Unapologetically, joyfully weird

Like a lot of you I suspect, I am super excited about the upcoming Netflix Addams Family spin off, Wednesday.

Addams Family fans are a passionate bunch and there has been lots of discussion about whether the remake will stand up to their favourite version. For many that was the 1991 film adaptation – for me it was the 1960s black and white television series, which played as re-runs after school during my teens.

The Addams Family was my comfort watch when I was 15 and not in a great place. Fifteen is somewhere I generally avoid going back to in my brain because large parts of it were really scary. It was when I was first diagnosed with OCD, anxiety and depression, and when the world felt utterly out of my control. I used to fear focusing on that part of my life because I thought it might make me go back there. But through therapy and the support of amazing people around me, I’ve learned I’m an adult, with an adult’s experience and coping skills who will never be that scared teenager again.

Misunderstood monsters

What this has done is given me the ability to look back at those years with a more forgiving lens. To see the things and the people that helped me, and that a lot of good came out of that time. Including an obsession with a weird old television show.

The Addams Family was on at about 4.30pm, after school and before dinner. It was a scary time because I didn’t have the distraction of my family and friends and I was alone with my brain. I was in a strange place where I couldn’t sit still for very long, but somehow that show calmed me. It was a way I could concentrate on something else, something that took me out of my brain for a while.

One of the things I loved about the show was how gloriously, unapologetically, joyfully weird it was. I hadn’t fully embraced my quirkiness at that point and was still not quite comfortable in my own skin, yet here was a show where oddity was celebrated, the monsters misunderstood and the ‘normal’ folk the ones that caused all the problems.

I feel it definitely helped nudge me in the direction of embracing my own weirdness, and it certainly helped inspire my own brand of ‘warm’ horror.

The piranhas have escaped from the cargo hold

The trailer for Wednesday also gave me a flashback to some amazingly ridiculous home films one of my besties and I used to make back then. He was one of the few people in our school who had their own video camera (years before we all started carrying them round in our pockets) and we made some of the most ridiculous b-grade schlock – Attack of the Killer Mutant Troll from Planet Asparagus, an Independence Day spoof creatively titled Dependence Day, some random thing involving time-travelling detective grannies trying to defeat Hitler with the aid of their ‘sconscience’ (a scone on a string that repeatedly said “this is your scoooonscience speaking” in a spooky voice) – you get the drift.

There was a scene in a Titanic spoof we made in the neighbours’ swimming pool that involved me in period costume, clinging to a cupboard door, while a voice off screen yelled “Oh no! The piranhas have escaped from the cargo hold!” Cut to a shot of a plastic Halloween skeleton wearing the same costume I was, including fancy hat, floating in the water. We thought we were absolute geniuses.

That dark and deeply silly humour was something that got me through some pretty bleak patches and making those videos is something from those scary years that I can think about now and smile. It’s incredibly liberating having memories from back then that bring me joy rather than fear – and it’s that joy I hope to take into the silliness adult Anna creates.

Roll on the next crop of weirdos

I also loved the 90s movie version (which is just over 30 years old now – what in the actual?!) and apparently there were grumbles about remaking the show as a movie back then. I’m seeing a bit of this in reverse in the lead up to the Netflix release, but I have a lot of hope – and I am excited for the next crop of weirdos to experience the sweet, warm, dark joy those characters gave me.

Anyway, here’s the trailer – let me know what you think!