The Addams Family is a 1991 American supernatural black comedy film based on the comic strip characters created by Charles Addams. Directed by former cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld in his feature directorial debut, the film stars Anjelica Huston, who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical for her performance as Morticia Addams, Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, and Christopher Lloyd as Fester Addams. The film focuses on a bizarre, macabre, aristocratic family who reconnect with someone whom they believe to be a long-lost relative, Gomez's brother Fester Addams.

The film was noted for its turbulent production. Originally developed at Orion Pictures, the film went $5 million over budget due to constant rewrites throughout shooting; health problems of people involved in the filming; and an overall stressful filming for Sonnenfeld himself, which caused multiple delays. The rise in production costs from the film's $25 million budget to $30 million led Orion, financially struggling and fearful of another big-budget flop, to sell the film to Paramount Pictures, who completed the film and handled the film's domestic distribution. Orion Pictures International distributed the film internationally through Columbia Tri-Star Films. The film was commercially successful, making back almost seven times its production costs. A sequel, Addams Family Values, was released in 1993.

Plot

Gomez Addams laments the 25-year absence of his brother Fester, who disappeared after the two had a falling-out. Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford owes money to loan shark and con artist Abigail Craven, and notices that her adopted son Gordon closely resembles Fester. He proposes that Gordon pose as Fester to infiltrate the Addams household and find the hidden vault where they keep their vast riches.

Tully and his wife Margaret attend a séance at the Addams home led by Grandmama in which the family tries to contact Fester's spirit. Gordon arrives, posing as Fester, while Abigail poses as the German psychiatrist Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss. She tells the family that Fester had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 25 years until she found him in some tuna nets. Gomez, overjoyed to have "Fester" back, takes him to the family vault to view home movies from their childhood. Gordon learns that Gomez was jealous of Fester's success with women, and wooed the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna Amor away from him out of envy, resulting in their dispute.

Gomez starts to suspect that "Fester" is an impostor when he is unable to recall important details about their past. Gordon attempts to return to the vault, but is unable to get past a booby trap. Gomez's wife Morticia reminds "Fester" of the importance of family among the Addamses and of their vengeance against those who cross them. Fearing that the family is getting wise to their con, Abigail convinces Gomez that his suspicions are due to displacement.

Gordon, under the guise of Fester, grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley, whom he helps to prepare a swordplay sequence for a school play. Abigail had insisted that Gordon not attend the play, but after feeling deeply saddened by this, he attends anyway. After the play, "Dr. Pinder-Schloss" insists that "Fester" must once again leave, so the Addamses throw a large party with their extended family and friends, during which Abigail plans to break into the vault. Wednesday overhears Gordon and Abigail discussing the plan, and escapes them by hiding in the family cemetery.

Tully learns that as the elder brother, Fester is the executor of the Addams estate and therefore technically owns the entire property. With help from the Addamses' neighbor Judge George Womack, whom Gomez has repeatedly infuriated by hitting golf balls into his house, Tully procures a restraining order against the family, banning them from the estate. Gomez attempts to fight the order in court, but Judge Womack rules against him out of spite.

While Abigail, Gordon, and Tully try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get past the booby trap blocking access to the vault, the Addamses are forced to move into a motel and find jobs. Morticia tries to be a preschool teacher, Wednesday and Pugsley sell toxic lemonade, and Thing—the family's animated disembodied hand—becomes a courier. Despondent, Gomez sinks into depression and lethargy.

Morticia returns to the Addams home to confront Gordon and is captured by Abigail and Tully, who torture her in an attempt to learn how to access the vault. Thing observes this and informs Gomez, using Morse code. Gomez rushes to Morticia's rescue, and Abigail threatens Morticia's life if Gomez does not surrender the family fortune.

Fed up with Abigail's behavior and constant berating, Gordon turns against her. Using a magical book which projects its contents into reality, he unleashes a hurricane into the house. It strikes his own head with lightning and launches Tully and Abigail out of a window and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.

Seven months later at Halloween, it emerges that Gordon actually was Fester and really had gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle, where he was found and adopted by Abigail. However, Fester had suffered from amnesia the whole time and only recovered his memories after being struck by the lightning. Meanwhile, Margaret is now in a relationship with Cousin Itt, an Addams family relative. With the family whole again as they play "Wake the Dead", Morticia informs Gomez that she is pregnant.

Cast

Production Pre-production Scott Rudin, a development executive at 20th Century Fox, pitched to the studio an adaptation of Charles Addams' The Addams Family cartoons, and the studio enthusiastically agreed that the cartoons would make a good film, and set out to purchase the rights. Fox did not make the film, as Orion Pictures, who owned the film rights to The Addams Family, would not sell the property, as they were planning on producing a rebooted TV series. Further crucial property rights were owned by Charles Addams' widow Marilyn Matthews Miller.

