The Addams Family 1991: How "As If" Humor Mastered Gothic Comedy
Spooky Season is officially upon us! And we’ve got one of the most iconic festive screenplays to explore today: The Addams Family from 1991. Talk about an incredible adaptation. This film still holds up, whether you saw it as a kid and love it for the nostalgia or you just started dating me and I’m forcing you to watch it as a forty year-old man. It brims with whimsy, humor, and clever turns-of-phrase.
The Addams Family is a franchise that began with standalone comic panels in the 30s followed by a television series in the 60s before The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values films came out in the 90s. And it continues to this day, with animated series and films, a Broadway show, and Netflix’s popular live-action series Wednesday.
What makes this family so entertaining? They are gothic and macabre and completely unaware that other people (aka, “normal” people like us, the audience) find them bizarre or disturbing. The Addams Family relies on “as if” humor; when Morticia scolds her daughter Wednesday for threatening to hurt her little brother Pugsley, it’s as if Morticia was cautioning safety like any other parent, but then it is revealed that Morticia was encouraging Wednesday to use an even more deadly item for the children’s games. This bit never gets old.
Also, let’s begin right off the bat with the cover page; notice all those revisions? It’s a great reminder that your screenplays will go through many drafts before they are ready for set — and that is a good thing! Don’t be hasty in the writing stages only to spend the money on production and post and realize you have an only okay final product. Revise revise revise!
Get your candy corn and let’s dive in.
OPENING IMAGE
Our team of screenwriters wastes no time in letting us know exactly who this family is. When a cheerful group of carolers arrives to serenade the family during Christmas time, they are met with all the Addams — parents Gomez and Morticia, children Pugsley and Wednesday, and even Granny and their faithful butler Lurch — standing together on the roof pouring a cauldron of boiling pitch down.
We need not concern ourselves with the fate of those carolers. This isn’t precisely a violent or gory film; it’s the absurdity and surprise of the Addams’ nonchalant attitude towards such things that is amusing. The civilians around them are threatened or frightened, but we never actually see them hurt. We can only assume the carolers saw the pitch and safely ran away…
But one rule remains true: the Addams may be drawn to the grotesque, but they love one another deeply. Indeed, the relationship between Gomez and Morticia is one of overt romantic passion where the dark and violent only add to their fervor.
INCITING INCIDENT
Our story begins when the family attorney, Tully Alford, and his wife Margaret concoct a plot to impersonate Gomez’s missing brother, Fester in order to steal the Addams’ wealth. He owes money to an Abigail Craven, whose vicious son Gordon bears a striking enough resemblance to Fester.
That night, during the Addams’ annual seance in honor of Fester, they strike, inserting Gordon as if by a miracle. Abigail accompanies him, masquerading as a doctor who explains “Fester’s” disappearance and amnesia.
Gomez and Morticia are delighted. Pugsley is oblivious. Wednesday, however, is deeply suspicious. And thus do the games begin.
Do note that in the screenplay, “Gordon” has now been changed to “Fester” in the dialogue and action lines. This was done with an announcement in bold in the action lines, similar to a character introduction.
FUN AND GAMES
Fester manages to continue his act through luck: Morticia thinks nothing suspicious of his packed burglary items because they fit right in at the Addams’ mansion, though she isn’t quite as sure as Gomez, who is delighted when Fester screams in the night or jumps him in the morning — good ol’ Fester. When Gomez presses Fester to say their secret password, “the word we used one hundred times a day…our special private name for each other,” Fester, cornered, insists it was too long ago and too much has happened since then and calls him a demented freak. But of course, demented freak is the password.
Fester is, however, often foiled by the strangeness of the Addams’ home and behaviors. The vault is nearly inaccessible, a maze of booby traps and madness. Wednesday studying him accusatorily.
Eventually even Gomez begins to despair; Fester just isn’t the same. He sleeps through the night, for god’s sake. Morticia confronts him in the family cemetery after another of his failed attempts into the vault. She impresses upon him how much Fester means to the family.
He realizes they are onto him.
MIDPOINT
He calls Abigail for backup. She arrives as the doctor again and insists that Gomez is simply confused due to his strong love for Fester and strong guilt over their fallout. Gomez is satisfied.
Meanwhile, Fester surprisingly does bond with the children, teaching them about how to kill and build bombs, like any loving uncle would.
Abigail notices this and is not pleased. She forbids him from going to the children’s school play and insists he use that time alone in the house to finally access the vault. The children are disappointed…and, to his surprise, so is Fester.
And so, he surprises the children by showing up right before they go on. While the other children prepared a lovely song (“We Are The World”), Wednesday and Pugsley perform a violent duel from Hamlet, including spurting blood, amputations, and gurgling death cries.
The Addamses couldn’t be more proud — especially Fester, who “applauds louder than anybody.”
BAD TO WORSE
But Abigail had shown up as scheduled to get into the vault. Left alone, she was nearly consumed by the house. She crawls out and announces to the family that, despite Fester’s improved behavior, he must leave.
The Addamses decide to throw a party in Fester’s honor, a party he wants to enjoy. Abigail firmly chastizes him and reminds him that they are not his family. She tells him that this is his chance; he will slip away from the party and access the vault when everyone is distracted.
Morticia sends Wednesday upstairs to check on Fester. When she arrives, she overhears Abigail plotting with him. She confronts them, announcing that she knew he was an imposter and she was right. She flees as Abigail chases her.
Meanwhile, at the party, Tully learns that Fester, the older brother, is the rightful heir to the Addams family fortune and mansion. Tully comes up with a new plan and goes straight to a judge to enforce it.
The Addamses leave to search for Wednesday, who is still missing after fleeing Fester and Abigail.
And when they return, they are barred from entering. Evicted.
ALL IS LOST
Cast out and betrayed, the family tries to make due, but Gomez is a broken man.
Meanwhile, Abigail tries to force Fester to access the vault, but he, too, is morose.
Finally, Morticia can’t take it any longer. She leaves in the night and returns to the family mansion, where Tully announces that they’d been expecting her.
They tie her to a torture rack, hoping to extract intelligence about the vault from her, but of course she is an Addams, and has a very different notion of what “torture” is.
Thing arrives to tell Gomez that Morticia is in danger and he rushes to the mansion to rescue her. Abigail finally threatens to shoot Morticia and finally loses patience with Fester’s resistance, claiming that she should have just left him where she found him.
It’s the last straw. Just as Gomez was about to access the vault, Fester intervenes.
He blasts Tully and Abigail out of the house once and for all before being struck by lightning and fading to black.
FINALE
It is Halloween. Children come to the Addams’ door, trick or treating. Whatever they see inside sends them screaming away — a callback to the holiday carolers from the opening scene.
Pugsley has dressed like his beloved uncle Fester. Wednesday looks the same but then calmly explains, “This is my costume. I’m a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else.”
The family is reunited after finally understanding the truth: Abigail had found Fester, who really did have amnesia after his time in the Bermuda Triangle.
As the family begins their favorite Halloween game of “Wake the Dead,” Gomez and Morticia revel in one another and even reveal that the Addams family will soon be growing.
The end.
