The Addams Family (1991) & Addams Family Values (1993): The original film version and its sequel of the classic comic remain ooky and kooky delights

Chad’s Grades:

The Addams Family: B-

Addams Family Values: B+

In 1938 cartoonist Charles Addams debuted his new comic strip, The Addams Family, in The New Yorker magazine. The famous cartoon chronicled the misadventures of the ghoulish, macabre but lovable Addams Family clan. The family got a boost in popularity with the classic 1964 TV sitcom that ran for two seasons on ABC, complete with its catchy and kooky (snap, snap) theme song. In the intervening years, Charles Addams’s gothic family has been reinterpreted through all manners of media, including animation, video games, and comic books. There was even a Tony-nominated Broadway musical in 2010 starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. 

The Addams Family received their big-budget, live-action film version in 1991. Director Tim Burton flirted with the project but had scheduling issues with his highly anticipated “bat” sequel Batman Returns. Orion Pictures ended up taking a chance on Barry Sonnenfeld, a highly regarded cinematographer on such films as Misery, Miller’s Crossing, and Big, who was an avowed Addams superfan and felt he could do the quirky family justice. It was the right move, as director Sonnenfeld expertly mixes the dark gothic atmosphere and real-world setting.

The film’s plot is straightforward, where the audience is reintroduced to the macabre world of The Addams Family. There’s the family patriarch Gomez, his goth and aristocratic wife Morticia, their children Pugsley & Wednesday, wacky witch Granny, loyal butler and manservant Lurch, and the rascally and lovable hand “Thing.” The family is shocked to discover that their beloved Uncle Fester, who’s been missing in the Bermuda triangle for 25 years, suddenly reappears. But this Fester is an imposter who’s teamed with the family’s corrupt lawyer, hoping to rob the aristocratic family of their immense wealth. But as Fester spends more time with this kooky but loving family, memories resurface, and he discovers he may be their real missing Uncle. Will Uncle Fester choose his new “found family” over the scheming evil crooks? I’ll give you a kooky and a few “snaps, snaps” to figure out how this tale ends.

The plot is almost beside the point as the film’s absolute joy is watching the family’s darkly comic stylings in action. The central joke of The Addams Family is that this is a loving and supportive family unit overlayed with a heavy dose of the bizarre and macabre. Gomez and Morticia are still crazy in love, their passion only intensifying as they whisper to each other in French. Wednesday and Pugsley are in a constant state of healthy (or unhealthy) sibling rivalry as they try to one-up each other. Granny helps and interferes when she can while Lurch does his household duties in stone-cold silence. The film has a vignette sense of pacing, and it’s enormously fun to watch the outside world react to this ghoulish family who is entirely unaware that they are frightening or strange.

It’s refreshing to see the movie embrace the black comedy roots of the source material, a genre that’s all but abandoned in recent years. Director Sonnenfeld gives an authentic visual kick to the proceedings but doesn’t overdo things, striking that perfect balance. The film has homages to both the original comic and the classic TV show, blending both into a satisfying package. Whether the constant shaft of light highlighting Morticia’s devilish eyes or Wednesday’s pale look of a serial killer bad seed, the movie has fun with its comically medieval nature. I still love Morticia’s cutting the roses, only displaying the thorn stems, or Gomez taking Fester to his underground “phantom of the opera” style man cave. Pugsley’s removal of a street stop sign, followed by cars crashing in the distance, is pure black comedy gold.

And the movie’s casting is perfect, with a blend of actors who brilliantly inhabit this stylized world. The late Raul Julia makes for a boisterous Gomez, playing the family’s patriarch like a crazed, swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks. Anjelica Huston is a wonderful Morticia whose cool monotone delivery sets Gomez’s heart aflutter with the slightest flash of emotion. And credit must be given to Christina Ricci as Wednesday, in her child actress prime, who steals every scene with her brooding line delivery. Watching her terrorize her brother, trying to electrocute him at one point, puts the black in the black comedy. Try seeing that in any modern family film in this “easily offended” day and age.

