Addams Family Values is a
1993 sequel to the
1991 comedy The Addams Family. The movie was written by
Paul Rudnick and directed by
Barry Sonnenfeld, and many cast members from the original returned for the sequel, including
Raul Julia,
Anjelica Huston,
Christopher Lloyd, and
Christina Ricci. Compared to its predecessor, which retained something of the madcap approach of the
1960s sitcom,
Values is played more for
macabre laughs. As a result, the film was met with more critical praise, earning a 76% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to its predecessor's 58%.
This was Raul Julia's last movie to be released while he was still alive.
Plot
The movie opens as
Morticia calmly gives birth to a baby boy, Pubert; the older children, Wednesday and Pugsley, immediately develop an extreme case of
sibling rivalry as well as affect a tradition that "when a new baby is born, one of the other children has to die." Thus, they make numerous attempts to kill the baby. When
Gomez and Morticia try to hire a
nanny, the children frighten them all away. The last applicant, Debbie Jellinsky, seems to be made of sterner stuff; however, she's also a
serial killer known as "The Black Widow," who's set her sights on
Uncle Fester and the vast Addams fortune. On television's "America's Most Disgusting Unsolved Crimes" it is revealed that Debbie has been traveling in disguise for quite some time, marrying rich men just to kill them and claim their fortunes. When
Wednesday becomes suspicious of Debbie's interest in Fester's money, Debbie persuades Gomez and Morticia to send the older children to Camp Chippewa, a summer camp for privileged children. The parents seem horrified at the thought of doing so, but Debbie tells them to just send Wednesday and Pugsley, even though she's sure that they'll deny ever wanting to go. And so, Gomez and Morticia take the children to Chippewa.
After a romantic dinner at the Addams' favorite bistro, Fester and Debbie walk in the graveyard behind the mansion. Debbie then lies to Fester by saying she is a virgin and wishes she had a man for herself. Fester, believing she really loves him, becomes engaged to her. Debbie marries Fester, then promptly tries to kill him on their Hawaiian honeymoon by electrocuting him in the jacuzzi; however, Fester is an Addams (and hence practically indestructible & enjoys death and suffering) and he mistakes her murderous actions for ordinary affection. At her wits' end, Debbie denies him
sex until he promises never to see his family again; in anguish, he agrees. The
newlywed couple then move to a garish
McMansion in the suburbs, Debbie driving them there from the airport. Several weeks later, Gomez, Morticia, Granny, and Lurch come to the mansion in hopes of visiting Fester. They fail to do so, and Debbie threatens to lock them up if they try to visit again. After the Addamses fail to get the police to arrest Debbie, Debbie renews her passport, telling the clerk that she will be traveling alone because "she'll be a widow."
With Fester gone, brother Gomez goes into a depression and Pubert becomes "possessed,"(starts turning normal) causing him to become blonde, rosy and cheerful. Meanwhile, at Camp Chippewa, Wednesday and
Pugsley don't fit in with the rest of the wealthy mean-spirited campers. During lifesaving training, Wednesday intentionally lets her partner drown in the lake. At night, during the ghost story, when it is Wednesday's turn to continue the story, she tells of the ghost undoing all of the camper's
nose jobs overnight, which causes her fellow campers to scream in terror. The Addams children try to escape at night when they receive word of Uncle Fester's marriage to Debbie, but are caught by the other campers. The camp's golden girl Amanda Buckman (played by
Mercedes McNab), and the rest of the campers suggest that the Addams kids be punished for their escape attempt, but the camp counselors Gary and Becky, would prefer to inspire them by singing
Kumbaya which makes Wednesday and Pugsley cringe. Meanwhile, Wednesday encounters a soul mate (of sorts) in the person of Joel Glicker, an introverted boy plagued by allergies. He confirms her suspicions that Debbie is the "Black Widow" and Fester is her next target.
Meanwhile, at Fester and Debbie's house, Debbie has indeed come up with a new plan to kill Fester for his fortune. For their "3 week anniversary", she wraps up a time bomb in a gift box and tells Fester not to open it until she comes back with some champagne. Thing is seen watching through the window as Debbie says "she'll be right back" even though she is seen carrying two suitcases out to her car. Fester (who's gone into denial), excited about everything, returns to the kitchen to finish cooking their dinner with the time bomb ticking away on the dining room table.
