''Addams Family Values'' is a 1993 American

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

directed by

Barry Sonnenfeld Barry Sonnenfeld (born April 1, 1953) is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing films such as ''The Addams Family'' (1991) and its sequel '' Addams Family V ...

and written by Paul Rudnick, based on the characters created by

Charles Addams Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams ...

. It is the sequel to '' The Addams Family'' (1991). The film features almost all the main cast members from the original film, including

Anjelica Huston Anjelica Huston ( ; born July 8, 1951) is an American actress and director. Known for often portraying eccentric and distinctive characters, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nom ...

, Raul Julia,

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci predominantly works in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box office hits. She has receive ...

Carel Struycken Carel Struycken (; born 30 July 1948) is a Dutch actor. He is known for playing the Giant/Fireman in the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017), the occasional guest role of Mr. Homn in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1 ...

, Jimmy Workman, and Christopher Hart. Joan Cusack plays Debbie Jellinsky, a serial killer who marries Fester Addams (Lloyd) intending to murder him for his inheritance, while teenagers Wednesday (Ricci) and Pugsley (Workman) are sent to summer camp. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the 1960s sitcom, ''Addams Family Values'' is played more for very dark and macabre laughs. The film was well received by critics, in contrast to its predecessor's mixed critical reception. Commercially however, it did not perform as well as the first film in its theatrical run with a box office grossing of $111 million on a budget of $47 million. The motion picture is also the final film starring actor Raul Julia and was released just months before his death the following year in 1994.

Plot

Gomez and

Morticia Addams Morticia Addams (née Frump) is a fictional character from the '' Addams Family'' multimedia franchise created by American Charles Addams in 1933. She plays the role of the family's reserved matriarch. Morticia Addams has been portrayed in seve ...

hire a nanny named Debbie Jellinsky to take care of their newborn son Pubert after his older siblings ( Wednesday and Pugsley)'s failed attempts to kill him, for which Gomez and Morticia gently rebuke them. Unbeknownst to them, Debbie is a serial killer who marries rich

bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

s and murders them to collect their inheritances. After Debbie seduces Uncle Fester, Wednesday becomes suspicious of her intentions. To maintain her cover, Debbie tricks Gomez and Morticia into believing Wednesday and Pugsley want to go to summer camp. Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to Camp Chippewa, managed by the always cheerful and lively Gary and Becky Granger, where they are singled out by the

counselor Counselor or counsellor may refer to: A professional In diplomacy and government * Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability * Counselor (dipl ...

s and popular (and snobbish) girl Amanda Buckman for their macabre appearance and behavior. Joel Glicker, a nerdy bookworm and fellow outcast, becomes attracted to Wednesday. Debbie and Fester become engaged. At her bachelorette party, Debbie is repulsed by the Addams family and their relatives. On their

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...

, she tries unsuccessfully to kill Fester by throwing a

boombox A boombox is a transistorized portable music player featuring one or two cassette tape recorder/players and AM/FM radio, generally with a carrying handle. Beginning in the mid 1980s, a CD player was often included. Sound is delivered throu ...

into the bathtub. Frustrated, Debbie forces him to cut ties with his family; when they try to visit Fester and Debbie at their home, they are removed from the premises. The Addams are alarmed to find that Pubert has transformed into a blue-eyed, rosy-cheeked, blond-haired baby. Grandmama diagnoses this as a result of his disrupted family life and Gomez becomes horribly depressed. At camp, the counselors cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in Gary's

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley, and Joel are all sent to the camp's "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch hours of wholesome family entertainment movies and television shows. Afterwards, the three feign cheerfulness, and Wednesday agrees to take part. However, during the performance, she reveals her deception and returns to her old self. With help from Joel, Pugsley, and the outcast campers, they capture Amanda, Gary, and Becky and set the camp on fire. Later, Wednesday and Joel share their first kiss before separating, with Joel staying behind to lead their friends to ensure the camp's permanent destruction. Pugsley and Wednesday return home in a stolen camp van. Debbie tries to kill Fester by blowing up their mansion, but he survives. She then pulls a gun and reveals she never loved him and that she was only interested in his money. Thing helps Fester escape by knocking Debbie aside with her own car. Fester apologizes to Gomez upon his return to the Addams mansion, and Wednesday and Pugsley return, successfully reuniting the family. Debbie arrives in another car, holds the family at gunpoint, and straps them into electric chairs with the intent of killing them. As the Addamses listen sympathetically, she admits that she killed her parents and her first two husbands for incredibly frivolous and materialistic reasons. Pubert, now restored to his normal, pale, mustachioed self, escapes from his crib and reaches the rest of the family via a series of improbable events. As Debbie throws the switch to electrocute the family, he connects two loose wires that route the current through her instead. Debbie's body burns to ashes, leaving only her shoes and credit cards intact. Some time later, the Addamses and their relatives gather to celebrate Pubert's first birthday, with Joel also attending. Fester laments Debbie's loss, but soon becomes smitten with Dementia, a nanny whom Cousin Itt and his wife Margaret Alford have hired to care for their child. Out in the family graveyard, Wednesday tells Joel that Debbie was a sloppy killer, and that Wednesday would have scared her victim to death and made sure not to be caught. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand emerges from the earth and grabs him, prompting Wednesday to smile as he screams.

