7 Spooky Families to Watch This Halloween, From ‘The Addams Family’ to ‘Ghosts’
Halloween is just around the corner and everyone wants to have something fun to watch to get into the spirit. But this celebration doesn’t just have to be about killer clowns and the psycho next door neighbors. Family dynamics can also be an interesting factor in making a classic — especially when these families go against society norms.
Shows ranging from The Addams Family to newer ones like Ghosts are just some of the few that have viewers looking at the abnormal in a familial lens. Some of these families are either close knit in a healthy, somewhat strange, loving way; others tread on the gray area that leaves viewers feeling unsettled, if not downright disturbed.
Scroll down for shows that will satisfy your Halloween needs. Some of these spooky families follow their own rules and thrive on being the odd one out, while others struggle to repress their true colors.
The Addams Family
Charles Addams’ gothic characters come to life in the 1964 show. This kooky and spooky family consists of father Gomez (John Astin), mother Morticia (Carolyn Jones), their two children Wednesday (Lisa Loring) and Pugsly (Ken Weatherwax), their uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan), Grandmama (Blossom Rock), the butler Lurch (Ted Cassidy), and, of course, the helpful hand Thing. Despite their macabre lifestyle, viewers are still shown a loving and accepting family who makes fun of the typical American nuclear family. Audiences will feel like it’s Halloween every day.
Streaming on Amazon Prime
The Munsters
Also taking part in the ’60s monster craze is this family of mismatched monsters. Patriarch Herman (Fred Gwynne) is a Frankenstein of a man, while Lily (Yvonne De Carlo) is the doting vampire mother. They’re alongside their werewolf son Eddie (Butch Patrick), human-looking niece Marilyn (Beverley Owen later Pat Priest), and Grandpa Dracula (Al Lewis), Lily’s father. The Munsters see themselves as the average American family and are left puzzled when others run away.
Streaming on Peacock
The Spellmans
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the latest adaptation of the beloved Sabrina the Teenage Witch comics published by Archie Comics. This series follows Sabrina’s (Kiernan Shipka) home life with her two witchy aunts Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis), cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo), and cat, Salem. With darker storytelling, we learn more about Sabrina’s past and her destiny.
Streaming on Netflix
The Bates Family
Bates Motel will send shivers down your spine. We follow the lives of a young Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) — you may know him from Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous film Psycho — and his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga). We see how Norma’s overprotective and unsettling nature regarding her son turns him into the Bates Motel killer.
Streaming on Peacock
The Crains
If family trauma was a show, it would be this one. The Haunting of Hill House tells the story of the Crain siblings — Steven (Michiel Huisman), Shirley (Elizabeth Reaser), Theodora (Kate Siegel), Eleanor (Victoria Pedretti) and Luke (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) — who lost their mother Olivia (Carla Gugino) in a traumatic accident. They end up growing apart and leading separate lives, but a series of paranormal events brings them back together and back to Hill House, the home they desperately wanted to forget.
Streaming on Netflix
Sam, Jay & the Spirits
Not your typical family setting, Ghosts is about a young couple, Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who decide to turn their inherited country estate into a bed-and-breakfast. Hijinks ensue when Samantha realizes that the estate is inhabited by ghosts — that only she can see — from different time periods. This comedy explores the themes of found family and what it means to truly live life.
Streaming on Paramount+
The Deetz and the Maitland Families
From Beetlejuice we have the Deetz family — Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and Delia (Catherine O’Hara) — who just moved into the deceased Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) Maitlands’ house. What they don’t know is the house is haunted by their spirits who wish them to leave. The daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) is the only one who can see the couple and befriends them, connecting the two families.
Streaming on HBO Max
