Addams Family Values

Image credit: IMDb

Continuing on with our little trip down the creepy and kooky rabbit hole that has been sparked with the new season of Wednesday on Netflix, Partner and I curled up last weekend to indulge in the family fun and madness of Addams Family Values.

While there is certainly a lot of love going on in the Addams family mansion with the arrival of baby Pubert, there is also discontent. While Wednesday and Puglsey concoct deadlier games to play with their brother, Uncle Fester begins to despair that he'll never find the special love that Gomez and Morticia have. But this changes when Debbie, the new babysitter, enters the mansion and Fester falls head over heels in love with her. But Debbie’s not really a babysitter, she’s a gold-digging serial killer known as the Black Widow and Fester is her next victim.

Where the first movie was all about the kooky novelty of the Addams family, the second one provides a bit more of a narrative backbone, giving the film semi-solid plot reasons for a few of the circumstance in which the characters find themselves. Alongside the central murder plot, which goes delightfully awry as Fester proves harder to kill than a cockroach, is the escape from summer camp plot starring Wednesday and Pugsley. For context, Debbie convinces Gomez and Morticia to send the kids to summer camp, as they suspect she’s not what she seems. Stuck at a cringeworthy camp for the rich and privileged, the two attempt a number of escapes before having to succumb to a full-out mutiny. During these scenes, we get to enjoy more of Wednesday and Puglsey as characters as well as a load of face-scrunching racism, ableism, and other political incorrectness because, it’s the ‘90s.

Still playing on the ironically sweet naivety and trustingness of the Addams Family and the idea that ‘normal’ people are actually the ones to be scared of, the film goes through a series of fun and chuckle-inducing sequences exploring themes of familial bonds, sex, and companionship.

Image credit: Fangoria

A lot more well-rounded that its predecessor, Addams Family Values is another fun, quirky, and engaging family comedy, definitely a bit dated in terms of some social commentary as well as janky special effects, but I think that all adds to the cinematic experience. There’s still never a dull moment.

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993

Cast: Angelica Houston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack, Christina Ricci, Carol Kane, Jimmy Workman, Carel Struycken, Christopher Hart, David Krumholtz, Dana Ivey, Peter MacNicol & Christine Baranski