“Bonjour. Je veux mon livre.”
For what it’s worth, these technological tricks only deterred the witches from their goal, they did not defeat them. The protagonist trio was not successful in stopping the witches until they began adapting facets of real magick. Examples of this were Allison utilizing a salt circle, the final fight taking place on hallowed ground, and Max using the witches’ life-force absorbing potion on himself.
It will be interesting to see if the characters of Hocus Pocus 2 will follow this same trend. As sci-fi writer and scientist Arthur C. Clarke famously once said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It was a combination of this technological “new magic” and tenets of old magick that defeated the Sanderson Sisters in the past.
If this is to be the case again, the new characters may have a leg up on the competition as technology has boomed significantly since the witches arose last, and the trailer already shows the protagonists’ propensity to practice old magick.
Witch Worlds Collide
In a voiceover, Becca and Izzy can be heard starting to chant:
“Another year begins anew…”
Then the eerie chants of the Sanderson sisters can be heard:
“Itch-it-a-cop-ita mel-a-ka-mystica”
If you can’t quite put your finger on how that’s familiar, the first time it was heard was during Binx’s curse in the first Hocus Pocus:
“Twist the bones and bend the back.
Itch-it-a-cop-ita mel-a-ka-mystica.
Trim him of his baby fat
itch-it-a-cop-ita mel-a-ka-mystica
Give him fur black as black
Just like…this.”
The girls’ chant continues: “Maiden, mother, and crone too”.
“Itch-it-a-cop-ita mel-a-ka-mystica”
What better an object to make an appearance during all this spellcasting than the Sanderson’s book of magic. While shown only briefly, its stunning resolution and lifelike quality clearly reflect this digital era. The book’s bright blue eye is open once more.
In the next shot, a book is seen shaking on a shelf, with the black cat from before eyeing it closely. Could it be that the Sanderson’s magic book made its way into the Salem Magic Shoppe?
“We call on thee with one request…” the girls’ spell continues. This time, the dialogue is no longer a voice-over. We are taken back to the shot of Becca and Izzy in the woods under a full moon as before, and it’s revealed that this is where they are as they are chanting their spell.
A zoomed-out shot of a church within a cemetery is followed by the close-up of a grave that Hocus Pocus fans will recognize immediately.
“Itch-it-a-cap-ita mel-a-ka-mystika”
“Here lies the body of William Butcherson”
According to the cast list, Doug Jones will be reprising his role as the former love, and victim of Winifred Sanderson: Billy, in Hocus Pocus 2.
The camera flashes back to the girls in the woods as they conclude their spell:
“Help our intentions manifest.”
Just then, the iconic black flame candle bursts to life as Becca’s match ignites it. The girls seem startled by the black of the candle flame and immediately jump back.
This Halloween season, a title card begins.
A shot of the girls staring off into the woods, looking confused or concerned. Followed by another shot, this time of a strong wind blowing the candle flame, and billowing leaves around it. Red smoke begins to emit from the earth near the candle, as the girls are left looking stricken.
Some legends….
The Earth splits, revealing a red glow emanating from within. The girls begin running, as the crack in the Earth outstretches in the opposite direction. It continues to spread until it finally forks into three, forming a pitchfork shape on the ground.
(Given the incorporation of real magickal practice (chanting on a full moon, manifestation, etc.) the pitchfork shape could very well represent the Algiz rune. It aligns with the potential theme of discovering oneself and awakening powers.)
….never die, the title cards continue.
Then the screen goes to black, and the unmistakable, immediately recognizable voice of the great Bette Midler in her role as Winifred Sanderson can be heard.
The Return of the Sanderson Sisters
“Lock up your children!” Winifred Sanderson commands. It is then, through the flashes of strobing light that we are finally given a glimpse of the Sanderson sisters, just as glorious as ever.
“Yes Salem, we’re back!” exclaims Winifred, as the screen fades into green smoke.
As viewers may be aware, Disney tends to use green when representing a villain. How perfect that this callback to villain themes would be immediately succeeded by the title card reading “Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2”.
The same frame also informs us that the film will be available for streaming on September 30th.
Though the trailer is almost over, there is one more morsel of information it offers before it ends.
Another Hocus Pocus song?
A man who seems to be speaking to a security guard appears on the screen, proclaiming, “Hey, it’s the Sanderson sisters! I bet you’re looking for a stage.”
“Always,” replies Winifred Sanderson, absolutely smoldering.
