Halloween 2013!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I spent my Halloween watching the entirety of fun Worst Witch continuation Weirdsister College (as per my Halloween tradition), and thankfully it wasn't a boiling hot day (Australian Summer has finally reared its ugly head). Then I watched Jean Rollin vampire flick Fiancee of Dracula, and The Final Sacrifice via the MST3K episode!

This Halloween, I've got a couple of funny stories to share...well, funny to everyone who isn't me, that is.

Originally I planned on reviewing German silent film Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, and it's 1980's sequel/remake Dr. M on the 31st, which would fit in beautifully with my reviewing of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and 1980's sequel Dr. Caligari on October the 1st. So, I ordered Dr Mabuse: The Gambler off of eBay, getting a Region 4 DVD of it for a relatively cheap price. Then, a few days later, I got an email from the seller saying that the item I ordered was no longer in stock, and they were too late in removing the page from eBay, hence why I was able to order it. I was slightly pissed, but October was still nearly a month away, so after getting a refund, I found another Region 4 copy of Dr. Mabuse, again for a good price, and from a completely different seller, who had several copies of Dr. Mabuse in stock, so I ordered it...
...And I got an email a few days later telling me pretty much the same thing that the last email did!

What the hell?! This is something that has never happened to me before, and then it happened twice in a row, with the same damn movie! And after that, the only copies of Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler on eBay were not only Region 1, but were all at least fifty dollars! So naturally I just threw my hands in the air and gave up.

The other 'funny' thing was the day before Halloween. I was going to walk into town, to buy lollies and cool drink to enjoy while watching Weirdsister College, but not only was it forty degrees (Celsius) that day, but there were hundreds of flies outside the doors! When flies swarm over here, they normally only stay by the transparent doors, but this time, they were by EVERY door, and as I said, there was quite literally HUNDREDS of them! My flywire door was completely covered! So of course there was no way I'd be heading into town without letting hundreds of flies into the house, or frazzling in the heat, so for Halloween, my junky treat was a healthy bowlful of cut-up carrot and apple slices.

So, that's all out of me for this Halloween. I hope everyone had or will have a great All Hallow's Eve!...

There were three little children
Who went a-gathering in the fields.

They went so much to, and so much fro,
That by the evening they had gotten lost.
They went to a butcher's house.
"Butcher, would you give us lodging?"

"Do come in kids, I will surely find a place for you.", the butcher said.

No sooner had they come in,
The butcher killed them.
He cut them into small pieces,
And put them in the salting-tub as piglets.

-The Legend of Saint Nicholas

Messiah of Evil (1973)

There aren't that many Lovecraftian films, best to my knowledge. There's a few, like From Beyond, the silent Call of Cthulhu film made a few years ago, Dagon, the Dunwich Horror flick starring Al from Quantum Leap with a silly moustache, and...that's pretty much it. There's only about fifteen more at the very most.

My point is, in 1973, a very Lovecraftian tale was released. Messiah of Evil, one of the most underrated horror flicks out there...

Messiah of Evil is about a woman named Arletty (Marianna Hill). Arletty is on her way to Point Dune, a coastal town, to visit her father. The two frequently communicated via letter, but after the letters started getting strange, they abruptly stopped, with him warning Arletty to not come looking for him. So naturally, she heads off to Point Dune, looking for him. I suppose I can't call Arletty stupid-after all, she doesn't know she's in a horror film. As far as she knows, her father could simply be mentally ill or something.

She arrives at her father's house, which is full of strange paintings, and she doesn't find her father anywhere. The next day, Arletty goes into town, and after asking around about her father, finds out that three other people have been doing the same, and they're staying at a local motel. She goes there, and finds the three-Thom (Michal Greer), an investigator of odd things, and his two lady friends (Joy Bang and Anitra Hill). Thom (what a horrid way to spell Tom!) is in the middle of talking with Charlie (Elisha Cook Jr.) an old drunk, who talks about the blood moon, an eerie occurrence from Point Dune's past. When the moon went blood red, everyone in the town became inhuman and violent.

Horrific things soon start to happen. Charlie is viciously murdered, people eat raw meat in the supermarket, Arletty begins to go through psysical changes, and the blood moon looms...


Messiah of Evil is one of my favourite horror films! It's an extremely eerie sit, and is a pretty unique zombie movie.

