Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper’s assertion that ‘as laughter dulls the supernatural threat of undead predators, the social commentary the characters deliver becomes correspondingly sharper’ is evidenced by Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993).[1] The central characters in this film are rather more ambiguous than the conventional ‘reanimated entities’ that Miller and Van Riper delineate, such as ‘vampires, zombies, [and] ghosts’.[2] The murder attempt orchestrated by Debbie Jellinksy, a gold-digging serial killer masquerading as a babysitter, seems to imply that the members of the Addams family are mortal. They age, albeit unconventionally, and have an entire graveyard of relatives- they are distinctly human. However, their bodies are highly resistant to any violence enacted upon them, like the humorous quasi-cartoon bodies of slapstick comedians, and their visual appearance references all manner of undead creatures, such as vampires, witches, zombies, and Frankenstein’s monster. Despite this, the family is not portrayed as monstrous. Even though they are highly incongruous individuals, who defy science and transgress categories, we never fear them. The exaggerated theatricality of their violent acts makes the potential threat to human life seem unreal.
By minimising our fear in this way, their incongruities become humorous rather than horrifying and their zany charm elicits our sympathies. Aligning ourselves with the Addams family’s perspective, their transgressions are normalised and the norms they subvert are exposed for their strangeness. Through the protagonists’ satirical inversion of the ideal middle-class nuclear family, the film’s stylised and exaggerated version of Bush-era conservatism starts to feel like a much more real moral threat. The Addamses are loving and supportive, encouraging their children to grow as individuals, whereas the harrowingly cheerful Camp Chippewa punishes Wednesday and Pugsley’s non-conformity by locking them in the ‘Harmony Hut’ and conditioning them with family entertainment movies. Through the transgressive yet lovable ‘undead’ characters, the film celebrates revolting against the harmful categories, norms, and expectations of mainstream society.
[1] Cynthia J. Miller, ‘Introduction’, in The Laughing Dead: The Horror Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland, eds. Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), xix.
[2] Ibid., xiii.