This moment immediately brings to mind the Sanderson sisters’ Halloween performance in Hocus Pocuswhere they hypnotized all the town’s adults to dance until they were dead via the fantastic performance of “I Put a Spell on You.”
(Dancing until death has historical roots, most notably in The Dancing Plague of 1518 where people of the ancient city of Strasbourg began dancing inexplicably for months. Hundreds joined in this dance against their will and danced until they finally dropped from exhaustion. Although the potential causes range from hysteria to mold, no one can definitively explain why this phenomenon has occurred in the past.)
Since Max, Dani, and Allison were able to break the curse by defeating the witches, the adults survived and were left only with the memory of the epic song cover, coupled with a “marvelous introduction” by Max.
The moment in the trailer hopefully means that Hocus Pocus 2 will have its own music numbers, as Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Come Little Children” from the original Hocus Pocus is also a stand-out hit from the film.
It’s worth noting that the cast list shows drag performers Ginger Minj, Kahmora Hall, and Kornbread Jete are slotted to play drag versions of Winifred, Sarah, and Mary, respectively. Therefore, it is a possibility that the man in the trailer could have been mistaking the real Winifred Sanderson for the drag version, hence explaining his comment.
No matter the case, it seems that Bette Midler is poised to take the stage in Hocus Pocus 2, and historically that means greatness is sure to follow.
What’s more, is that Hannah Waddingham is slotted to play a role in the film. However, mysteriously, she is neither featured in the trailer nor is her character name listed on the IMDb cast list.
With three months to go until this film’s release, this teaser trailer gave us so much and so little simultaneously. September 30th can’t come soon enough.
The World’s Largest Halloween and Horror Convention, Midsummer Scream is back this August, and this year it’s all singing, all slashing. That’s right, the iconic horror con is returning August 7-9, 2026, at the Long Beach Convention Center, with a brand new theme: horror musicals. Rocky Horror, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Phantom of the Paradise, and more will be at the center of the convention’s first-ever, musical-themed weekend.
Midsummer Scream 2026 Announces Horror Musical Theme
According to David Markland, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Midsummer Scream, “The year’s theme is for all of the theatre kids that are a huge part of the haunt and horror community…we will be honoring horror musicals of all kinds with a variety of panels, presentations, and performances all weekend.”
Matthew Lillard and Other Horror Icons Headline the Convention
The events and guests list is still being announced, but what we do know is absolutely killer. Horror legend Matthew Lillard (Scream, FNAF) will be headlining the convention, alongside Rocky Horror’s legendary Barry Bostwick and Yellowjackets’ Jasmin Savoy Brown. In addition to these guests, Repo! Director and creator (and Saw alum) Darren Lynn Bouseman will be joining Bill Mosely and Lionsgate for a 20th anniversary celebration of the iconic emo musical masterpiece.
Vendors, Haunts, and Attractions Set to Return
As usual, the convention will still host its usual 350+ incredible vendors, including Trick R’ Treat Studios, Sin City Props, Terror Films, and more. It will include the Hall of Shadows, in addition to a variety of haunt displays and attractions. Eulogy Collective, Fear Farm, and Decayed Brigade are some of the many haunts that will be there. Family friendly pumpkin patch and art exhibits, as well as The Screaming Room Film Festival, are also set to return.
Below is the full list of currently announced Haunts and vendors.
Full List of Currently Announced Haunts at Midsummer Scream 2026
- Eulogy Collective,
- Fear Farm,
- Straite to Hale Productions,
- H&L’s Realm of Horror
- The Dreich Society
- CalHauntS
- The Haunt With No Name…Yet
- Decayed Brigade
- Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights
- Knott’s Scary Farm
- Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group (Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, Delusion, Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns, and Festival Fright Nights at Winchester Mystery House)
- Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest
Vendors Appearing at Midsummer Scream 2026
- The Halloween Shirt Company
- Trick or Treat Studios
- Backstitch Bruja
- Sin City Props
- Terror Films
- Small Town Weirdo
- Froggy’s Fog.
Passes are available now at midsummerscream.org
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NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!
As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever.
From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025!
Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights
Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength
Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons.
During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear.
I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!
You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.
Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet
Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.
I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film.
Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.
Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band
My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to.
“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”
“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.”
That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)
Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy.
Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business
If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.
“Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.”
In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.
Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”
Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.
Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment
Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make.
Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house…
Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature!
Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun
NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long.
At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.
I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life.
That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more.
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