The film has a really off feel, and it does wonders. The music is fine, and I really like the opening-ending song! Some hate it, and find it grating, and those who have seen the recent super special edition DVD of the film much prefer the original music for the opening (Which I have no idea what is), but I like the current music. It sets the tone for the film wonderfully, and its lyrics directly pertain to the film, so if it is a replacement song, it definitely does a good job of fitting in!

There isn't much story, and that doesn't matter. What's there is fine, and the movie is good without an intricate storyline.

The look of the film is nice, and the artworks in Arletty's father's house are suitably creepy. The effects are also pretty good.

The acting is all good. The standout is definitely Elisha Cook Jr. in his small role. He may be playing the same role he played in what I can only imagine is every other film in his career, but Charlie the drunk regaling his father's story is one of the film's best scenes, in my opinion.

Of course, the very best scenes are two special death scenes! The first takes place in a movie theater, where one of Thom's female friends is sitting, watching the movie. As the movie goes on, the zompire townsfolk slowly start filling up the largely empty theater. That, and what comes afterwards, is filmed perfectly. The next great death scene is when the othe female friend goes into a supermarket. Both scenes are creepy, well-filmed, and definitely make this film a step above the rest!

Messiah of Evil's biggest problem is that it has too much 'tell', not enough 'show'. It's effective for the scene where Charlie talks about the blood moon, and for when a woman is talking to Thom about what happened to her family, but it is TOTALLY unwarranted for the ending! The reason for this is that the film's backers pulled out before an ending could be shot, so the film doesn't have a climax, just Arletty talking about what's happening. This was of course unavoidable, but it still really irks me.

Another big problem is the character of Arletty-She does next to nothing in this movie! She just exists!

There's also one stupid moment where one of the women wants to leave the town, and hitches a ride...with the zompire albino. The zompire's car is full of bodies, which the woman sees, yet she still gets in the car. And the guy has to eat a rat whole before she wants to leave. What, were the dead bodies not enough of a hint for you, lady?!

Onto the ending, I won't spoil it, but I'd like to talk about it in a way...

I don't like depressing Lovecraftian endings, not at all. I'd much prefer it if Arletty actually did something and roasted all the ghouls in Point Dune up, then kicked the crap outta the Dark Stranger until he lay bleeding in a pile of his own blood! Well it's not too far of a stretch to assume that could've happened-when she sets her ghoul father on fire, she only has a small flame on a bit of wood, but it immediately sets him alight like he's covered in napalm! And Arletty started gagging up insects and didn't feel cuts, so maybe she could also have super zombie powers. Come on Arletty, fuck these zompires up!

Some call Messiah of Evil a phantasmagoric nightmare, and they couldn't be more right! I asolutely recommend this movie to anyone who considers themself a horror fan! And if you've got a scaredy-cat friend, don't show them some random dead teenager flick, show them a real creeping dread film like Messiah of Evil...

*For now, this review is image-less. I'll rectify this tomorrow. The reason is that I've been super busy, and as of writing this, it's nearly midnight.

Frankenstein 2000 (1991)

Holy yikes, this is a Joe D'Amato film that's actually good! If you've ever seen any given D'Amato film that isn't Beyond the Darkness or Anthropophagus, then that may come as a system-shaker to you!



Ok, good may be too strong a word for Return from Death aka Frankenstein 2000. You'll see why soon...

'Frankenstein 2000'  is about Georgia (Cinzia Monreale-What a name!), a woman living in a small Austrian town (or suburb, it's kinda sketchy), where bad things start happening. She's violently harassed by a group of thugs at one point, but just when they're about to rape her, her friend Rick, (Donald O'Brien), a hulking but mentally challenged (I think-again, it's sketchy) man. She's fine, for now, but later, she's attacked by the same three thugs, and is hit violently, sending her into a coma. The corrupt town officials, wanting to cover up the crime for reasons that somewhat elude the screenwriter, frame the also badly injured Rick for the attack, and eventually murder him, under the guise of suicide. What they don't see coming though, is Georgia's previously mostly latent psychic powers coming to a forefront and bringing Rick back, with an unstoppable vengeance...

*

The film's proper title (Frankenstein 2000 is under it in brackets in the opening credits) is Return from Death, and that's a much more fitting title, not just because it makes sense in context, but because it doesn't leave you expecting Frankenstein or his creator to show up for over half the movie.

Like I said, things don't start rolling until an hour through the movie. If this was an actual Frankenstein movie, that'd be a HUGE problem, but in this case, it's smaller. It's still a big flaw, but since this isn't actually a Frankenstein movie, it's not like if Boris Karloff only showed up in the last five minutes of the 30's flick.

