History Film / TheAddamsFamily

->'''Morticia:''' "And our credo, 'Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc'...'[[IAmAHumanitarian We gladly feast on those who would subdue us]]'. Not just pretty words."

->'''Morticia:''' "And our credo, 'Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc'...'We gladly feast on those who would subdue us'. Not just pretty words."

* AscendedExtra: Creator/MercedesMcNab, who played the girl scout from the first movie, plays {{A|lphaBitch}}manda in the sequel. [[WildMassGuessing It's entirely possible that they're the same character]], which would make it a retroactive EarlyBirdCameo.

After plans for a stop-motion adaptation fell through (featuring the involvement of Creator/TimBurton, whose ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' and ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' were to have served as inspiration), [[WesternAnimation/TheAddamsFamily2019 an animated reboot was released in 2019]], courtesy of [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM.]]

* ElectraComplex: Of sorts. At the end of ''Values'', Joel is dining with the Addamses, dressed in a similar manner to Gomez. Wednesday comments that he's looking "disturbing". Being an Addams, that may have been meant as a compliment.

The first film, released in 1991, focused on the family's search for Gomez's missing brother, Fester (Creator/ChristopherLloyd). Fester's return leads to a joyful reunion between the brothers. However, all is not as it seems: Fester's scheming "mother" (Elizabeth Wilson) is working with a money hungry lawyer (Creator/DanHedaya) on a plot to steal the family's fortune. This causes problems for the family and HilarityEnsues.

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* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Parodied with the camp counselor's Thanksgiving pageant. Wednesday decides to make it... a little more accurate. (Not only in spirit, but in fact. Pocahontas was a Powhatan, not a Chippewa, and was not present at the first Thanksgiving. The Chippewa are native to the Midwest, and would not have been present either. Also, by the first Thanksgiving, Pocahontas was dead. She died three years before the Plymouth Colony was founded. But even if she had survived she wouldn't have been anywhere nearby, because she was married to Englishman John Rolfe and living in England at the time.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Parodied with the camp counselor's Thanksgiving pageant. Wednesday decides to make it... a little more accurate. (Not only in spirit, but in fact. Pocahontas was a Powhatan, not a Chippewa, and was not present at the first Thanksgiving. The Chippewa are native to the Midwest, and would not have been present either. Also, by the first Thanksgiving, Pocahontas was married to Englishman John Rolfe and living in England. She would not have been betrothed to a member of her tribe. Then there's the fact that the real Pocahontas died three years before Plymouth Colony was founded.)

* CreepyChild: Wednesday.
* DaddysGirl: Wednesday to Gomez.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Questionable. With various people involved pointing out that for all their dark and macabre nature, and seemingly violent acts, the Addamses are in their way the ideal family. The parents are HappilyMarried, deeply in love after all these years with the fire of passion as bright as it ever was; the entire family is deeply devoted to one another's well-being and happiness, they're concerned about their friends (Morticia twice wishes she could befriend their enemies), and they give generously to charity. They're just... ''strange''. However, given the degree to which the movies were DarkerAndEdgier than the original live action series, they are not true examples, taking their macabre trappings to the point where they come off as more AffablyEvil or maybe LawfulEvil, particularly in ''Addams Family Values''. It should be noted that the movies were based on the original cartoons by Charles Addams, including a gag taken directly from the cartoons, with the family pouring a pot of boiling oil on a group of Christmas carollers. They are [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying villains]] after all.

* DashingHispanic: Gomez Addams, played by the quite handsome and dashing Creator/RaulJulia. Notably different from his goblin-like appearance in the original comics.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: See WhatHappenedToTheMouse, below.

* EnfantTerrible:
** Wednesday Addams.
** Pubert breathes fire, can catch blades with his tiny baby hands and [[spoiler: killed Debbie]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards: If there's one moral tenet the Addamses do live by, it is this: [[FamilyValuesVillain you don't mess with someone's family]].

** Also Tully's discomfort and disgust with torture in the first film.
*** This may be less of a "standards" situation, as he doesn't actually try to stop it. His only objection to the red hot pokers is to ask if it's going to smell.

* ForcedFromTheirHome: In the first film, upon realizing Fester is actually the older brother, and thus has legal control over the Addams family assets, the slimeball lawyer and his crooked partner use this to kick the rest of the Addams out of the house so they can hunt for the family fortune in peace. Leading to the last half of the film being about the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky, all together ooky Addams trying to function out in the "normal" world.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In ''Values'', when Wednesday and Joel have their "love at first sight" moment, Pugsley is trying to hang himself in the background to get out of staying at the camp. Doubles as pretty literal GallowsHumor.

