by Alex P.

The ooky, spooky Addams Family has charmed America for almost a hundred years in countless forms and adaptations, from Charles Addams’s original New Yorker comics to Tim Burton’s new TV series on Wednesday Addams. The 1991 film, though, has always struck me as the adaptation that captured the demented energy of the original comics the best. It’s the kind of delightful culmination of talent and influences that is truly lightning in a bottle.

The film is the directorial debut of Barry Sonnenfeld, but you’d never be able to tell from its bold camerawork, blocking, and mise-en-scène. (It must have helped that he was director of photography for the Coen Brothers’ first three films.) Before I saw the film, I assumed it must have come from the dynamic duo of director Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, but Sonnenfeld both channels their era-defining aesthetic influences and adds a faster pace and kookiness that are all his own. Every set in the film is so full of detail that the Addams mansion becomes its own character. The impossible layouts and mountains of cobweb and clutter allow it to feel like a live-action cartoon. 

Gomez’s brother, Fester, returns to the Addams Family after having suddenly disappeared decades earlier in the Bermuda Triangle. But Fester is not Fester: the reunion is a scheme cooked up by Addams’s lawyer as a way to repay loan shark Abigail Craven. Craven’s adopted son Gordon resembles Fester remarkably, so he’s sent into the mansion during a séance to access the eccentric family’s vast riches. The bulk of the action follows Fester as Gomez wants to reminisce about growing up together, while Fester tries his hardest to keep up with the Addams’ odd and morbid customs. 

Those customs are perfectly presented in the spirit of Charles Addams’s one-panel comics. The Addams Family lives a macabre mirror image of the traditional American household, captured in this earnest and glorious interpretation. The film has aged perfectly, thanks to the simplicity of the characters and costuming, the labyrinthine sets, and the practical effects for, for example, the disembodied hand, Thing. The cast is also a once-in-a-lifetime assemblage. The late Raul Julia leads as Gomez Addams, and his chemistry with Morticia (Anjelica Hudson) is indelible. The momentum of the film is carried by the glee the pair shares in the perverse and morbid, and Julia in particular thrills with expressive and kinetic energy. Christopher Lloyd is cast against body type as Fester Addams, and though his role is peripheral, the seven-foot-tall Carel Struycken plays a perfect Lurch.

The influence Charles Addams’s characters have had on American culture is monumental; it’s arguable that he created goth culture. Accordingly, every generation has had several adaptations competing to be their favorite. For me, though, Sonnenfeld’s celebration of these characters is the one that defines them and transcends its era. 

The Addams Family is available on DVD and for streaming through Kanopy. 

Alex Pyryt is a DIY Instructor & Research Specialist at HCLS Elkridge Branch.