But you know what, this film's plot is still crippled! If it was just a drama, then I'd be more fine with how much happens in the first hour, because I wouldn't be anxiously waiting for the resurrection and murder scenes. The film could have continued on from the corruption of this town, the framing of Rick, and investigations by Thomas (Georgia's husband) into the true cause of his wife's state, then it would have ended with Rick being rescued before the crooked cops can kill him, and he ends up exonerated. That could 've made for a decent crime-drama, but unfortunately the movie doesn't follow a route like that, and it fails.

As for the acting, It's ok, I guess. The film is dubbed, so I can't really tell. As for the dub acting however, get the Razzie awards and give them to these guys, because all of the voice acting in this film wil hurt your ears!

Donald O'Brien is an imposing enough figure to make a good Frankenstein's monster (or random living dead man in this film's case), but for some reason, I don't know what, he just doesn't click. His rampage is pretty cool though, and he's pretty badass. Despite being undead, he still looks human, and the only make-up he gets is the stapled autopsy gash on his head. I don't know if his still-human looks are good or bad for the film-I can think of reasons for both sides.

There aren't much effects, and some of what's on display is terrible! But it's the kind of terrible which makes you laugh. The scene in question involves a head getting crushed.

*These fine images are from Maynard Morrissey's review of this film.

The death scenes are pretty groovy. The head crushing scene is cool, despite, or because of, the terrible effects, and there's one GREAT death scene where Rick pulls out an electrical cable from the ground and whips it around one of the villains, electrocuting him. There's also a death scene that awesomely screams of overkill, where Rick literally uproots a power pole to kill the two crooked cops!

The movie has one hugely illogical moment. When Georgia is in a coma, the doctors try to use brain stimulation (or something like that) to help wake her up, and when that fails, they decide that brain stimulation, plus the presence of the guy who put her in a coma and tried to rape her (well, he is as far as the doctors know) will shock Georgia enough to snap her out of the coma. What the hell?! Rick is a huge guy, who 'savagely attacked' Georgia, and they put him in the same room with her, with no security whatsoever!

Also, how is undead Rick able to hunt down the villains of the film, including the ones he didn't even know about? Maybe comatose Georgia is psychically pinpointing their locations, but how about the ones she didn't know about? Again, she's probably reading the minds of the villains, but if she can do all that, how come she can't wake up? That's only a tiny nitpsick though.

What isn't a small nitpick though, is why Rick went after Thomas with intent to kill him. Surely if Georgia was able to mentally supply Rick with that much info, then she'd be able to insist that he should pretty-please not murder her husband!

I also didn't like how Thomas ultimately defeats undead Rick, given that it was a big fuck-you to his wife, although given the final shot of the movie, I thought the movie ended on a fine enough note.

Speaking of the ending, I really liked when Georgia's son came in on undead Rick trying to kill Thomas. It was a great callback to an earlier revelation about the kid's previous father.

Onto other things, the score is decent enough albeit a bit repetitive in places. Also, the quality for this film was REALLY good! If you've ever seen a Joe D'Amato film, then you know what I mean. Plenty of his films are grainy, and of low-quality, so it's always a joy (or rather, a horror, depending on which movie it is) to see a movie of his in High Definition!

I don't exactly recomend Return from Death, but if you want to watch it, go ahead, I won't try to sway you against it.

To finish, If you want to watch something involving murder and the locale of Austria that isn't super drawn-out, then go watch Stockinger!...Eh? Why the confused looks? Oh, yeah, no-one outside of Australia or Austria knows what that is..

The Velvet Vampire (1971)

The Velvet Vampire! Isn't alliteration fun! If only there was a 'The Zibeline Zombie', 'The Mousseline Mummy' or 'The Whipcord Werewolf'! What's also fun is vampire movies! The Velvet Vampire is an American horror flick from 1971, which unfortunately contains not much of either velvet, or vampires...

The Velvet Vampire is about a couple, Lee (Michael Blodgett) and Susan (Sherry Miles), who come across a woman named Diane (Celeste Yarnall), who they both take a liking to. They plan on going to her house for a retreat for a few days, but when they get to Diane's secluded desert house, strange things begin to start happening...