* GeniusLoci: As pointed out above in the "eldritch location" trope.
* {{Goth}}: Of course!

* HelpingHands: "Why, thank you, Thing."

* PerkyGoth: Gomez, depending on your definition of "goth". Margaret Alford is a sort-of subversion. After leaving her husband for Cousin Itt she becomes noticeably perkier and is rather grateful to join the Addams clan. She doesn't change her wardrobe and is usually seen wearing bright colors like pink, yet the Addams don't mind. She does, however, carry around her new baby in a coffin-shaped carriage, dresses in typical Addams attire (that is, for a funeral) to Fester's wedding, and hires a nanny named "Dementia" who looks like a female version of Fester.
** Also in the scenes that have Margaret in ''Values'' you will notice she seems to have gained paler skin and slight shadowing around her eyes, it seems like if you not only take the Addams name but embrace it, unlike Debbie, you start to become more like an Addams.

* SomethingElseAlsoRises: A pretty hilarious version occurs in the movie. Gomez and Morticia are sitting in the graveyard and, as per usual, things get romantic between them. Cut to shots of the various, elaborate gravestones of deceased Addamses that manage to become this trope.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Fester and Wednesday in the movies. Poor Pugsley barely features in the second one.

* TheUnintelligible: Lurch and Itt. The former (unlike in the TV show) speaks in grunts, and even then only rarely. The latter communicates in high-pitched, high-speed gibberish. Lampshaded when the two have a conversation. Others seem to understand Lurch and Itt, however. Tully either can understand Itt asking to cut in or is ''very'' good at inferring his meaning, and Margaret almost immediately understands him well enough to not only be charmed by him while first dancing together, but to have a long, emotional discussion with him.
** Later, after becoming Itt's wife, Margaret is capable of ''speaking'' her husband's tongue!

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the movie, Tully and Margaret Alford's son, who appears in one scene (and in the credits as "Tully Jr.") but despite the fact that his mother [[spoiler:runs off with Cousin Itt]] and that his father [[spoiler:is buried, [[BuriedAlive possibly alive]], in the Addams' graveyard]], he's never spoken of again, not even in the {{sequel}} ''Addams Family Values''.
** Also in ''Family Values'', it's mentioned that the "Black Widow" has killed at least three husbands, but we only ever learn the fates of two of them.
*** One of Debbie's previous identities (as shown by the headshots kept on her wall) is ''Kathie Lee Gifford'' -- so perhaps Monday Night Football has a different announcer in the Addams Family universe...

* TheUnsmile: Wednesday. One of the most horrific examples of this trope ever, primarily due to [[TheStoic the source of it]], rather than the quality of the smile.

** Margaret Alford, Tully's long-suffering wife [[spoiler:who ends up leaving him for Cousin It]], is the sister of Judge Womack, the Addamses' long-suffering neighbor who ends up presiding over Gomez's court hearing. One scene in the script has Womack taunting Margaret with their mother's thoughts on hers and Tully's relationship: "Marry Tully Alford and you'll hear Satan laugh."

** Also as Gomez has his BSOD (after [[spoiler:losing the house to Fester]], Gramamama can be seen through the window of the motel holding a club and cooing "Here kitty, kitty!" She pops back in after a few moments to declare that dinner will be late.

** In the first movie, Margaert Alford looks disheveled at the auction since she couldn't get the finger trap off.

*** On his first night at the Addams house, he gets into bed, not only does the mattress sink perfectly around him, his reaction shows he finds it extremely comfortable, even after Thing appears and freaks him out, the next morning he is shown to be quite refreshed and chipper.

** Subverted in the first film. When she and Pugsley start spraying the audience of their school talent show with admittedly fake HighPressureBlood, the audience is immediately freaked out, the first couple of rows (who are soaked in blood) even more so. Naturally, the only ones impressed, and probably the only ones they were really performing for, are the Addamses, cheering at the end with a standing ovation like they just saw an Tony-worthy Broadway performance.

* FreudianExcuse: Played for laughs and satirised as it is revealed that the reason that turned [[spoiler: Debbie]] into a psychopath was that her parents... gifted her a ''Malibu'' Barbie instead of a ''Ballerina'' Barbie that she wanted. [[Serious Business Serious Business]] indeed.

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