Because We’re Addams: The Addams Family (1991)

Because we’re Addams

So I know, I committed a huge faux pas five years ago when I reviewed the sequel over the original film.

It was my first Horrorfest, and I hadn’t established any “rules” but was just doing whatever I watched or any films that popped in my head.

Oh, well

However, since then I have realized that just because it’s not as good as the sequel, that doesn’t mean I should ignore it.

Yes, I love The Addam’s Family. I watched the TV show, I loved everything about them, and have seen The Addam’s Family Values like a million times.

I love how kind and caring and macabre they are. It is fantastic.

So if it is such a great concept, why is the second film fantastic but the first only okay? (At least in my opinion.)

Hmm…

Well let’s do a brief synopsis:

The Addams family is zany, fun, and awesome. They used to be a giant clan, but have lost people in interesting and deadly ways throughout the years. Now they consist of Gomez Addams, his wife Morticia, and their two kids Pugsley and Wednesday. Morticia’s mother also lives with them in their old Victorian home. Along with the family is their butler Lurch and servant hand Thing.

Gomez had an older brother Fester-but he and Gomez fought and Fester took off, never to be seen again. Through the years Gomez has tried everything to find him.

And has been heartbroken at the loss of his brother, ever hoping that one day he would return.

Meanwhile, their accountant, Tully Alford, has been trying to embezzle from their treasure room. He has no other clients and owes a ton of money to a loan shark. When the loan shark comes to collect bringing her goliath of a son, Gordon, Tully gets an idea.

If they give Gordon a few alterations, he’s a dead ringer for Uncle Fester. They decide to send to the family with a story of him having amnesia in order to have him accepted. Y the Addamses and to discover where the money is.

Gordon does, but as he pretends to be Uncle Fester he starts to enjoy the Addams’ Family way of life. Will he be able to stick to the plan, or will he instead take on the role of Uncle Fester permanently?

Hmm…

So why doesn’t this film work?

Well the issues are that the storyline is boring.

It is something we have seen many times before and you knew immediately how it would end.

Meh.

The storyline is amazing in the sequel! You never knew what was going to happen with the kids, the adults, or Debbie.

In this

In this film the characters are more sedate, while in the sequel they go all out. To be fair I think the director, writer, and actors weren’t sure how far they could go.

It isn’t horrible, but it just isn’t as fun. Especially in comparison to the sequel.

The only thing I really loved about this film was I thought it was cute when Margaret Alford and Cousin It get together, especially how at first she was all “I can’t stand the Addams”, but in the end becomes one.

Aw!

And Raúl Juliá. He was such an amazing actor and he was Gomez Addams. I could watch hour after hour after hour of him being Gomez Addams and never get tired of it.

If they had made a third film (not The Addams Family Reunion), that was just Raúl Juliá being Gomez Addams I would have paid to watch that over and over.

Sadly he passed away at an early age. So sad as we lost a talented star.

It’s not a bad film to watch, but in my opinion the sequel is amazing.

To start Horrorfest VI, from the beginning, go to One of Our Guests is a Werewolf, I Know It.: The Beast Must Die (1974)

For the previous post, go to Why Didn’t You Stop Me, Sam? You Know How Much I Hated Her! Why Didn’t You Stop Me?: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

For more on The Addams Family, go to Someone Very Special: The Addam’s Family Values (1993)

For more Horror-Comedies, go to I Died for You! I Came Back from the Dead for You! I Love You!: My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

You Will Die in Seven Days: The Ring (2002)

“You will die in seven days…”

So many of you might remember the post I did a year ago on Ringu, the original Japanese film. I had watched Ringu because I had heard that it was far creepier and better version that the American one. However, I found that to be false, with The Ring being the creepier one of the two. This was mostly due to the actors, some story changes, and a better explanation of Samarra. But more than anything else, my own personal connection to the film (I’ll mention that at the end).

So I was home alone one night (my roommates were all out of town for the weekend) and decided that I would spend the night in watching films. I had spotted this at the library and decided that it was perfect film for the occasion. I decided that instead of watching it alone in the living room, I would watch it in my room with the lights off. You know, set the “creepy mood”.

So the story is pretty similar to the Japanese film. You have two girls who are talking about a cabin weekend that one of the girls, Katie, had gone to. Suddenly the topic of a cursed videotape comes up. If you watch this tape you will die in seven days. After her niece dies, the main character, Rachel (Naomi Watts) starts tracking down what caused her death and gets caught up in a supernatural mystery. (For more info check out Ringu or watch the film).

So what made this film much creepier than the original? Let’s get started.

1. Lighting/Set Design

I’m not sure where the story takes place but it is always raining and gloomy. Plus the camera crew gave the whole movie this blue tint when filming which also adds to the creepiness/horror film feel to it.

