When The Addams Family television series came out in 1964, it was a huge hit. It wasn't like anything on TV at the time and it told the delightfully spooky story of the adventures of a macabre family that is incredibly bonded. Even though their butler is eight feet tall and they have a pet-turned-friend named Thing, there's something intriguing about the family. In 1991, the first movie directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Charles Addams came to theaters. In fact, The Addams Family is one of Sonnenfeld's best movies to date, which isn't a surprise.
Starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christopher Lloyd, this film is a family-favorite throughout the year, but also perfect for getting into the Halloween mood. While there have been spin-offs and sequels, there are other similar movies, old and new, that can help viewers get in the Halloween spirit, as well.
Addams Family Values (1993)
In 1993, a highly-rated sequel to the 1991 hit came out. Addams Family Values continues the story of the quirky family after Morticia has a baby boy. After Uncle Fester is rescued and back to his old self, he finds new love, but it's not all rainbows and butterflies.
The family soon realizes that his soon-to-be wife doesn't have good intentions and in good old fashioned Addams style, they teach her a lesson she won't forget. The original cast came back, which made the movie successful and the ratings just as high as the original.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Directed by the iconic Tim Burton, Beetlejuice is among the best Halloween movies and for good reason. Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, and Alec Baldwin, this amazing line-up of actors and actresses were perfectly cast and fit right in with the campy flick. It starts out with a normal couple, Adam and Barbara, on a stay-cation. They go into town for supplies and end up in a car accident. When they arrive home, they realize they're deceased and try to figure out what to do next.
When a new family from the city moves into their home, they realize they cannot live with these imposters. They enlist in a devious poltergeist named Betelgeuse to help them get rid of the family, but figure out quickly he has other motives for being in the world of the living.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Death Becomes Her combines a good mix of comedy, fantasy, and horror, when a woman named Helen, played by Goldie Hawn, learns of an immortality treatment.
After her longtime rival Madeline, played by Meryl Streep, takes Helen's fiance, Helen becomes obsessed with revenge and will stop at nothing to prove she is the alpha between the two. Side effects of the treatment ensue and Helen awakes, but not exactly alive and well.
Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark (1988)
In the year 1988, the film industry brought viewers a lot of flicks mixing comedy and horror, and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is one of them. This film follows the story of Elvira, a horror hostess of a late-night show that decides to go on an adventure to a small town in Massachusetts, where a telegram asks her to collect the inheritance that her great-aunt Morgana left for her.
Elvira has been given a mansion, a recipe book, and a poodle, and while this is all great, the locals of the small town do not welcome her with open arms, based on her attire and demeanor. Elvira seeks help from a cinema owner to get her life back on track and to start anew.
Dark Shadows (2012)
When a love affair goes wrong and the man in the relationship, Barnabas Collins, tries to end things, the woman, Angelique Bouchard, is much more than she lets on to be. She curses Barnabas and changes him into a vampire, for decades. When he's set free, he goes back to his home to find his relatives living in it.
It's there he finds a dysfunctional family in ruins and harboring their own secrets. Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Eva Green, Dark Shadows is a remake that's a spooky little flick with comedy intertwined. This is the most recent collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, which makes for a great duo and an even greater film.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
When Jack Skellington, the "King of Halloween Town" makes his yearly appearance, he realizes something is missing in his life. He wants more, so after Halloween, the town's biggest holiday, he goes soul-searching. What he finds in the creepy forest is just what he's looking for, but for a price.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those films that will stay with viewers for years to come. Because of its incredibly unique animation, The Nightmare Before Christmas has aged well and can be enjoyed during either Halloween and Christmas, a point which will forever be up for debate amongst its fans.
When Good Ghouls Go Bad (2001)
Christopher Lloyd, best known for his role in the Back to the Future franchise, stars as Uncle Fred Walker, a man who brings Halloween back to a town who hasn't celebrated it for decades. Why? A boy named Curtis Danko was killed 20 years prior in a mysterious accident and leaves a warning to the town to never celebrate the holiday again.
Fred Walker and his family set off a chain of events that will unleash an evil that may or may not be Curtis Danko seeking revenge and fulfilling his warning. Written by R.L. Stine and directed by Patrick Read Johnson, this 2001 classic is sure to instill Halloween vibes in whoever watches it.
The Witches (1990)
The Witches is a quirky adventure-filled film that is in a genre of its own. Even though it involves a witch convention, it's a film that the whole family can enjoy, without the stress of R-rated scenes. Starring Angelica Huston, The Witches is a movie about a young boy that accidentally stumbles upon a convention filled with witches at a hotel he's staying at.
This group of witches is plotting a plan to rid England of all the children and the young boy is on a mission to stop them before it's too late. The Witches is magical and fun and filled with some of the most iconic evil witches in film.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Sleepy Hollow is a classic story by Washington Irving about Ichabod Crane and The Headless Horseman. The story has been told before, but in 1999, it brought a fresh take and an excellent cast. The Sleepy Hollow remake is lead by Ichabod Crane, played by Johnny Depp, who comes to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the deaths of three locals.
Ichabod Crane brings his new world views to the small village that is filled with secrets, affairs, and murder that's either being covered up or by the famous Headless Horsemen himself. This is a classic Johnny Depp film, filled with gothic tones, beautiful filmography, and a role that was made for him.
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019)
Fans were given the opportunity to experience one of their favorite childhood books on the silver screen and it was received rather well in 2019. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark reimages the terrible stories created by a girl named Sarah Bellows, which becomes all too real. Sarah lives on the edge of the town of Mill Valley, in a mansion in ruins, where her ancestry looms and glooms.
Secrets arise and a group of unsuspecting teenagers unleashes an evil the town wanted to keep locked away. Released by Lionsgate, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is one of their best horror films, to date.