Back at Camp Chippewa, for the end of the summer, the camp is about to put on a play about "The First Thanksgiving" with the mean "good" kids cast as the pilgrims with Amanda as Sarah Miller, the leading pilgrim. The social outcasts of the camp are cast as the Chippewa natives, with Wednesday as Pocahontas. When Wednesday, Pugsley and Joel refuse to act in the play, all three
outcasts are locked in the "Harmony Hut" and forced to watch movies and TV shows ranging from
Bambi to
Lassie Come Home,
The Little Mermaid,
The Sound of Music,
The Brady Bunch and
Annie. When the three come out, they pretend that they have changed from gloomy to cheerful (even going as far as Wednesday smiling). During the performance, however, Wednesday breaks out of character and rants about how the American colonists would exploit the Native Americans in the future and leads the other outcasts in revolt, destroying the set and tying Amanda up to be burned at the stake. Afterwards the Addams siblings flee the camp for home.
[
]) at Camp Chippewa.]]
Meanwhile, when Debbie fails to kill Fester by blowing up the house, she snarls, "I want you dead, and I want your money!" Fester realizes the truth, and flees with Thing's help to the Addams mansion, escaping in Debbie's
Lincoln Town Car, with Debbie in her
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class in high-speed pursuit through the suburban streets. Gomez is lying in bed dying when Fester arrives to tell the family how he is in misery. Gomez tells Fester that he belongs to Debbie, that he is "Mr. Debbie!" Fester declares, "I AM AN ADDAMS!" Gomez is instantly cured hearing this, and the baby reverts back to his dark, gloomy self. Pugsley and Wednesday arrive, at first unhappy because they were made to sing while at camp, but glad to be back, nonetheless. But then, an angry Debbie bursts into the room with one intent: kill the Addamses and take the money.
She straps everyone except Pubert to
electric chairs and uses slides to tell her story about how she killed her parents as a child on her 10th birthday because they didn't buy her the
Barbie doll that she wanted. The Addams family watches, getting into Debbie's life story as she explains that she killed her first husband, a heart surgeon, with an axe because he was too busy to attend dinner with her. She went on to kill her second husband, a senator, by running over him with her car because he wouldn't buy her a new
Mercedes-Benz (as he wanted to "set an example", according to Debbie). Finally, she ends her show on a slide of Fester, he being the only husband she's been unable to kill. Then she accuses the Addams' of not truly "loving her." Fester begs Debbie to just kill him and take his fortune but to spare the others, but Debbie (wanting the whole Addams fortune as opposed to just Fester's portion) has already decided that everyone must go. Just as she throws the switch, Pubert short-circuits the wiring; instead of killing the Addams' she electrocutes herself. Her body burns and leaves only her shoes and credit cards in a pile of ashes.
In the
epilogue, Gomez and Morticia throw a birthday party for Pubert. Among the guests is a potential new love for Fester, a bald, grotesque nanny named Dementia who works for
Itt and Margaret Addams (who have an Itt Jr. named "What"). Joel, dressed like Gomez, also attends and sneaks off to the graveyard with Wednesday, where they talk briefly about Debbie. Remarking that Debbie's methods were "sloppy," Wednesday says that if she wanted to kill a man and not be caught, she'd scare him to death. As Joel lays flowers on Debbie's grave, a hand breaks the surface and grabs his arm (à la
Carrie); Wednesday looks on, satisfied with Joel's screams.
Cast
Returning from the first film:
Dana Ivey's character, Margaret Addams (Alford in the original film; now married to
Cousin Itt), also makes a return appearance.
Additional cast:
Supporting roles:
Cameo roles:
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Alternate Versions
When Joel first enters the Harmony Hut to join Wednesday and Pugsley, after Gary takes his book away, he looks around and shrieks in horror to see a poster of Michael Jackson on the far wall. This part has been removed from some TV broadcasts.
DVD Release
The film has been released on DVD with the following special features:
- Theatrical Trailer 1
- Theatrical Trailer 2
See also