Another difficulty in getting the film produced was the relative obscurity of the 1964 television series, as compared to the better-known series The Munsters, due to syndication. The production moved forward when Miller sold the remaining rights to Orion, who put the film in production with Rudin producing. Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam were approached to direct the film but both declined.

Casting Anjelica Huston said she based aspects of her performance on her friend Jerry Hall to give the character of Morticia Addams more warmth. Huston said she would have expected the role to go to Cher, but was a longtime fan of Morticia. Raul Julia was cast as Gomez Addams; he was attracted to the role because of the character's irreverent portrayal, noting that "even his depressions are wonderful".Cruz et al., p. 73

Writing Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which was extensively rewritten later by other writers, including Paul Rudnick, who later wrote Addams Family Values.

In a 2012 interview, director Barry Sonnenfeld recalled that he had originally intended that it be unclear whether Fester Addams (Christopher Lloyd) really was an imposter or not, but the actors strongly opposed the notion and selected then 10-year-old Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday Addams, to speak on their behalf. Ricci "gave this really impassioned plea that Fester shouldn't be an imposter... so we ended up totally changing that plot point to make the actors happy. And they were right – it was the better way to go".

Special effects Makeup and animatronic effects for the film were handled by Tony Gardner and his company Alterian, Inc.

Filming After Tim Burton passed on directing the film because he was busy filming Batman Returns, the sequel to the 1989 film Batman, at the time, Barry Sonnenfeld took the job. According to Sonnenfeld, Terry Gilliam was also offered to direct the film, which he turned down. His first directing job after previously serving as director of photography for several major films, Sonnenfeld experienced much stress during filming. Most of the film was shot on Stage 3/8 at the Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, the same studio where the original TV series was filmed.

In the last three months of production, director of photography Owen Roizman quit, and was replaced by Gale Tattersall. Filming resumed, but within weeks Tattersall was rushed to the hospital, halting production while Sonnenfeld took over cinematography, while simultaneously directing the film. Further delays occurred when a blood vessel in actor Raul Julia's eye burst, leading the production to film around Julia until he recovered, and Sonnenfeld's wife Susan Ringo became sick, halting production.

In her 2014 memoir Watch Me, Anjelica Huston described the filming of The Addams Family as "long and arduous". It was decided that the character of Morticia should have eyes which slanted upwards at the sides, an effect which was achieved by attaching an elastic strap to the back of Huston's head, via fabric tabs glued at her temples, which pulled the corners of her eyes upwards. A second strap was added to balance the appearance of the lower part of her face with the upper. The bands caused extended discomfort to Huston, and, unless she removed them at lunchtime, she would suffer severe headaches and rashes later in the day.

Removing the bands for a break entailed hours of extra work in both removing and then re-applying her makeup and wig. On top of this, the bands would snap at the slightest turn of Huston's head, causing yet more grueling repair time. Eventually, she learned to pivot and turn on her feet without moving her upper body or head. According to Huston, actress Judith Malina's way of enduring being "embedded in latex for over twelve hours a day" was to "smoke an endless series of joints in her trailer throughout filming".

Another production difficulty was the financial decline of original production studio Orion Pictures, which, while having recently made the big hits The Silence of the Lambs and Dances with Wolves, had also produced several major flops which ate up the studios' funds, leading Orion to sell The Addams Family, while still in production, to Paramount Pictures. In exchange, Paramount would own the domestic rights, as Orion had pre-sold the international rights to Columbia. Part of Orion's motivation to sell the film was that the film, originally budgeted at $25 million, had gone $5 million over budget due to newly added material as a result of the film's numerous rewrites. With the projected release date competing with Steven Spielberg's Hook, Orion feared that The Addams Family would be another expensive flop, and decided to cut its losses. Ultimately, The Addams Family was a box-office hit. As the sale occurred late in production, the filmmakers were unaware that Paramount had taken over production, learning of the sale from a journalist rather than either of the studios.

Post-production The film was further shaped by test screenings. The Mamushka sequence, a musical dance number, was significantly longer in the original cut, but was shortened following negative responses from test audiences.

Music

The Addams Family: Soundtrack was produced by Hummie Mann and Marc Shaiman. It was orchestrated by Hummie Mann and composed by Marc Shaiman and Saxie Dowell. It was released on December 3, 1991 by Capitol Records. "Addams Groove" by MC Hammer was the theme song for the movie and the music video was played prior to the film.

Release