To enjoy The Velvet Vampire, it's absolutely imperative that you know it isn't quite a horror film, because if you jump in expecting copius blood, guts, death, and fangs, you'll be disappointed. It's only sort-of a horror movie. I'm not actually sure what I'd describe it as.

The best thing about The Velvet Vampire is definitely the setting-a sparse desert. From the direction, to the music, the movie manages to make it work really well!

Onto the plot and pacing. It was over half-an-hour into the film when I started to get impatient. I like subtlety, and slow-burn horror, but when you're 34 minutes into a vampire movie and there's been no vampires, nor any indication that there are any vampires, that's when I start to get pissed off!

That's not to say the movie is boring. While that half-hour is vampire-less and mostly horror-less, it's still somewhat entertaining. But then it keeps going with an almost total lack of anything vampiric. There are scenes here and there where Diane feeds on a secondary/tertiary character, but unfortunately the film never delves into her vampirism, other than one good scene between her and her manservant/butler Juan.

When it comes to the vampirism aspect, when I was a little ways into the film, I got a cool mental image of what was to come. With what had happened so far, the setting, the people Lee and Susan came across coupled with a line from Diane, I got the impression that Diane was a self-proclaimed vampire queen, and the nearby townsfolk were her subjcts in a sparse kingdom of sand. That's not how things play out though. It's a shame, because if the movie followed a route like that, then it'd actually be exploring Diane's vampirism, and not wasting my time.

Another aspect of the plot, the trippy dreams that Lee and Susan simultaneously experience, feel pointless. They're all the same, minus the final (and least pointless) one, and nothing much happens in them.

The movie does have its stupid parts, like that Lee and Susan meet a woman in a bar, and immediately plan on going to her secluded desert house miles out into the middle of nowhere.

Another kinda-stupid part is when Susan starts to really like her desert holiday, after she was scared in some dark mines, and got bitten by a rattlesnake! If that was me, I'd be on the next flight to Antarctica! I was fully expecting her to be totally hysterical at that point, but no, she's suddenly very happy at her surroundings.

And there's one hilariously bad exchange late in the film, when Lee admits his cheating with Diane to Susan.

There are also a few more illogical things, including the insanely stupid climax (it involves crosses, and bystanders), that I won't bother to get into.

One small thing that ticked me off about The Velvet Vampire was the two painfully obvious vampire callbacks!...

...That's like when horror movies give characters names like Raimi, Carpenter, or Friedkin. It's obvious and annoying!

The film's acting is ok. A little shakey at time from some, but it's ok. The standout is Celeste Yarnall as the vampire Diane Le Fanu. She's not exactly amazing, but she's pretty good.

The film's scoring is good, and the music during dream sequences give them a trippy feel. There's also some fiiiiiiine nudity-Always a plus!

One last thing, the opening of the movie contains a performance by Johnny Shines-THE Johnny Shines!...Yeah, I have no idea who that is, nor do I like his music all that much.

Ultimately, the only positive thing that I can say about The Velvet Vampire is that the setting, and the atmosphere it provided, was great. Unfortunately, this movie was as sparse as its setting...

Faceless (1988)

Ah, so I'm back to Crypt of the Living Dead, as if I'm on a yo-yo! I tried watching this film for October last year, but it was shaping up to be boring, so I tapped out, eight minutes in. Now, a year later, I'm going to sit all the way through, and see what I missed.

...Or not. That's right, I ducked out of watching Crypt of the Living Dead again! This time I got to the twenty-five minute mark. The film was boring enough, but the sound quality was terrible! It was bordeline unwatchable!

Onto Jess Franco's Faceless then.

Trash auter Jess Franco really liked Dr. Orloff, and faces! The Awful Dr. Orloff, the first in a line of related, and unrelated movies, usually starring Franco regular Howard Vernon, was about a mad scientist trying to find a new face for a disfigured loved one. This was a trope that Franco loved to revisit time and time again, and revisit it he did with 1988's gory thriller Faceless...

Faceless is about plastic surgeon Dr. Flamand (Helmut Berger), his sister Ingrid (Christiane Jean), and friend Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie). On a night out on the town, a former patient of Flamand's, unhappy with a scar she recieved from treatment, splashes some acid at Flamand's face. Ingrid takes the hit, and her face is heavily disfigured.

Then begins a brutal search for girls with beautiful enough faces to transplant to Ingrid. Meanwhile, the father of one of the women who've gone missing (Telly Savalas), hires a private eye (Chris Mitchum) to figure out where his daughter is, and what's going on...