 

2. The Kid

In the first film Yoshi wasn’t really in the film that much. He had the nightmares and could hear his cousin “calling” to him, but that was mostly it. He watches the video, which leads his mother to try even harder to discover how to stop it. He then gets dropped off at his grandfather’s house for a bit and we don’t see him until the end of the film.

In the remake this kid is SUPER CREEPY

He’s kinda like Cole from The Sixth Sense, that is if Cole wasn’t a cutie. I mean this kid is an uber creep as he only talks in monotone, and doesn’t act like a kid at all-more like a 30 year old man. To top it off he even draws strange murderous pictures. Horrifying.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3) The Video

So The Ring came out four years after Ringu and had much better special effects, not gonna lie about that. And the video was much more creepy in this film. Freaky, emphasis on the FREAK.

4. Samara/Background Explanation

So in the original film we don’t get a full background on her. We find out that a professor was looking into studies of mental telepathy and other things like that. He found a woman that has this ability and the two end up having a child that for some reason is more powerful, and CRAZY! The main character’s ex-husband also just happens to have this ability. That’s it. That’s all we get.

How does it pass down? Why does the husband have it? Is that why they got a divorce? Why was the girl so much stronger? Why did she kill all the horses?

In the remake they give her a weirder background that explains her murderous tendencies. She was almost drowned as a baby, taken away from her family, and then put into social services. She has a history of trying to get attention/be the center of attention. She was adopted by a couple that really wanted kids but she was unlike anything they had ever seen. She started to develop these powers that freaked out her parents as she was getting into their minds.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She goes to a psychiatric hospital and is questioned and treated, causing her to react as a kid would with anger. She kills her doctor and gets sent back home to the horse ranch.

To prevent her from harming anyone, they put her up in the barn away from everyone else with only a TV set. This makes her very angry.

She gets very jealous and kills all the horses by making them go insane. To her adoptive mother, Anna, those were her children. She loved them and cared for them. She has a complete mental breakdown and gets sent to a sanatarium. After she is released the family goes to the mountains and she kills Samarra by throwing her down a well, and them committing suicide herself.

It may be strange, but explains things a whole lot more than the original. Plus it is very creepy.

So personal connection.

As I mentioned earlier, I was home alone. I had 5 housemates; 3 were staying the night at their boyfriends house and 2 had gone home to see her parents. My actual roommate had gone home to see her parents and wasn’t coming back until the next day. Instead of chilling in the living room, I took my food into my bedroom, along with the film.

So I was watching the film and had just gotten to the part when Rachel has watched the tape and received the call that in seven days she will die. Just as she has hung up her phone, my phone rings!

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I pause the film and reach for the phone, shakily saying hello as its ringing scared the bejeezus out of me.

It was just my sister. She had an idea for something and wanted to bounce it off me.

Phew!

So I go back to watching the film. As I reach the part when Samarra comes out of the TV

My door starts to open.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So let me explain campus security. The dorms I was living in were like townhouses. They had 4 bedrooms-2 singles & 2 doubles. Every student was given an ID card that held campus money, allowed us to check out books, go into the rec center & dining hall, and most importantly our rooms. We had two doors to the dorms that were set to only accept the cards of the people of the house. Besides running your card through the slot (like a debit card) each member of the house had a unique four-digit number to gain access. A card wasn’t enough, you had to use your code as well. Plus the code had to match the card or else you were out of luck.

To make that even more impressive, every room was encoded to only accept the occupant’s card. My roommate and I were the only ones who could into my room, unless someone had one of our cards. (The codes were only for the front & back doors.)

So you can see why I was freaked out. Everyone had made plans to be gone, defintely be gone. But yet here was my door opening and someone or something entering.

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It being really dark and the fact that the rooms were L-shaped (therefore making it hard to see “who” was exactly coming in through the door) didn’t help that much.

Of course, as I’m sure you all have figured out by now it was just my roommate. It turns out she had changed her mind and decided to come home early.

This experience made the film much more exciting, although anything that happened in the film afterward that last scare was pretty anti-climatic.

So It was a pretty great film and I suggest you check it out.

And I’m not just trying to pass it off to save myself from being killed. LOL

To start Horrorfest III from the beginning, go to Even a Man Pure of Heart

To go to the previous post, go to You Think You Know Something, Do You?

For more on Ringu, go to That Video…Is Not of This World

For more on real life mimicking horror films, go to Krueger Town 

For more evil children, go to He Who Walks Behind the Rows

For more on remakes, go to Let Them Fight

For more films that spanned sequels, go to It’s Happening Again, Isn’t It?

For more on Supernatural, go to I’m Batman!

