Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 10, 2026
The cycle of legacy sequels has come for Practical Magic. 28 years on from its release, the witchy rom-com starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock is returning to the world of the Owens sisters. Most of the original cast is back (although, notably, not Evan Rachel Wood) and Susanne Bier has taken over directorial duties from Griffin Dunne. Set twenty-five years after the events of the first film, Practical Magic 2 follows Sally and Gillian Owens as they are forced to confront the curse that’s plagued their family for generations. Sound familiar? Well, such is the fate of a legacy sequel. Rehashes of the original are the name of the game, and the critics have not been shy in noting how tired and derivative this sequel is. But it’s one that many fans have waited decades for. The idea of there even being a Practical Magic sequel seemed impossible for years. Why make a follow-up to a flop that the critics wrote off?
In 1998, Practical Magic seemed like a safe bet. Sandra Bullock was a box office hit and Nicole Kidman was proving herself to be a brilliant actress who was so much more than Mrs. Tom Cruise. The story was adapted from an acclaimed novel by Alice Hoffman, who had recently been a choice for Oprah’s book club. The ’90s had seen a spate of paranormal films with varying degrees of gothic allure, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire to The Addams Family and the continuing dominance of Stephen King. With Buffy Summers and the Halliwell sisters on the horizon, Practical Magic slotted into things nicely. Yet it failed to make its budget back and reviews lambasted the film for being a tonally confused mess. Dunne even wondered if the movie had been cursed by a witch who served as a consultant on the film and later sued the studio over a pay dispute.
Yet audiences eventually flocked to the film, largely through TV screenings and it becoming a Halloween staple. If you wanted good seasonal vibes without blood and guts, you simply couldn’t beat a film that seemed to have been brewed in a cauldron to serve as aesthetic inspiration for legions of fall-obsessed women. This is a film of gorgeous women in big witches hats drinking margaritas in the most gorgeous house this side of the “Backstreet’s Back” mansion. But if that was all that Practical Magic had to offer, I doubt it would have endured for decades.
The Owens family has been cursed for over three hundred years, meaning that any man any of them fall in love with will die horribly. Gillian (Kidman) is a love addict who leaps from romance to romance while Sally (Bullock) is left widowed when her lovely husband falls victim to the curse. They reunite as adults at their beloved aunts’ home, a safe haven from the cruel townsfolk who have mocked and feared them for decades. How could things get any messier? Add an abusive ex, a murder, a magical revival, then another murder, and an investigation involving a hunky cop. And margaritas.
Those initial critics weren’t necessarily wrong about the film. Tonally, it is kind of baffling. This is a breezy rom-com that’s also a family drama, a paranormal thriller, and a dark exploration of domestic violence. The swings between horror and humour are often dizzying. The bleakness of the story is surprisingly potent given the context, and some moments are genuinely scary. For all of the cozy surroundings, this is still a story of violent men and the entrapment of women by a patriarchal society. Gillian’s abusive boyfriend wreaks havoc on her life even after death, a spectre of trauma who claws his way into her very soul, literally and figuratively. But even outside of love, the Owens women are ostracised for going against the grain. They live in a kind of matriarchal bliss that makes the locals suspicious. What are witches to the world if not unruly women who break the rules?
While Practical Magic is technically a rom-com, the romance is tertiary. Really, this is not a film especially concerned with men. They’re granted little agency, which offers a fun gender flip of Hollywood’s status quo. The focus is on sisterhood, on familial bonds, and on the power that can be generated when women come together. That shouldn’t be a big deal but seriously, do you know how rare it was in the ’90s to get a film like that? Hell, it’s hardly a common occurrence in 2026. Such things are now “woke”, apparently.
Practical Magic is a weird movie, odder than it gets credit for, and that’s part of what helped it to survive beyond the first flush of hype. Nothing about it feels like it was demanded by a boardroom full of men in suits. It’s a film of unexpected contrasts that aims for both light and dark. As Halloween rolls forward, one cannot help but crave warm autumnal tones, Faith Hill songs, and an earnest appreciation of the bonds between women. The margaritas are just a welcome extra.