If there's one thing I should start on with Faceless, it's the death scenes. They're definitely the film's highlight! The effects are largely fine, although the de-faced woman near the end does look hilarious! I don't know if I could call it a bad effect, but it did get a chuckle out of me.

The villains are the main characters in Faceless, and it definitely works! The diabolical trio are fleshed out a bit, and there's good characterisation. Someone REALLY needs to read these three the story of Beauty and the Beast!

As for the rest of the characters, they're decent enough, although no-one gets nearly as much screentime as the villains.

I like the addition of Dr. Orloff! I may not have seen any of Franco's Orloff movies, but I'm still able to dig that he has a recurring character all throughout his filmography, even when he's not the main character. It's kinda universe building (kinda), and I sorta dig that.

Helmut Berger and Brigitte Lahaie make fine villains, and Chris Mitchum (or James Mitchum-As you can tell from my Raiders of the Magic Ivory review, I have difficulty telling the two apart, largely because I thought they were the same person for a considerable number of years) is fine as the dick Private Detective. Telly Savalas is also decent in his small role, though he doesn't do much.

There's some fun dialogue here and there, "Actresses are all the same. They do anything to get famous, then once they are, they wear dark glasses, so nobody recognizes them.", and the film also has a rockin' soundtrack!

I also love the ending. What a way to end the movie! Though I only wish that Telly Savalas said "Book me the next flight to Paris" in English, not French, for the sake of the audience.

The movie does have some gaps in logic, like when Flamand and co. want to use the face of a celebrity for Ingrid. Though there's nothing plot-ruining.

The only real problems I have with Faceless is that it doesn't have a particularly disturbing or horrific atmosphere/tone, and at 98 minutes, it is a tad overlong.
So, in closing, I definitely recommend this nifty Franco horror flick! You're bound to have a great time with it!...

Devil Hunter (1980)

Lately, I've been rewatching some Jean Rollin films, and I've been thinking how much it sucks that Rollin only made about 19 films (not counting porn, and stuff like Zombie Lake). I thought "Wouldn't it have been awesome if he'd made as many films as, say, Bruno Mattei?"...And then I realized that if Jean Rollin had made as many movies as Bruno Mattei, he would turned into Jess Franco!

Jess Franco was a prolific Spanish filmmaker, who made some REALLY good films (some of them being erotic vampire films-The kind of thing Rollin made). When I say prolific, I mean that Jesus Franco made just shy of 200 movies! Plenty of people wish Jess Franco had only made a handful of movies, so we would have gotten all Franco masterworks, rather than more than a hundred pieces of lesser material. More The Diabolical Dr. Z, She Killed in Ecstacy, etc., and less stuff like Oasis of the Zombies...

Devil Hunter is a barebones crime flick that 180's into an Italian Cannibal movie (and thankfully, neither genre feel too railroaded into each-other).

The movie is about the kidnapping of famous actress Laura Crawford. Her kidnappers head to a secluded rainforest withh Crawford, and a bounty hunter (or mercenary, something like that) is hired to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers, but is told to try and get both Crawford, and the six million dollar ransom back without a hitch. All goes none too well at all, but things get worse when both parties realize that they're not alone in the rainforest...

Devil Hunter isn't great, but it's not terrible either. The direction is fine. The opening scene is pretty well done! It alternates between a terrified woman running for her life from natives, and the happy Laura frollicking around the city. It's definitely a nifty opening!

The scenery all-throughout is lush and beautiful! I know where my next holiday'll be!

The film is definitely a daytime horror flick, which is a trope I dig, when done right. It's not done right here, as the film isn't scary at all, but I at least like it.

The acting is all ok, I guess. It's hard to tell, given the terrible dubbing. I don't remember what I've seen Al Cliver and his glorious moustache in, if anything, so I don't know how good he normally is, and as for Werner Pochath, I've seen him play much crazier roles than he does here-with the added benefit of actually speaking with his own voice.

The effects aren't bad, except in one scene, where in a close up of a dead guy's neck, we see him breathing!

There's one particularly silly moment where the cannibal monster finds his latest to-be sacrifice, Laura, and instead of killing her immediately, like he did with all the others, he picks her up like he's the Mummy, and walks off, giving the hero ample enough time to save her. Isn't main character status helpful!

There's another funny scene earlier on. The evil kidnapper chick gets free from chains just to immediately run into the cannibal monster! Ain't karma a bitch!