The Addams Family is a fun and solid reintroduction of the classic Charles Addams comic. While the film does lean into its PG-13 ratings, it’s a great Halloween treat to watch with the family. And it became a big box office hit in 1991, recouping its enormous budget and launching Barry Sonnenfeld’s career as a successful director. Paramount, who had bought the IP rights from Orion Pictures, wanted a follow-up immediately.

And two years later, Addams Family Values made its sequel debut, with most of the original’s creative team intact. This is the rare instance where the sequel miraculously improves upon the first film, and credit must be given to the franchise’s new screenwriter: Paul Rudnick. The highly acclaimed writer of the play Jeffrey and the smash hit Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Sister Act, Rudnick leans into the darkly comedic material with a vengeance. His script has a sharp edge, with endlessly quotable lines and a darker storyline that earns its PG-13 rating.

The plot picks up right where the original ended, with the Addams welcoming their new baby to the family. But siblings Wednesday & Pugsley aren’t too keen on the new addition and literally try to kill the baby in some darkly creative scenarios. Gomez and Morticia hire Debbie Jellinsky, a seemingly perfect nanny, to watch (and protect) the little tyke. Debbie takes an immediate shine to Uncle Fester, and the pair immediately fall in love and wed. However, Debbie is a serial killer known as the “black widow” who marries older rich men only to murder them on their honeymoon, collecting the inheritance payday. Meanwhile, Pugsley and Wednesday are sent to an annoyingly chirpy summer camp, where the deviant siblings unleash a reign of terror ending in flames and destruction. Once the kids learn of Debbie’s evil identity, it’s a race to save Uncle Fester from the clutches of the “black widow.”

The sequel keeps the balanced tone of the original, but the overarching story has more focus than the loose tone of the first entry. Joan Cusack makes a delightful addition as the evil and scheming nanny Debbie, playing the villain role to comic perfection. We also get early appearances by Christine Baranski and Peter MacNicol as overtly cheery camp counselors and David Krumholtz as a sweet (but terrified) love interest for Wednesday.

The filmmakers smartly expanded the roles of Wednesday and Pugsley, and the subplot of the pair at the summer camp could have been its own film. Christina Ricci shines here, giving Wednesday new layers to her darkly comic portrayal, particularly in her interaction with Krumholtz’s doofus Joel. Her response to an annoying blonde during CPR class – I’ll play the victim! …All your life…-is comic perfection. And in the movie’s most politically charged moment, the Addams siblings sabotage the ridiculous Thanksgiving-themed play, where Wednesday, playing Pocahontas (of course), lights a torch to the proceedings with gleaming menace.

And I tip my hat off to the filmmakers for crafting a harder and darker tone that pushes the PG-13 rating. The first 10 minutes feature Wednesday and Pugsley trying to kill their baby brother (but done in a comically exaggerated manner). During the birthing scene, when the doctor offers Morticia pain-reducing drugs, she declines as she smiles with lascivious pleasure. And when Debbie and Fester embark on their dangerous Honeymoon, Debbie repeatedly tries (and fails) to murder her ghoulish husband and decline his horny advances. Unfortunately, the Debbie “black widow” story and the summer camp subplot never converge organically, and the movie does fly off the rails near the climax/ending. But it’s still a far more daring and rewarding watch than the original film.

Sadly, Addams Family Values bombed at the box office, making less than half of the original. I think the sequel’s darker and edgier storyline may have turned off its core audience. But both movies remain imminently rewatchable, flirting with the lost art of dark satire and black comedy, and are expertly cast with great actors in their prime. The original’s lighter, more episodic tone makes for perfect family viewing during Halloween. While the superior sequel has become a Thanksgiving staple, especially with that vicious takedown of the camp’s tone-deaf Thanksgiving play.

And Charles Addams’ kooky franchise is still going strong. There were two well-received animated features in 2019 & 2021 featuring the voices of Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron. And premiering this November is Wednesday, chronicling the adventures of the Addams’s favorite goth teenager as she attends the Nevermore Academy. The series is produced by (who else) Tim Burton and stars Luis Guzman & Catherine Zeta-Jones, with Jenny Ortega following in the footsteps of the great Christina Ricci. Fingers crossed that the series will be a strange and spooky delight.