Halloween is for pumpkins and ghost stories and candy and costumes. The thirty first of October, and the entire month preceding it, are reserved for the silliest and the scary and the spookiest society has to offer. 

And the best of the best? The cream of the crop? The silliest, scariest, spookiest part of Halloween? Halloween movies!

From cult classics like Hocus Pocus to horror-filled films like the Halloween series, seasonal fall films are enjoyable to a wide variety of groups and are supremely memorable in the fabric of what makes up Halloween. 

One of the most well-known iterations of a Halloween movie is the 1991 Addams Family. Three films were made starring the macabre family that decade and created many strong fans. There’s a tv show about the Addams family. There’s a Broadway show about the Adams family. There’s a violently catchy theme song about the Addams family. 

And this year, because there is clearly not already enough Addams family in the world, there’s a new animated film about the most terrifying family around. 

The film boasts an impressive cast, with patriarch and matriarch of the family, Gomez and Morticia Addams respectively, being voiced by Oscar Issac and Charlize Theron. Nay do well children, the mischievous Pugsly Addams and goth and gruesome Wednesday Addams, are voiced by Finn Wolfhard and Chloë Grace Moretz. The quirkiest relatives are back as well, with Uncle Fester and Grandma being voiced by Nick Kroll and Bette Midler. 

The plot follows the spooktacular family and their beginning, continuing with them as they move houses and try to allow their lifestyles to coexist with their suburban New Jersey neighbors.

The plot sounds pretty meh, I know. For a group of characters that are already so familiar with most audiences, having a rather banal plot is less than helpful. 

That being said, it wasn’t unenjoyable. It was certainly a children’s movie but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have fun in the theatre. Like most movies meant for younger audiences, it was simplistic and filled with easy jokes. Watching the film gave me a few hours to relax, to not really think about anything, and to just enjoy a comical, straightforward seasonal movie. 

The animation style wasn’t anything revolutionary, but it was exaggeratedly cartoonish in the perfect way. In Disney princess films, the animation strives to look more lifelike. But, in a movie about outlandish and weird characters, the way in which they’re designed makes sense to be strange and unusual. 

No surprise, the star-studded lineup of voice actors delivered. They all nailed different accents and delivering the idiosyncratic tones their roles demand. 

The movie was well-executed and enjoyable; there just was absolutely nothing to set it apart in not only a holiday genre full of well-loved movies, but from the countless other interpretations of the Addams family that came before. 

If you’re looking for a chance to go to the movie theatre and watch a Halloween film, The Addams Family will certainly suffice; but, if you have a night you’d rather spend at home, renting a different Halloween flick would put you in the spooky spirit better.