The film also has a fun climax, with a hilarious death scene for the cannibal monster!

Aside from the thin plot, Devil Hunter's biggest problem is the character of Laura Crawford. She does nothing in the film other than be restrained and/or scream.

Overall, Devil Hunter isn't a bad movie, it's just barebones. For a simple crime/Italian Cannibal flick, it's not terrible, and you could certainly do a hell of a lot worse! However, because of its simplicity, Devil Hunter doesn't go gloriously off-the-rails like other Franco flicks, which is a shame. If you ever want to see an Italian Cannibal movie, well, you could do trashier, but I won't steer you away from this one. And no real-life animals die in this movie, so that's a plus over other movies of its type!...

The Addams Family (1964-66)

Ah, The Addams Family! Such a great show! I've always loved The Addams Family, ever since I first saw it as a kid, back in the age of video tapes.

The Addams Family was a TV show from the 60's based on the darkly funny comic series by Charles Addams. It was always a funny show, comprised of 65 episodes packed with the most lighthearted gallows humour you'll ever see!

The Addamses are the kind of people who use iron maidens and racks for pleasure, swallow swords for throat congestion, have insanely deadly foods and brews, and their playroom is a cool-room! They're absolutely some of the funniest characters ever on TV!

Gomez is an insanely rich guy with the most devilish grin you'll ever see, who always smokes cigars (and puts them in his jacket pocket even when lit), is driven wild by 'Tish' speaking French, and likes blowing up model trains ("Of course, why else would a grown man play with trains?").

Morticia, in her never-changing black octopoid tendril dress, cuts the heads off roses, as to show the beautiful stems off, paints 'beautiful' portaits of delightfully grim quality, and she regularly feeds her carniverous plant Cleopatra.

Uncle Fester, a kooky nutball with a fixation on shooting things, is able to power anything electrical with his body, and doesn't like the type of riff-raff that grow petunias in gardens.

Grandmama is an old battleaxe who loves weapons...like battleaxes, and is constantly knife-throwing, or making 'delicious' dishes with comfortable ingredients such as hemlock.

Wednesday is a cute young girl, owner of a pet spider, has a decapitated Marie Antoinette doll, and was once traumatized by the fairy tale of St. George-the knight killed a poor dragon!

As for the other Addams child, Pugsley, he loves explosives, has a pet octopus named Aristotle, and at one point, joined the scouts, much to the horror of his parents.

Lurch is the "extremely vivacious, loqacious playboy" of a butler. Man of few words, most of them exasperated groans, Lurch is a load of fun! Especially with his treatment of reluctant guests.

Credited in the ending of each episode as being played by "Itself'," Thing is a hand that lives in various small boxes all throughout the house, and emerges to either help with things, give advice, listen, or give the mail to the Addamses.

And of course, there's the occasionally appearing Cousin Itt, the small hair-covered Addams who ralks only in a squeaky squiinnjnmjfjfhftbbbbbjjbjbbbbbbbbeencjnaaaahhhhhhhh accent, which the Addamses understand perfectly.

Despite their humerously morbid eccentricities, the Addamses are incredibly polite and generous family. And any visitors their house would get were usually nasty people. The Addamses were somewhat naive, but that never led to any ill consequences for them-they were always joyfully oblivious of plenty of normal things, and despite their naivete, they always came out on top!

The look of the show was perfect. From the black-and-white, to the set design, as well as everything therein*, the Addamses really have a great house to show off!

*On a tangent, I would kill for those old-timey types of phones, that you see the Addams use! They definitely look cool!

The Addams Family is a great comedy show! The plots are always a hoot, and almost every line or action per episode is hilarious! I may not have ever seen The Munsters, but I already know which of the two shows I prefer, and it's Addams all the way!

The show is insanely quotable. So much so that I'm not even going to try listing any quotes. I advise anyone uninitiated with the glee that is The Addams Family to watch it right away, and you can take all the great quotes in!

The acting is all perfect! I love eveyone in it equally, but I especially love Carolyn Jones (Morticia) and Ted Cassidy (Lurch)!

Also notable is the show's music! Definitely all great stuff! And not just great, but fine enough that I don't care about hearing it all a huge amount while on an Addams Family marathon!

I'm thinking, should I be mean enough to have photos of Lurch smiling to send you out? Sure, why not. It's in the All Hallows spirit, after all! 'Unpleasant dreams', queridas and queridos!...