18 Fan Theories From Beloved Halloween Movies That Make Us Want To Rewatch

From Redditor u/bubonis:

The Addams Family: The nature of their curse. I was watching the two movies the other day and got to thinking about what it's like to be an Addams, particularly with all of the death flying around. After some thinking I realized that the Addams family must be cursed with some particularly strong mojo. Simply put...

An Addams cannot be (easily) injured or killed by a family member.

The amount of physical trauma that any given Addams undergoes would put Homer Simpson to shame. Just in the two movies we see Pugsley get electrocuted, a cannonball fall from the top of the house onto Lurch's head, Pubert survive a multi-thousand-foot ascent and descent, and Gomez and Fester tossing each other around like they were rag dolls. To any normal human any of these would be instantly fatal, but the Addams shrug them off like rainwater. Beyond that, there are countless instances of the Addams's attempting to kill each other — sword fights, knives being thrown at one another, a mobile of daggers hanging above a baby's cradle — but mysteriously all of them fail to hit the mark. All of the knives just barely miss and nobody suffers a scratch during a sword fight. It's entirely probable that Grandmama has been putting poison into the Addams' food, knowing that none of them will die. It's therefore become something of a challenge within the Addams clan to see how far they can push each other, to see exactly what it takes to hurt or kill an Addams. When Gomez throws a knife at Fester's head, he's actually trying to hit him but the curse is making the blade just barely miss him.

When Debbie (the "black widow") marries Fester in Addams Family Values, she makes multiple attempts at killing Fester and fails every time — because through marriage, she's now an Addams. It is impossible for her to injure or kill Fester. She doesn't understand this, however; she's a murderer and isn't aware of the Addams "curse" in this matter. And in the finale of that movie, note that none of the Addams were particularly concerned while they were tied up; they treated it largely like an interesting experiment. Pubert didn't actually "save the day", he was just playing his role.

"But wait," you say. "Debbie was actually killed when Pubert crossed the wires. Therefore, an Addams can kill an Addams."

Not so. In the movie you see Debbie throw the switch, Pubert change the wires, and the current return to Debbie. This was an act of gratuitous editing. If current was running through the wire, it would have stopped running once Pubert unplugged it, then started running again when he plugged it back in. That didn't happen, so we know that Pubert couldn't have unplugged and plugged after Debbie threw the switch. Furthermore, electricity through a wire travels at about 6.7 million miles per hour. It's therefore impossible — even for an Addams — to switch up the plugs the way Pubert did in the time it took the surge to go from the switch to Pubert. Therefore what actually happened was, Pubert changed the wires and then Debbie threw the switch. That being the case, Debbie committed suicide and suicides are not protected by the Addams curse.

"So then why did Debbie fry, but Pubert shot himself 30,000 feet into the atmosphere and landed without a scratch?"

Intent. Debbie had murder in her heart; Pubert did not. The curse accounts for that. Pubert wasn't trying to kill himself, he was trying to play his part in saving his family.

"But what about all of the Addams's in the graveyard? What about Uncle Knicknack in the attic?"

We never know what happened to Uncle Knicknack, but given his state (stored in a bag in the attic, not given a proper burial) it's reasonable to assume that he suicided, and it's likely that in the Addams clan suicides are seen as a coward's way out. Therefore, Uncle Knicknack was never included in the graveyard amongst the "honored dead" because he dishonored himself by suiciding.

And as for the graveyard, all of the residents there have backstories that put their cause-of-deaths to people and events outside of the Addams family; Wednesday's great-aunt Calpurnia was burned as a witch in 1706, Aunt LaBorgia executed by a firing squad, etc. All killed by people outside of the Addams family.

Furthermore, in the first Addams Family movie we see evidence of this; during Tully's second sword fight with Gomez, he (Tully) scratches Gomez's hand and draws blood, the only time we see blood drawn anywhere in any Addams movie or TV show. And when that happens you can easily see Gomez's who attitude shift; when the fight started he was as playful and madcap as he always is, but the moment Tully drew blood his whole demeanor changed to something more serious. He knew that he could actually be killed since Tully was serious and isn't family, and his attitude showed that understanding.

There was also a TV episode where a policeman paid a visit to the Addams house. Lurch patted him down and found a gun. Lurch was not happy about this and only reluctantly returned it when the man identified himself as a cop. Why would Lurch care if there was a gun brought into a house filled with blades, explosives, poisons, and who-knows what else? Because a non-Addams with a gun can actually kill an Addams. Lurch was concerned.

