Halloween Special: An Ode to the Addams Family

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s October, which means it’s a time to celebrate all things creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky. Welcome everyone to the first of many Halloween themed reviews for the month of October, where we take a look at a group of people who embody those previously mentioned adjectives better than anyone else, The Addams Family.

Starting out as a cartoon in The New Yorker in 1938 by cartoonist Charles Addams, the Addams Family were intended as a satirical inversion of the ideal American family. They were a family of wealthy eccentrics who took great pleasure in all things dreary and macabre and either oblivious or simply indifferent to the fact that other people found their ways to be bizarre or frightening. The Addams family consists of several colorful characters, including Fester, the lovable uncle with a penchant for explosives, Thing, a disembodied hand that helped the family with the occasional household chores, Cousin Itt, a strange being covered from head-to-toe in hair and communicated only in incomprehensible gibberish, Grandmama, the creepy eldest member of the family, Lurch, the family Butler who may or may not be a zombie, Wednesday, the sociopathic daughter who many consider to be the original goth girl, Pugsley, the son who usually assists in Wednesday’s evil schemes and last but not least, the centerpiece of the family, Gomez and Morticia Addams, a crazy couple who could not be more ridiculously in love (as well as in lust) with one another if they tried.

I’d always had an appreciation for the Addams Family, having watched the movies at a very young age, but I wasn’t really reminded how much I loved them until this past summer when I saw a Facebook post asking who was better, Lily Munster or Morticia Addams. Now, don’t get me wrong, Lily Munster is cool and all, but pitting her against Morticia Addams, that’s like pitting an amateur boxer against an eight hundred pound grizzly bear. You may be great at what you do, but you’re fighting way out of your weight-class here. After that rather spirited Facebook debate, I was put into an Addams family kind of mood and watched both of the 90’s Addams Family movies as well as the Youtube series, Adult Wednesday Addams, which features an older Wednesday having moved out of the Addams Family house and having getting into weird and often hilarious situations in the adult world. Anywho, what I found upon re-watching these childhood favorites is that they were actually a lot better than I remembered, much of which is due to the incredible cast. First up, there’s Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester, who is no stranger to playing creepy or eccentric roles as seen in films like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Curiously, much of the movies focus on Fester, which is odd as in the show Fester was always more of a goofy side character. Still, Lloyd is the kind of actor who can carry a film and his presence is very much welcome. Next up there’s Christina Ricci, who I am convinced was grown in a laboratory somewhere and genetically engineered to be the perfect Wednesday Addams. Ricci is spot on throughout the entire film and even more so in the sequel where she and Pugsley are sent to summer camp and Wednesday becomes a leader to a group of outcasts and even finds love. Then, of course there is the incredible Angelico Huston who was simply born for the role of Morticia Addams. I’m just going to come right out and say it, Angelica Huston was hot as hell in the 90’s. Morticia, particularly the film incarnation is gothic beauty personified. She’s cunning, witty, intelligent and indescribably beautiful. She really does feel like someone you’d kill for, or die for. Either way, what bliss. There really are only two words that can describe this amazing woman: Cara Mia. And last, but never least, there’s my personal favorite, Gomez, played by the tragically late but undeniably great Raul Julia, who also played the villainous M. Bison in the live action Street Fighter movie, which is an article for another day. Raul Julia was the absolute perfect choice to play Gomez Addams and he plays him so over the top that Tim Curry, that’s right, Tim, Frank N. Furter, Nigel Thornberry, Pennywise, Curry, is merely an understudy by comparison, Curry having played Gomez in the third movie made after Raul Julia’s death. The man just has so much energy and charisma that I find myself physically exhausted any time I attempt a Raul Julia impression, which is perfect for the debonair man child that is Gomez Addams. In fact, why the hell am I even bothering to tell you about this when you could just see it from the man himself.

But let's cut to the chase, what is it that gives the Addams Family their appeal, sure there's the likable characters, but I feel there's more to it than that. Really, I think what it ultimately boils down to is the fact that, if you look past the affinity for the macabre and the sense of wealthy entitlement, the Addams Family are people who know exactly who they are and make no effort to hide it. In short, these are people who give nary a single fuck about fitting in with society and are all the happier because of it, and personally, I think that that's something to be admired. How many of us have to hide away parts of who we are because of fear of what society may think. The Addams Family are completely without that fear. For that reason, I guess I always saw a little bit of the person I wish I could be in the likes of Gomez, Morticia and Wednesday. If you feel the same, then I highly recommend you check out the Addams Family in their various incarnations, I promise you won't be disappointed.