Spooky season is upon us, ladies and gentlemen! That means it’s about that time when people gather with their friends to watch their favorite horror movie franchises such as “Friday the 13th,” “Scream” and of course “Halloween,” among many others. But as we all witness the horror movie engine continue to churn out sequels year after year, it’s time we ask ourselves, do we need another reboot?
Maybe we do, perhaps we don’t, but at this point the number of movies some of the most famous horror franchises hold is genuinely one of the most frightening things around this Halloween season. The franchise “Friday the 13th” has 12 films, and the Michael Myers vehicle, “Halloween,” boasts an impressive 13. Why so many? Well, according to Comic Book Resources, it’s “thanks to the low-budget nature of many classic horror movies, [that] they were able to build long-running franchises with an endless slew of sequels.” Slasher movies aside, let’s inspect another classic Halloween franchise that has recently found significant success in their latest reboot, “The Addams Family.”
“The Addams Family” was created by Charles “Chas” Addams as a cartoon for the New Yorker in 1938 but has since spawned multiple tv shows, movies and even a crossover special with Scooby Doo. Given its long past, this show has captured a robust fan base spanning numerous generations. For “The Addams Family,” there’s a method behind the madness from one new project to the next. They ensure that they provide the audience with a new twist in the formula but still keep the macabre, satirical commentary on suburban life that everyone has come to expect from them. The most recent project in the Addams family canon, “Wednesday,” presents the audience with a new and innovative spin on the familiar family. This time, the show centers around Wednesday Addams, the cynical goth daughter of the family. One major factor in this popular resurgence was Tim Burton, who was brought on as an executive producer on the project, known for his dark, fantastical films such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” His aesthetic and producing sensibilities were a perfect fit for the Addams Family style. Then there is the casting choice, mainly the lead role, Jenna Ortega, as the titular character, Wednesday Addams, who does a great job encapsulating her carefree attitude and deadpan sense of humor while also showing Wednesday’s more tender side when necessary.
Like the best reboots, this series respects and pays homage to its source material while presenting new and fresh ideas by pointing the lens to one familiar character in particular. “Wednesday” is a master class in what it means to take great care of a solid idea, bringing new life to a popular franchise.
