The Addams Family - Movie Review

When it comes to the Halloween season I'm not the best when it comes to watching the typical horror movies that hit our screens around this time. This year especially, with people virtually getting together to watch the spookiest movies around, I got two friends together to watch a more light-heart movie that still embraced the spooky and macabre, this took the form of the 90s cult classic, "The Addams Family".

As a self-confessed scaredy-cat, this family-friendly film was perfect to join in the spooky celebrations, while being able to laugh out loud rather than scare myself to death. In true "me" form, I wanted to do a quick review on it, in the hopes of convincing anyone who may not have had the inclination to watch this bizarre movie.

So why watch it?

• Angelica Houston/Morticia Addams: Its best to say that Angelica Houston made this phenomenal character the well-known Mother of death we now know. Of course, there was another before her, but for me and many of my friends, Houston is just the face we see when we picture this hilarious character. In this movie, Houston shines as the twisted and overtly sexual mother of the family. Her soothing tones are great at concealing the truly creepy and sinister thing she is actually saying. Then there is the overt sexualness of her character, it isn't just how she looks, its the things she says, her love for the macabre, that goes much further than just enjoying it.
• Hilariously twisted: Much like I just explained about Morticia Addams, a lot of what makes this movie so good is how ridiculously explicit it can be without actually being obviously crude. Interactions between Morticia and Gomez go from loving to sexual and loving again in a couple of sentences. Then there is the more sinister jokes, many of the family members talk about death and maiming others with such ease that it could put you on edge, yet with enough oddness to just make you laugh.
• Great gothic elements: although this is definitely a comedy, and to some an odd choice to watch during a Halloween run, but its definitely one of the more modern movies that brings to light the more classic conventions of a typical gothic horror. Not only have the characters themselves become synonymous with the concept of horror and Halloween, but everything about the movie just screams horror, just with more of a comedy twist.

Where could it go wrong?

Now, I've watched this movie many times throughout my life, so I'm fully aware of how cheesy it can actually be. After all, the movie was made in the late 80s and released in the early 90s, and it definitely shows. For me, its this aesthetic that simply boosts the hilarity of the movie, yet I know for others who have watched it with me it moves from quirky to kitsch very quickly.

Having watched this movie very recently, I'd like to say that it very much holds up today. Yet myself and many friends have also said that we couldn't see a movie like this being made in this day and age. Of course, I'm aware of the animated movie from 2019, so until I've watched that I guess I can't comment for sure on how much the crude humour translates in this different social decade.

At the end of the day...

I will continue to suggest this movie to many more people who are yet to see the cooky Addams clan in all their 90s glory. For years to come I will spend one Halloween night enjoying the hilarity of Wednesday's torture attempts on her brother, or enjoy the sexually romantic love between Gomez and Morticia with sinister glee.