Hocus Pocus (1993) - Parents Guide Movie Rating

MPA: PG BBFC: PG Maturity Rating 7+

MPAA Reason: Rated PG for some scary sequences, and for language.

BBFC Reason: mild scary scenes, violence, sex references HOCUS POCUS is a 1993 fantasy comedy in which three witches return to Salem three hundred years after their execution.

BBFC Ratings info: HOCUS POCUS is a 1993 fantasy comedy in which three witches return to Salem three hundred years after their execution. Threat and horror: A young girl is briefly menaced by witches. A zombie arises from a grave and briefly menaces a group of children. A zombie uses a knife to unstitch his mouth. There are also scenes in which children and teenagers are lured to the witches' house by supernatural means. Violence: There are brief scenes of comic violence, including a scene in which a zombie's fingers are severed, and another in which a talking cat is run over but subsequently makes a full and rapid recovery. There is a brief hanging scene in which three women are executed in the 17th century; detail is limited. Sex: There are undetailed references to virgins. There are infrequent scenes of smoking. There is also some very mild bad language (for example, 'trollop', 'moron', 'jerk', 'damn', 'God', 'stuff it', 'hell').

Sex & Nudity

mild

In the scene where the witch dances with the devil, the second time she is shown with her dress is pulled up quite high, showing her thighs. She has also removed her boots, thus implying a subtle hint at undressing. A bus driver hits on the Sanderson sisters. At one point, he tells them that the bus will take them to their "forbidden desires," to which one of the sisters says, "We desire children." In response, the bus driver says, "It may take me a couple of tries." It is a joke children will most likely not get at all. Max and Allison sleep by each other on the stairs in his bedroom. There is one piece bathing suit type outfit for Wonder Woman and some skimpy outfits for the party scene. Mild sexual innuendo is heard and cleavage is seen, including the mother's madonna pointy boob costume, which she adjusts quite visually during a halloween concert. One of the witches, Sarah (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) is written as the lusty one in the group. She shows ample cleavage throughout the movie and makes several comments related to boys and kissing. She is clearly attracted to the characters Thackery and Max, both of whom are teenage boys, and more than once, she suggests hanging them on a hook and "playing with them". There is talk of the main character's virginity, as it is a requirement to bring the witches back to life. For Halloween, a man is dressed as a motorcycle cop, and his date is dressed presumably as a hooker, though nothing is viewable and she is completely covered. A few references to women's breasts. A comment is made by an 8-year-old girl while she is talking to the teenage girl her older brother Max likes. The little girl says she could never wear a costume like the teenage girl's because she doesn't have any "yabos". Then the child says "Max likes your yabos. In fact, he loves them!" While two teenage boys are talking, one of them suggests looking in windows and "watching babes undress". They don't actually end up doing it, though. Two teenagers almost share a kiss, but it is interrupted by the sound of glass breaking.

Violence & Gore

mild

Some very mild zombie gore. His fingers are severed quite comically and in a separate scene his head is knocked off. The witches kill children by sucking their souls out of them. We see them succeed in doing so once, early in the film. The witches are hanged at the beginning of the film during the Salem Witch Trials. You can see their feet suspended in the air, but nothing is shown beyond that - no blood or gore. A teenage boy lights a candle, resulting in some explosions, a floor moving violently whilst green demonic light shines through the cracks and the appearance of three witches. A rather funny slapstick scene involves a teenage girl hitting a witch with a broom and then conking her on the head with a frying pan. There is no blood and she quickly recovers. Bullies repeatedly intimidate the main teenage character with threats of physical violence. Winifred mistakes the firemen for witch hunters, this is a reference to the ritual witch hunts that occurred during the Salem Witch Trials. A cat is run over by a bus. However, it re-inflates and comes back to life. The witches get their spellbook back, and it sends out a green light that sends Max flying into his drum set and leaves him unconscious. When the witches capture Dani and Binx they use a spell to escape from Max's house and the spell is so powerful that it sends Allison backwards and destroys almost his entire bedroom. In one scene where the Witches try to force Dani to drink the potion she resists by biting Mary's fingers and kicking Sarah in the legs. Sarah then grabs and holds her head while trying to force her to open her mouth. The main antagonist Winifred uses electrokenisis which she shoots green electric beams from her fingertips, she first uses her powers to stun Thackery in the beginning in the movie and later uses them to attack Max. A witch follows a car and catches up to it. She tries to strangle the teenage boy behind the wheel, his sister and his friend quickly fend her off. But she tries to stop them from getting away once more, and the boy violently jerks the steering wheel causing the car to smack the witch. She lands into a bush, unharmed. One act of violence involves the witches pushed into a pottery kiln, locked in, and presumably burned to death. (You see the flames consuming them, but it is not very graphic.) Three kids are seen celebrating this in the next scene. The witches ultimately escape. They kick the door down and emerge from the room, coughing and gasping for breath. There is smoke all around them, but they are not physically hurt. A witch grabs a little girl and tries to kill her with a life-force draining potion, she is seen trying to resist but the witch viciously pries her hand off her mouth. A witch is seen throwing a cat off of her shoulder, we see him plummet to the ground, hit a tombstone and fall unconscious, he later lets out a weak meow and dies after the witch and her sisters die. After Max decides to save Dani via sacrifice, he is swept off the ground by Winifred. He is seen trying to fight her off and he almost falls to his death. A teenage boy punches a witch in the face and they both fall down to the ground, they are both unharmed.

Profanity

mild

As mentioned there is 6 uses of damn 3 of them are used after Winnifred summons Billy from the dead. Winnifred exclaims "Damn, damn, double damn!" 6 uses of "damn", 4 uses of "hell", plus 9 uses of "virgin" and 2 uses of "yabos" (used during a discussion of a teen girl's breasts). Several insults including "trollop", "broad", "wench", "oinker", "moron" and "jerk-face".

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

mild

Satan's wife is shown smoking a cigarette as the Sanderson sisters go into the house and then into the living room. A Halloween party for adults is shown, however no references to alcohol or drugs are used. A teenage boy asks another teenage boy, Max, for a "butt", obviously referring to cigarettes. Max says he doesn't smoke and gets made fun of for it.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

moderate

(Deleted. Personal opinions about ratings are not appropriate for the Parents Guide.) Some intense scenes involving witch craft, execution, fires, child abduction, the afterlife, and a scene where the cat is killed (but comes back to life). The witches' spell book literally has an eye in front of it that opens and closes and responds to voices. This can be scary for younger kids. The witches kill a child by sucking her soul out of her, so they can be younger. The little girl is sitting in a chair with her head hanging down, obviously dead. The three witches are presumably hanged at the beginning of the movie, during the Salem Witch Trial period. We see their feet come up from the ground as they are hanged, but that's the most that is shown on camera. A witch jumps out from underneath the covers of a bed in a 'jump scene'. Two teenage boys are put in cages that are hung in the air by the three witches. We never see them released from the cages. At the end of the movie, they are seen just sitting there alone, singing random tunes to themselves. It's more comical than anything else, though. Billy's character has a grotesque physical appearance that may be unsettling for young children. The final battle may be too intense for younger viewers. Two deceased characters--a teenage boy and an approximately 7-year-old little girl--are seen walking together toward some kind of bright, sunny afterlife at the end of the movie. It isn't necessarily scary, but it may require some explaining for younger viewers. The character Dani lets out a rather intense scream when she is swept off the ground by Winifred, the film's main antagonist. The three witches officially die at the end of the movie. The lead witch, Winnie, turns into stone and explodes. The other two just explode in the air. There is some comic relief when the third witch goes "Uh-oh, bye-bye" right before she explodes.