Cast

* Raul Julia as Gomez Addams *

as Fester Addams *

Wednesday Addams Wednesday Addams is a fictional character from the Addams Family multimedia franchise created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. She is typically portrayed as a morbid and emotionally reserved child that is fascinated by the macabre, often ...

* Christopher Hart as Thing *

as Lurch * Jimmy Workman as Pugsley Addams *

Carol Kane Carolyn Laurie Kane (born June 18, 1952) is an American actress. She became known in the 1970s and 1980s in films such as '' Hester Street'' (for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress), '' Dog Day Afternoon'', ''Annie ...

as Grandmama Addams (replacing

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York ...

) * John Franklin as Cousin Itt * Joan Cusack as Debbie Jellinsky *

Dana Ivey Dana Robins Ivey (born August 12, 1941) is an American actress. She is a five-time Tony Award nominee for her work on Broadway, and won the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her work in both ''Sex and Longin ...

as Margaret Alford (wife of Cousin Itt) * David Krumholtz as Joel Glicker * Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper as Pubert Addams *

Peter MacNicol Peter MacNicol (born April 10, 1954) is an American actor. He received a Theatre World Award for his 1981 Broadway debut in the play '' Crimes of the Heart''. His film roles include Galen in ''Dragonslayer'' (1981), Stingo in '' Sophie's Choice ...

as Gary Granger *

Christine Baranski Christine Jane Baranski (born May 2, 1952) is an American actress. She is a 15-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, winning once in 1995 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom ''Cybill'' ...

as Becky Martin-Granger * Mercedes McNab as Amanda Buckman, a camper at Camp Chippewa (McNab played the

Girl Scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

in the first film)

Cameo roles

* Director

and Julie Halston as the parents of Joel Glicker. * Nathan Lane as the police desk sergeant. Lane would eventually go on to play Gomez in the Addams Family Broadway musical. *

David Hyde Pierce David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom '' Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Scree ...

as the delivery room doctor * Peter Graves as ''America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes'' anchorman * Sam McMurray and Harriet Sansom Harris as Amanda's parents *

Ian Abercrombie Ian Abercrombie (11 September 1934 – 26 January 2012) was an English actor and comedian. He was best known for playing Justin Pitt (Elaine Benes' boss) during the sixth season of ''Seinfeld''. He also played Alfred Pennyworth on ''Birds of Pre ...

as a driver * Chris Ellis as a furniture delivery driver * Tony Shalhoub as Jorge * Cynthia Nixon as a nanny interviewee

Production

The "family values" in the film's title is a tongue-in-cheek reference by writer Paul Rudnick to a 1992 speech ("Reflections on Urban America") made by then-Vice Presidential candidate

Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle served as a U.S. ...

. In the speech, Quayle controversially blamed the

1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in So ...

on a breakdown of "family values". According to Anjelica Huston, during the filming of ''Addams Family Values'', it became increasingly clear that Raul Julia's health was deteriorating. He had trouble eating and was losing weight as a result. He died less than a year after the film was released.

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief ...

, particularly Sequoia Lake, in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

of California, was the site of the movie's "Camp Chippewa".

Music

* '' Addams Family Values: The Original Orchestral Score'' composed by Marc Shaiman * '' Addams Family Values: Music from the Motion Picture'' Various artist soundtrack album

Michael Jackson's involvement

American singer

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

was supposed to feature a song in the film called " Addams Groove/Family Thing". The song is mostly rumored to have been removed due to the child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson; in reality, it was because of contractual differences with Paramount Pictures. The song has since been leaked online. Jackson is referenced in the film via a poster in the Harmony Hut advertising his 1992 single "

Heal the World "Heal the World" is a song recorded by American recording artist Michael Jackson from his eighth studio album, '' Dangerous'' (1991). It was released on November 23, 1992 as the fifth single from the album. It was written and composed by Jackson ...