"Yeah, what about Lurch? He's not an Addams."

Lurch is timeless. He's been the Addams' butler for hundreds of years and was around when the curse was first laid on them; therefore he shares the Addams' durability. When the last Addams family member dies, the curse will be lifted and he'll likely turn instantly to ash.

From Redditor u/splitcrowsoup:

What we know:

Casper McFadden, son of famous inventor J.T McFadden, dies of pneumonia exasterbated by playing in the winter cold well into the night. Casper doesn't leave the mortal world after he dies of his illness, because he doesn't want his father to be lonely.

Mr. McFadden is a single father, his wife is only mentioned once. He devises a machine, called the Lazarus, to bring his dead son back to life. However, Mr. McFadden is declared "legally insane", saying in a public statement that he is trying to resurrect his dead son. We find this out from a news paper clipping that Catherine Harvey finds in Casper's forgotten toy room.

The Ghostly Trio are not mentioned by Casper. However, they do have a set of ingraved beds in a bedroom - which proves that they were once loving occupants of Whipstaff Manor. Casper does, however, call The Ghostly Trio his uncles.

We see the Lazarus Machine during the course of the movie, it is powered by bottles that contain bright red viscous fluid. There are a total of three bottles, however two of them are nonfunctional, due to their partial filling or being completely broken. The third bottle is intact and becomes a prop piece in the film.

What we can infer:

Casper is the first ghost in Whipstaff, or at least predates the Ghostly Trio - as they are quite bombastic and the reason humans cannot live on premises. Mr. McFadden would have made mention of three loud ghosts terrorizing him long before Casper even had the chance to die, if it were another case.

In addition, The Ghostly Trio had to be living when they arrived, as they have three disused beds in a room with their names ingraved.

What I think:

I think that Mr. McFadden created the Lazarus to safely infuse a human spirit or soul with the ingredients nessisary to remake a human body. This sounds eerily similar to tales of the Philosopher's Stone - which takes human sacrifise to create, following the laws of alchemical exchange (popular in Edwardian times).

I think that McFadden, in a quest to make the Lazarus Elixir, brought the still living Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso to Whipstaff and killed them one by one, trying to perfect his formula. When he was sucessful, he had killed all three of the men, but finally had a working formula - one precious chance to bring his child to life.

However, something happened. Going back to the paper clipping that Catherine Harvey found I want to note the phrase "Legally Insane" - Legally insane is primarily used as a defense tactic when people are brought up on charges of murder. I think that the reason Casper isn't flesh and blood is because J.T McFadden got caught before he had the chance to use his machine to resurrect his son.

I also think that Casper himself was the one to cut out the paper excerpt, to remind himself of his father before the years removed the memory of his life.

In addition, I think that their murder is what explains the Ghostly Trio's hate of human beings as well as their mistreatment of Casper himself. Their rage at being killed to save the boy is all that remains of their prior lives.

Also, and less interesting- I think that as ghosts age they lose their humanity and memories, which is represented by them becoming more "sheet ghost" like in appearance. We see this represented by the fresh spirits of Carrigan Crittenden and James Harvey whom still have their human hair and clothing on, as well as other attributes, that look like their human selves - while ghosts that have lost their memories of their pasts like The Trio and Casper appear unlike humanbeings at all.

From Redditor u/BrianBoyko:

Unlike other ghosts in the movie, Beetlejuice has a lot of restrictions placed upon him. He can't leave the graveyard unless his name is called three times; and to leave permanently requires marriage.

All of these would make sense if he was geased to a particular area - specifically, his "area of manifestation" (and protected by the sandworms) is graveyards -- because, ironically, ghosts are unlikely to haunt there, and the living are unlikely to reside there.

It is the fact that the Maitland's model has a graveyard in it that allows him to technically bypass his normal restrictions and invade the Maitland's abode.

Finally, look at what Beetlejuice wears - black and white stripes... which is exactly like an old-time prison uniform.

From Redditor u/SpideyFan914:

TLDR: Nancy's father discovered important evidence that would've pinned Freddy, however he did so without a search warrant. This is why Freddy got off.

Here is the scene where Nancy's mother explains what happened to Fred Krueger.

"You want to know who Fred Krueger was? He was a filthy child killer who got at least twenty kids, kids from our area, kids we all knew. It drove us all crazy when we didn't know who was doing it -- but it was even worse when they caught him. Oh lawyers got fat and the judge got famous, but someone forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place*, and Fred Krueger was free, just like that."*

Now what kind of judge doesn't sign a search warrant in the right place? That's a pretty absurd technicality -- a far more common technicality... is that the search warrant hadn't been signed.

