Comic Book
Netflix Adds Both Movies in the Best Animated Horror Franchise (& They’re an Instant Hit)
By Allison Schonter
Feb. 23, 2026
Spooky season is still a long way away, but that isn’t stopping Netflix from adding a dash of macabre to its streaming lineup. The platform has been growing its content catalog all month long with the arrival of titles like How to Train Your Dragon, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Zero Dark Thirty, and subscribers can now stream both movies in the best animated horror franchise.
We’re talking about The Addams Family and The Addams Family 2. The modern adaptations of Charles Addams’s iconic comic strip characters started streaming on Netflix on February 20th, and they’re already streaming hits, ranking No. 3 and 4 worldwide. The movie stars Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Snoop Dogg, and Bette Midler as the voices of the titular macabre family, who, in the first film, struggle to uphold tradition when they move to a pastel-colored, conformity-driven suburban community. In The Addams Family 2, the family packs into their haunted camper for a family road trip across the U.S.
The Addams Family Is a Kooky Introduction to the Macabre
The Addams Family is just the right amount of spooky for the entire family to enjoy, making it the perfect introduction to Halloween-style “ooky” content and the macabre family at the heart of it all for younger viewers. The film toes the line of playful horror and balances its macabre, gothic aesthetics and mild, stylized scares, like a guillotine-like bed and Wednesday Addams using electricity on her brother, with plenty of humor and a strong, loving family core. The Addams Family is a fun and charming gateway for a new generation of viewers, even if it lacks the depth of previous iterations.
More than just being a great gateway to the macabre world of the iconic family for a new generation of viewers, The Addams Family and its sequel are nostalgic watches for older fans. The movies successfully tap into the original cartoons’ aesthetic and charm with an animation style that stays true to the original and spot-on characterizations. Although both films received rotten critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes, they were generally well-received by general audiences as entertaining, quick watches great for the entire family. The first movie holds a fresh 70% score, while The Addams Family 2 holds a 69%.