Even After All This Time: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Romantic Moment #13

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011)

So during the summer my then boyfriend Michael and I made a deal that for every Harry Potter film I saw he would watch a Jane Austen film. I made this up so that each of us could be a part of something that we both cared about and was a big part our lives growing up. When we broke up (It’s a Wrap and The End),  I had only seen five films and he had seen four. (He still owes me and I totally think he should still have to watch a Jane Austen film, just saying). Anyways, I wanted to finish the series, but since I had soooo many questions and no one to explain everything to me (well I did have my roommate Elaine, but I didn’t want to have to bug her ALL the time), so I decided I would read the books and then watch the films. Check out my Tumblr account to see the stuff I’ve written about the books and films. (Follow Me!) So I originally had another film planned for today, that’s why this is so late, but after watching this one I just felt the need to include it in my postings.

So this film is based on the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The film is pretty close to the book, but the director made some changes that upset me (mostly the Neville scenes)

So the films starts off right where Part I ended. Voldemort has just stolen the Elder Wand out of Dumbledore‘s grave.

Totally pulling a Debbie.

Dobby manages to save Luna, Mr. Ollivander, Hermione, Harry, the goblin, and Ron from Bellatrix Lestrange. However, he himself wasn’t so lucky as he ends up being stabbed and murdered by her. Harry buries him without magic, giving him the honor and respect he deserves. Harry learns that the reason his stolen wand works for him was that he disarmed Draco Malfoy and bested him in battle, thus the wand changing its alliegience. Harry also realizes that a horcrux is hiding in Bellatrix’s vault and that they need to break into the goblin Gringgotts bank. An extremely hard thing to do.

The goblin says he will help them break in, in return he wants the sword of Gryffindor. So Hermione makes up a polyjuice potion of Bellatrix, Ron changes his appearance, and Harry and the goblin use the cloak of invisibility. They go into Gringgotts and make it past the goblins (barely), the dragon, and into the vault. Harry finds the cup of Hufflepuff, but before he can destroy the horcrux, the goblin takes off with the sword; leaving them not only stuck in the bank, but in a fix as the Goblins are cracking down and searching for them.

Appears this goblin had seen Raiders of the Lost Ark too many times as he acts just like Satipo

They use the dragon to escape, setting it free in a way that would have made Hagrid very proud. They travel to Hogsmeade and use a secret passage to get into Hogwarts, becoming aware of the resistance that Neville has been leading against the Death Eater professors and their new headmaster, Snape.

Snape calls everyone to the great hall were he questions them about Harry Potter. Harry appears and McGonagall battles Snape to protect Harry. Snape disapperates, taking the Death Eaters with him; and everyone rejoices. Soon the celebration is over as Voldemort, vis a vie the Joker, asks them to give him Harry and he will spare them all. Voldemort is refused and preparations for the battle begin.

Luna takes Harry to meet Rowena Ravenclaw‘s daughter’s ghost in order to find the lost diadem and the  second to last horcrux. Ron goes down to the Chamber of Secrets where he uses parseltongue to open the doors and retrieve the Basilisk fang and destroy the goblet. Meanwhile, Harry has learned where Voldemort hid the diadem and runs to the Room of Requirement. While there Draco, Gregory Goyle and Blaise Zabini attack Harry, but Ron and Hermione intervene. Goyle uses a Fiendfyre curse, but  is unable to control it, and is burned to death along with destroying the diadem. Malfoy and Zabini almost die, but Harry and Ran save them.

The three go down to the boathouse where they see Voldemort kill Snape, thinking that woth Snape dead he will have full power/control of the Elder wand. Before dying, Harry takes Snape’s memories, in which he uses the  Pensieve to view them.

Harry learns from that Snape loved Harry’s mother, Lily, but hated his father, James, who had bullied him. After she died Snape worked secretly with Dumbledore to protect Harry from Voldemort. Snape’s murder of  Dumbledore’s death at Snape’s hands was planned between them so that Draco wouln’t have to do it.  Harry discovers that he is the last Horcrux must die in order to kill Voldemort. Harry goes to Voldemort who uses the Killing Curse on him.  Harry finds himself in limbo, where he meets up with Dumbledore’s spirit who explains that due to Voldemort killing the Horcrux inside Harry, he is able to return to his body, and defeat Voldemort.

Narcissa realizes that Harry is alive, but doesn’t care about him and the Death eaters only wanting to know if her son is alive. She lies about Harry being dead so that he can save her son. Voldemort returns to Hogwarts to announce Harry’s death. Neville stands up to Voldemort and makes a dramatic speech, and Harry reveals he is still alive and duels with Voldemort throughout the castle. A general battle begins as a defiant Neville draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and kills Nagini; Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix; etc. . The final stand of Harry and Voldemort’s fight is Harry’s Disarming Charm rebounding Voldemort’s own Killing Curse and obliterating him. After the battle, Harry explains to Ron and Hermione that the Elder Wand recognised him as its true master because he had disarmed Draco, who earlier had disarmed Dumbledore, which then explains why the wand didn’t kill Harry in his final battle with Voldemort. Harry rejects the power of the wand and destroys it.

