‘Product Review: “Hocus Pocus 13 Frights of Halloween” and “Hocus Pocus” Tarot Deck
“Hocus Pocus” is having a well deserved moment almost thirty years after coming to theaters. Though upon its initial release the film received mixed reviews and a disappointing box office return, “Hocus Pocus” (fittingly) had a much more successful second life in home entertainment and annual TV broadcasts. Within the last decade, the movie has firmly found its place a cozy yet spooky classic in Halloween watches, finding the rarely populated middle ground between horror and children’s content. This popularity led not only to the sequel (streaming now on Disney+), but also a burst of new tie in products, two of which are reviewed below, each retailing for $24.99.
“Hocus Pocus: 13 Frights of Halloween”
This activity book is a spooky take on the Christmas advent calendar, featuring 13 pouches of activities, trivia, trinkets and more. 
Most of the days are paper prizes such as activity booklets, trivia, games, stickers and stencils, but a few days include solid souvenirs such as a phone stick wallet and others (I don’t want to spoil too many of the days).
This is a fun twist on the Christmas advent calendar, providing more games and activities each day rather than chocolates or little toys. Especially for younger children, the prizes in each pouch give a more of an activity for each day’s surprise and will occupy more time than some other takes on advent calendars and countdown books. That being said, for older kids or adult fans of the movie the games and activities inside might not be worth the price: only four of the 13 days are non-disposable souvenirs.
“Hocus Pocus Tarot Deck and Guidebook” written by Minerva Siegel and Tori Schafer and illustrated by DreaD.
In my opinion, as a fan of both Disney and gorgeous illustrations, this tarot deck has a lot of bang for your buck. Minerva Siegel and Tori Schafer’s guidebook is very accessible and detailed in explanations of the deck, and includes some spread specific to “Hocus Pocus” such as Wisdom of the Witches and The Cat’s Eye.
Even if you aren’t a practitioner or believer of tarot, this deck includes beautiful packaging and 78 cards featuring beautiful renderings of characters, objects and settings from the film. DreaD.’s illustrations in the guidebook and the cards themselves are high quality and bring an interesting new eye to the movie aesthetic.
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