Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel is a 2018 book based off of the 1993 film Hocus Pocus. It is both a novelization of the original film and a sequel.
The sequel takes place twenty-five years after the original story. It focuses on Max and Allison's daughter, Poppy, who grew up hearing the family story of the first film and parents who avoid Halloween as much as possible. Poppy is skeptical of the tale and ends up in the Sanderson house on Halloween, twenty-five years to the day after the movie, in an attempt to prove there's nothing to the story.
This book provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The events during the 1600s are expanded on. Included is how the Sandersons had been targeting Emily for months before her death and their manipulation of the village to avoid any comeuppance up to that point. It's revealed that while the town did know they were witches, they were viewed as more of an annoyance than a true threat, though how much of that was due to the mental manipulations is unknown. It also reveals what happened to the spell book after the witches were caught: someone picked it up, later revealed to be Elizabeth Sanderson.
- Some events of the movie were also expanded on, showing that Max planned on going to the Sanderson house with Allison the entire time but never got the chance to ask her.
- Adults Are Useless: Zig-Zagged. Max, Allison and Dani are sent off to Hell before they can even start to help, Jay (now the school principal) is deliberately unhelpful because Max left him and Ernie in the cages, but Poppy and her friends do get help from an adultnote , albeit one that's a ghost (Elizabeth Sanderson).
- Alpha Bitch. Katie, Jay's daughter in the sequel, is this. She eventually comes around after helping Poppy stop the witches.
- Also Winnie, to her sisters of course.
- Brick Joke:
- The school kiln used to burn the sisters is still broken.
- When Poppy meets Binx in the sequel, his very first words refer to the Running Gag of the first one.Binx: Hello, Poppy. I'm guessing your dad's no longer a virgin.
- Call-Back: While in the sequel, neither of them decorate for Halloween for obvious reasons, Allison's specifically stated to avoid fake gravestones because she finds them tasteless "since she had a soft spot for a zombie named Billy she met twenty-five years ago."
- There is a photograph of Max wearing the Peter Pan tights.
- Disney Death: Druscilla is knocked off the lighthouse by Travis and falls to her death.
- Dwindling Party: In the climax, the spell used to resurrect the witches in Hell is used over and over again. Katie and Travis are swapped and Elizabeth is rendered unable to help.
- Equivalent Exchange: Of a sort. The spell used to resurrect the witches swap three souls, ie. people, to take the witches' place in hell. Max, Allison and Dani are chosen.
- Eviler than Thou: Druscilla the Dreadful, the Sanderson matriarch.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The book is both a novelization of Hocus Pocus as well as a sequel story.
- Forced Transformation: Isabella is turned into a Boston Terrier. Travis believes it be a pun since they live in Salem.
- Hidden Depths: Mary Sanderson. She views herself as more competent than Winifred believes her to be. Specifically, that Winifred only takes charge because she is the best at magic while her sisters have other strengths, such as sniffing out or luring children, and wants to be more recognized for her actions. She even has a song sequence venting her frustration.
- In the Blood: Isabella was compelled to find Winifred's spell book. This is because she is their very distantly related grandniece.
- Lampshade Hanging: Just about everywhere in the sequel story, including a reference to the original film's Cult Classic status. Dani: We haven't really wrapped up the Halloween festivities yet, so it's not to late to watch our favorite Halloween movie. [Max and Allison both groan] Come on! It's a cult classic! We've watched it every Halloween since we were kids!
- MacGuffin: The blood moonstone that the witches seek to use to resurrect their Mother and Master, as well as hundreds of witches to form a coven.
- Poppy and her friends are also after it, as destroying it will send the witches back to Hell and bring back the people that were traded in exchange, since as Elizabeth explained, breaking the stone undoes every spell cast by a Sanderson witch.
- My Greatest Failure: Elizabeth regards Emily and Thackery's deaths as this, as she could have prevented them both if she had stood up to her sisters.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Elizabeth attempted to use Winifred's spell book to resurrect Emily. She is hanged for her actions, but not before helping her husband and child escape.
- Out of Focus: Mary and Sarah Sanderson play very little part in the sequel novel.
- Pre-Explosion Buildup: Happens when the blood moonstone is destroyed, right before the shockwave blows the witches away.
- Pungeon Master: Travis, almost constantly.
- Winifred and Druscilla also spout puns. Must have been where Winnie inherited it from.
- Put on a Bus: Max's parents and Ernie. Max's parents retired and moved, while Ernie left the state due to the events of the movie.
- Running Gag: The witches using modern appliances to fly. Sarah even resorts to using a roomba, with he legs dangling off it.
- While not a gag, the running theme of the spell book missing/being forgotten and being picked up by someone happens in each century.
- Sequel Hook: The sequel novel has this at the ending. Poppy realizes that Winifred's book has gone missing. Exactly one year later a teenage warlock uses it to re-awaken his brother, Billy, again.
- Shout-Out: In the sequel, Allison is now an attorney and then negotiating with "the Man in charge" of Hell while she, Max and Dani are there, which is likely a nod to The Devil and Daniel Webster.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Jay blames Max, and by extension Poppy, for leaving him and Ernie trapped in the cages.
- Skeptic No Longer: Max and Allison's daughter in the sequel believes her parents' story about what happened with the Sanderson sisters is just them being ridiculous, and says as much to them. And then she goes to the Sanderson house on a Halloween that coincides with a blood moon and ends up waking the Sanderson sisters herself.
- Spin-Offspring: The sequel takes place 25 years later. It stars Max and Allison's 17-year old daughter Poppy.
- Jay's daughter, Katie, is also a prominent character. Isabella might also count, as she is the very distantly removed great-niece of the Sanderson trio, as Elizabeth's distant descendant.
- Spirit Advisor: To be specific, ghostly advisors: Thackery Binx, Emily Binx and Elizabeth Sanderson,.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Winifred successfully resurrects her mother, Druscilla, who immediately attempts to usurp control.
- We Used to Be Friends: Katie and Isabella when they were younger, only to grow apart as they grew up.
- What the Hell, Hero?: How Jay views Max for leaving him and Ernie trapped in the cages.
- White Sheep: Elizabeth Sanderson, the youngest sister of Winifred, Sarah and Mary, is this. She is a witch but attempted to use her powers for good.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: More so "Why don't you use your powers to enthrall everyone at once?" Sarah uses her powers to control children to hunt for the moonstone, but only those she calls on Isabella's missing phone. Poppy wonders why, when she previously enthralled all of Salem at once while flying over it.