Nineteen years later, we see Harry, Ginny, Draco, Ron, and Hermione married and happy, dropping their children off for another year at Hogwarts.

Most Romantic Moment:

So the most romantic moment that I picked was one of Snape’s memories. Now I am a huge Snape fan. I just love him so much, he was my favorite character. You just feel so much for him, he was so misunderstood and mistreated, that he turned to the bad crowd because they promised to protect him. After he lost Harry’s mom to James Potter he felt like he lost everything, and only focused on himself and power. A modern-day Heathcliff. But Snape redeems himself. He hears a prophecy and tells Voldemort, but after he realizes that Voldemort plans to kill Lily and her family, he secretly teams up with Dumbledore to ensure their  protection. He continues to help Harry Potter because he is his mother’s son; saving him from Quirrell (Sorcerer’s Stone), protecting him from Ron’s busted wand (Chamber of Secrets), Lupin’s werewolf form (Prisoner of Azkaban), from Umbridge (Order of the Phoenix), from Voldemort (Half-Blood Prince), and giving him the sword of Gryffindor/protecting him from Voldemort (Deathly Hallows).  Snape did it all, even joining the Death Eaters as a double agent to help the Order; all was for Lily.

So the romantic moment is when Dumbledore is talking to Snape (in his memory) about Harry being the last Horcrux. Snape is upset that they have to send Harry to Voldemort to be killed, wanting to protect Lily’s son. Dumbledore tells Snape that it must be done and questions whether Snape truly loved Lily, because if he did he would not let her die in vain. Snape responds by making his patronus appear. His patronus is a doe, the same as Lily’s. Because he loved her so much, his patronus became what hers was, she was his happiest memory.

So romantic!

And to make that even more romantic:

“Dumbledore: After all this time?

Snape: Always.”

Someone Very Special: The Addam’s Family Values (1993)

You’ll meet someone. Someone very special. Someone who won’t press charges.

I love this movie soooooo, soooo, soooooo, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!

I have to watch it every October (and really any other time of the year). I  have loved this movie since I was a kid as it is so hilarious and the dialogue is truly amazing.

I really don’t know where to start with this post as I love every part of this film. To be honest, you just need to watch it! It is that good. This is one of the few times where the sequel far surpasses the original.

Yes you heard me. The sequel was better.

Yes Mickey you were right (For once)

I just love Morticia and Gomez, they are an amazing couple.

So yeah…

The story is that Morticia and Gomez have had a new baby; which Wednesday and Pugsly hate and are trying to destroy. Morticia and Gomez attempt to hire a nanny because Morticia would like some time to herself; and as said before the other children cannot be trusted with the new addition.

“Morticia: [to Gomez] I’m just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. It’s just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade.”

After going through a slew of prospects, they finally hire Debbie Jellinsky, played by the amazing Joan Cusack. Debbie seems really nice at first, but we find out that she is trying to get close to Uncle Fester, marry him, kill him, and steal all his money. In fact we find out that Debbie is no ordinary gold-digger, but a full on serial killer.

And Murder?

Wednesday and Pugsly discover her true intentions, so Debbie has them sent off to a summer camp which is hilarious. This has some of the best scenes in the film as the kids wreak true Addams’ family havoc.

Debbie tries to complete her plot, but it takes a lot to kill an Addamses! Just watch the film! You’ll love it!

**** Contains Spoilers ****

So one of my favorite parts, is the play that they put on at the summer camp. In the film the camp counselors have broken Wednesday and Pugsly’s spirits, forcing them to watch happy films which causes them to become perky. They and the other “losers” of the camp

are playing the Native Americans in a Thanksgiving play that one of the counselors wrote. But nothing ever goes as planned when an Addams is involved!

Wednesday is AWESOME! I love her. Christina Ricci did an amazing job at being her. I couldn’t imagine a better person.

My other most absolute favorite part is when we get to hear Debbie’s backstory, and why she turned to a life of murder and thievery.

I LOVE this part so much! I have the whole thing memorized and love to recite it!

That’s today’s terrifying post! More to come! 8 Days ‘Till Halloween!

Here’s a cover page/poster I made for my facebook page as part of my countdown to Halloween last year.

To start Horrorfest from the beginning, go to I Don’t Belong in the World

To go to the previous post, go to I Can Be Your Best Friend Or Your Worst Enemy

For more sequels, go to I Want Friend Like Me

For more on serial killers, go to Halloween

For more on summer camp, go to Camp Blood