Fans of this franchise will remember Nancy's father (the late great John Saxon), a stoney cop who refuses to listen when she tells him that Krueger is back. (Even when there's pretty good evidence about it... Nancy literally pulls a freaking hat out of her dreams! I mean, damn...) Mr. Thompson is also known to have been a part of the mob that killed Krueger after his acquittal.

A lot of his attitude and demeanor can be explained if he was literally the guy who discovered important evidence without a warrant! When Krueger was freed, it was his responsibility, and he knew he'd be personally at fault for Krueger's future victims. So he took things one step further, joining (or starting?) a mob to take things outside the law. Freddy is more than just some killer he despises: Freddy is the greatest mistake of his career.

The strongest evidence, ironically, might be in that quote where Mrs. Thompson does not draw light to this. She dodges the specifics of how Krueger got off, giving some idiom instead of a reason that actually makes sense. She doesn't want Nancy to see her father in such a light, as she spends the scene trying to justify their actions.

"Freddy can't get you now. He's dead honey, because mommy killed him."

From Redditor u/xXSJADOo:

The Blair Witch Project ends with Heather descending the stairs to the basement. She enters a room and sees Mike with his face in the corner of the room. Heather is screaming his name but he doesn't turn around. The camera hits the floor, implying that Heather was knocked to the ground and probably killed. Then it ends.

As most of us realized, upon watching this final scene, this "facing in the corner while the other person is killed" scenario ties back to the beginning where people are telling the story of Rustin Parr. This was a guy who was influenced by the Blair Witch to bring children in pairs to a house in the woods and kill them. He didn't want the children to watch him kill the other, so he had one stand in the corner while he killed the other. Its not completely clear how he was influenced by the Blair Witch (phyiscally threatened, spiritually possessed Rustin, etc.). Later, he admitted to these crimes and was hanged.

Fast forward to the present day story:

Each night the main characters are camping in the woods, they hear noises coming from all directions. One night, the noises are very loud and they run away from the tent. When they return, the find that one of their backpacks and clothes were all spread out, covered in some sort of slime. After looking through it, they realize it looks like Josh's belongings were singled out, as his clothes were the only ones to get covered in the slime.

The next night, they take turns sitting outside the tent, keeping watch. The next morning they realize Josh is gone. As the movie goes on, you hear Josh screaming from a distance, and one morning they find a roll of sticks contain what looks like bloody teeth or bone wrapped in Josh's shirt.

Near the end, Heather and Mike hear Josh screaming, which leads them to an old house. This is where the final scene occurs.

It seems that most people come to the conclusion that the Blair Witch kills Heather (and probably Mike) here. I disagree.

First of all, let's look back to the story that is told at the beginning of the movie. Each of these killings involve 4 people/entities: 2 victims, 1 killer, and 1 Witch. In these stories about the children murders, the Witch was never the one killing them, she influenced someone else to do it for her.

The witch does not kill Heather and Mike, just as she didn't kill the children. Josh did. If the Blair Witch used someone else (Rustin Parr) why would she do it herself now? Especially since she now, presumably, has someone in her possession (physically or spiritually, depending on how you look at it). She even seemed to single Josh out from the very beginning of the group's filming project with the slime, and taking him from the group. Josh was not calling for help when he was in the cabin, he was luring Heather and Mike. And the Blair Witch did not kill anyone, she influenced Josh to do so, just as she did to Rustin.

Also, throughout the movie, the group wakes up to find little piles of rocks surrounding their tent, which they suspect has something to do with the Blair Witch. Earlier in the movie, Josh kicks over one of these piles. Heather puts it back together and kisses it, as if to not upset the witch. This could be the reason the Blair Witch singles out Josh to begin with.

From Redditor u/PrinceHarming:

The “Don’t Feed After Midnight” rule in Gremlins was misinterpreted.

The physiology of a biological creature adhering to a man-made concept like “midnight” is ridiculous. The actual rule is “Don’t Feed After the Middle of the Night.”

A Chinese creature owned by a Chinese man with an English speaking grandson could have easily misunderstood the original phrase.

We know Mogwai have a negative reaction to bright lights and sunlight will kill them. Whatever circadian rhythm that governs their metabolism means any food leftover in their digestive systems when the sun rises causes them to mutate into Gremlins.

Feed them early enough and you’re fine, their food will be digested by the time the sun rises. Feed them too late and when the sun rises, you’re in trouble.