While I haven’t quite managed to see all of the original Practical Magic, it still sits in that pop-cultural corner of my brain.
 

There’s something wonderfully cosy about it. The house, the witches, the autumn setting and those midnight margaritas. It feels like Halloween and a warm blanket all at once. Intriguingly, Practical Magic wasn’t an enormous phenomenon on first release, but it has become one. Over the years, people have fallen in love with returning to that world, and that’s a fascinating legacy for Practical Magic 2 to step into. The great news is that it absolutely recaptures that magic.

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Twenty-eight years after we first met the Owens sisters, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as Sally and Gillian. Sally’s two daughters are now grown, but they have been raised without fully understanding the magical inheritance that runs through their family.

As the Owens women seek to finally break the curse that has haunted their family for generations, they are drawn into another magical adventure filled with secrets, spells and the complicated bonds that hold the family together.

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Narratively, the film doesn’t ask a lot of you. If anything, it knows exactly what kind of film it wants to be: a warm, sensory return to familiar characters and places. And it does that with ease. There’s magic, there’s a touch of romance with just enough spookiness around the edges, but mostly it’s about welcoming you back.

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There’s something comforting about watching Bullock and Kidman together again. Their relationship remains at the heart of this world, and the film understands that audiences aren’t simply returning for the spells or the supernatural story. They’re returning because they want to spend more time with these women. It leans into nostalgia, but that’s kind of the point.
 

Grab your friends, line up a couple of margaritas and settle in. It’s a comfort film that understands exactly why people kept coming back to the first one.

And by the time the credits roll, you might not leave on a broomstick. But you just might leave with a sense that a little bit of that magic has rubbed off. 

Practical Magic 2 doesn’t try to reinvent the spell that made the original a cult favorite. It just mixes up another batch. Warm, nostalgic, a little spooky and best enjoyed with great friends and a cheeky midnight margarita.