", which horrifies Joel.

Reception

Box office

''Addams Family Values'' opened at number 1 at the US box office in its opening weekend with a reported gross of $14,117,545. In its second week, the film dropped to number 2 behind '' Mrs. Doubtfire'', and in its third week to number 3 behind ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ''

A Perfect World ''A Perfect World'' is a 1993 American crime drama film directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who takes a young boy ( T. J. Lowther) hostage and attempts to escape on the road with the child. Eastwood co-stars ...

''. Its final box office gross in the United States and Canada was $48,919,043, a significant decline from the previous film's domestic total of $113,502,426. Internationally it grossed $62 million, for a worldwide total of $110.9 million. In retrospect, Barry Sonnenfeld recalled: "I was disappointed in the box office for the second film. I think the first film is more romantic and the second film is funnier. Part of the reason it didn't do as well is that the marketing of the movie was so similar to the first one that people didn't think it was going to be any value-added and I really wanted to push the Pubert of it all and the Fester of it all. Instead, the whole campaign was back with the original Addams Family, so it wasn't really promising anything new. I think that's in part why it didn't do as well. Many people love it as much or more as the first one".

Critical response

''Addams Family Values'' was well received, receiving significantly better reviews than the first film. On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film received an approval rating of 75% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "New, well-developed characters add dimension to this batty satire, creating a comedy much more substantial than the original". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, a grade up from the "B" earned by the previous film.

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wondered if "the making of this sequel was sheer drudgery for all concerned", then answered herself by writing: "There's simply too much glee on the screen, thanks to a cast and visual conception that were perfect in the first place and a screenplay by Paul Rudnick that specializes in delightfully arch, subversive humor". Leonard Klady of '' Variety'' was slightly less enthusiastic than Maslin: "It remains perilously slim in the story department, but glides over the thin ice with technical razzle-dazzle and an exceptionally winning cast". Richard Schickel, writing for ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', was even less enthuastic than Klady, calling the film "an essentially lazy movie, too often settling for easy gags and special effects that don't come to any really funny point". Both

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

and

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

had disliked the first film. Siskel gave ''Addams Family Values'' a mixed review and accused Sonnenfeld of caring more about how the film looks than how the jokes play. Ebert, however, gave the film three stars out of four and thought that, unusually for a sequel, it improved upon its predecessor. He enjoyed the various subplots and recommended the film.

Accolades

The film was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

in the category Best Art Direction (

Ken Adam Sir Kenneth Adam (born Klaus Hugo George Fritz Adam; 5 February 1921 – 10 March 2016) was a German-British movie production designer, best known for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for '' Dr. Stra ...

, Marvin March), but lost to ''

Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the 1982 novel ''Schindler's Ark'' by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film f ...

''; and Huston was nominated for the 1993 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance as Morticia, a reprise of her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1991 original. The film won also a

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song The Razzie Award for Worst Original Song was an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst song written for a film in the previous year. The following is a list of recipients and nominees of that award, along with the fi ...

for the

Tag Team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

track "Addams Family (Whoomp!)". ''Addams Family Values'' was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs. In 2016, James Charisma of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...

'' ranked the film #15 on a list of ''15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals''.

Home media

The '' Addams Family Values'' video game was produced by Ocean Software. The film was released on VHS and DVD in 2000 with only two theatrical trailers as special features. It was re-released in 2006 with the first film on a single disc, with no new features. In October 2019, the film debuted on the

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

format when Paramount Pictures released double feature of ''Addams Family'' and ''Addams Family Values'' on Blu-ray in the United States, along with standalone releases. In Australia, the film was released on VHS by Paramount Home Entertainment (Australasia) in 1994. In 2002 the film was released on DVD with theatrical trailers in the extra features.

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 1993 films 1990s black comedy films 1990s comedy horror films 1990s fantasy comedy films 1990s screwball comedy films 1990s serial killer films American black comedy films American comedy horror films American fantasy comedy films American screwball comedy films American sequel films American serial killer films The Addams Family films 1990s English-language films Films about witchcraft Films based on adaptations Films based on television series Films directed by Barry Sonnenfeld Films produced by Scott Rudin Films scored by Marc Shaiman Films set in country houses Films shot in California Golden Raspberry Award winning films Mariticide in fiction Patricide in fiction Paramount Pictures films Films about summer camps Thanksgiving horror films Films with screenplays by Paul Rudnick 1993 comedy films 1990s American films