Halloween Top 10: Family Fear

The theme from the original series

The series was so popular it spawned five movies between it’s cancellation in 1966 and 1996 as well as a colour series in the 80s, with a new film possibly in the works. If you enjoyed the original series, the first two feature-length films “Munster Go Home!” and “The Munsters’ Revenge” are probably the most like the original, even if some of the jokes are taken directly from episodes of the show. The other movies are a bit hit and miss, but even “The Munsters Scary Little Christmas”, which features none of the original cast and was ill-received by critics, is surprisingly enjoyable.

The Addams Family

Like the Munsters, the Addamses were another television family whose spooky antics scared and surprised the suburban community where they live. But where the Munsters borrowed from Universal’s back catalogue, the concept for the Addams Family was taken from the work of cartoonist Charles Addams, whose strips had already inspired the horror hostess character Vampira. A wealthier family than the Munsters, the Addamses were Gomez, a strange-looking man with boyish enthusiasm for almost everything; Mortica, the slinky matriarch; Gomez’s brother Fester; Grandmamma, and the two children Wednesday and Pugsley. The television series, which first ran in the 60s, was stranger and darker than the Munsters, but the franchise only caught up with the black humour of the cartoon strips with the 1991 film of the same name. Riotously funny but pitch black in tone, the film ignored the continuity of the series and had the family for the missing Uncle Fester, who is reunited with them thanks to an evil scheme by the family’s shifty lawyer and the loan shark he owes money to. It’s peppered with hilarious moments, such as a weird reunion party or the children’s gruesome take on Romeo and Juliet. Quite possibly the kookiest, spookiest and altogether ookiest family film around.

The brilliant tango scene from “Addams Family Values”: Gomez and Morticia dance up a storm while Fester tries some more novel seduction techniques on Debbie

If you enjoyed the first film, be sure to check out the sequel “Addams Family Values” which is even darker, funnier and stranger, and sees the children sent to a horrifically chirpy holiday camp when a serial killing seductress gets her claws into Fester. Sadly the third film, “Addams Family Reunion” isn’t as good, despite having Tim Curry playing Gomez, but if your family prefer the lighter humour of the television series you might want to give that a go too.