Una Famiglia Mostruosa – review

Director: Volfango De Biasi

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

When I heard about Una Famiglia Mostruosa and went searching for it, I actually found it on YouTube. Unfortunately it was a Russian dub of the film (a legitimate dub, it seems, but dub nonetheless). However, with some subtitles from elsewhere on the net it was perfectly watchable. That said, a dub obfuscates the original acting and so I’d ask you to bear that in mind when reading the review.

What isn’t obfuscated is the obvious programmes this is based on. Whilst the fact that the family are monsters brings the Munsters to mind, the clearer inspiration seems to be the Addams Family.

Adalberto and Luna

It starts, however, with a young man, Adalberto (Cristiano Caccamo), meeting a young woman, Luna (Emanuela Rei), when his cat jumps down to her balcony and it is clear immediately that they are attracted to each other. She doesn’t know that the cat, Cagliostro (Paolo Ruffini), can talk and that Adalberto has secrets. Two years on and she discovers she is pregnant (but not discovered his secret yet) and he panics. He shouldn’t be able to impregnate a human and Cagliostro warns him that the pregnancy will be quicker than a human one… 4 days. He decides to take her to meet his parents, first, then tell her his true nature and also consult a magic mirror (Massimo Lopez) as to whether the child will be human or monster.

family dance

When we meet his family it starts with his little sister, the vampire Salmetta (Sara Ciocca), turned in her teens by his father Count Valdimiro (Massimo Ghini). Adlaberto was not turned and is the natural child of Vladimiro and Countess Brunilde (Lucia Ocone), a witch. Also living in the family castle is Brunilde’s brother Nanni (Paolo Calabresi) – who serves as a cross between Frankenstein’s Monster and Uncle Fester, half his brain eaten by Cagliostro and his dismembered body stitched together – and finally there is the ghost of his grandmother (Barbara Bouchet). Adalberto himself is a werewolf who wanted to live among mortals.

Luna's parents

We get the farce then of trying to act human for appearances, though Brunilde is trying to sabotage the couple (she can’t even say human) and even invites Adalberto’s ex, the invisible Daphne (Alessandra Scarci), to the castle. Then we get Luna finding out what he is and freaking, the couple heading towards a break up when her family (that she told him were dead due to being embarrassed by them) suddenly pitches up, as the nouveau riche (through not so legal means) parents have access to military tracking hardware capable of penetrating the magical mists that otherwise cut off GPS, phone signals and the internet (there is a monster version of the net that is accessed through a crystal ball). The 'will they, won’t they' of the couple is the primary plot.

Massimo Ghini as the Count

This is played for laughs and so don’t expect any blood (though there is at least one vampire bite). The jokes aren’t stellar but they work better than those in the US remake of the Munsters the following year. This was probably down to not trying to replicate humour that is 50 years out of date (there is a saucy element to some of it also). Adalberto and Luna seem a little too teen romance and the sassy Salmetta is underused, but the Count and Countess are actually pretty cool and, for me, carried the film. The look was really sumptuous and the effects worked just fine. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.