Addams Family Values Review (1993) – A Macabre, Razor-Sharp, and Utterly Perfect Reminder That Some Families Are Better Off Being Strange!
Spooky Season may be fading into crisp November air, but the Addams family isn’t done with us yet! Today, we potatoes are exploring the gothic glow with Addams Family Values (1993), one of the rare sequels that doesn’t just hold up, it thrives. If The Addams Family (1991) gave us campy chaos and heartfelt ghoulish charm, Values sharpened the blade. It is just as good as the first, and it delivers one of the most scathing and hilarious Thanksgiving critiques ever to grace a screen!
Before we go any deeper into this grave of laughs and lessons, a gentle heads-up: while Addams Family Values is delightfully absurd, it’s also biting in its commentary. This film skewers societal norms, the whitewashing of history, and the suffocating performativity of “family values.” Beneath the guillotines and giggles lies an indictment of conformity and the relentless pressure to be “normal.” So please take care of yourselves while watching, and while reading.
As always, we’ll keep major spoilers buried, but some mild ones will rise from their graves. Read with care.
Let’s start digging!
The film begins with a howl, literally! Fester (Christopher Lloyd) is howling at the moon. Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are outside playing with their grandmother (Carole Kane). Inside the mansion, Gomez (Raul Julia) and Morticia (Anjelica Huston) are relaxing in their living room. Gomez is arm-wrestling Thing while Morticia knits. Morticia looks up, perfectly serene.
“Gomez? Marvelous news. I am going to have a baby. Right now.”
Cut to the hospital! Morticia is wheeled down the hall, Gomez gripping her hand.
“Are you in unbearable pain? Is it inhuman? My darling, is it torture?”
“Oui.” Morticia replies.
Wednesday and Pugsley sit in the waiting room, dealing with a naïve little girl who is trying to explain where babies come from… until Wednesday replies, deadpan, “They had sex.”
Gomez bursts into the room with the whole family. “It’s an Addams!”
We potatoes adore this moment. It proves how little Gomez cares about gender, he is simply ecstatic to welcome another child. And we are very here for that!
Morticia and Gomez welcome their newest little nightmare, Pubert. He’s pale, mustachioed, and prone to adorably menacing coos. The family is enchanted. Wednesday and Pugsley, however, are immediately determined to murder him. Their dedication to fratricide is so intense that Gomez and Morticia decide a nanny might be helpful.
Enter Debbie Jellinsky (Joan Cusack), a gold-digging nanny with a smile so bright it should come with a warning label! She charms her way into the family under the guise of helping with all of the children, but her real target is Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), the lovable, lightbulb-headed bachelor with an inheritance ripe for the taking. Debbie is everything the Addamses are not, glossy, conventional, superficial, vapid and exceedingly vain.
We potatoes adore Joan Cusack here! She’s camp brilliance wrapped in Chanel. Watching her seduce, manipulate, and unravel in glittery psychosis is pure theater. And yet, in this twisted little fable, she’s also the perfect foil. She’s what society rewards, performative femininity, greed disguised as ambition, control cloaked in romance. Fester doesn’t stand a chance!
However, Debbie finds herself struggling a bit with Wednesday. Wednesday senses something rotten beneath Debbie’s perfume cloud. Wednesday is suspicious of her motives, and is keeping a watchful eye on Debbie. Debbie knows it too, and realizes she must remove Wednesday and Pugsley from the picture. She manipulates Morticia and Gomez into sending them to… summer camp.
So, Wednesday and Pugsley are sent off to Camp Chippewa! A sun-bleached nightmare run by perky fascists disguised as counselors. Gary Granger (Peter MacNicol) and Becky Granger (Christine Baranski) feel and behave like they walked out of Stepford: all teeth, no soul. The camp’s mission is clear: sand down every difference, bleach every edge, and manufacture the perfect American children.
Wednesday and Pugsley refuse to comply. Surrounded by relentlessly chipper peers like Amanda (Mercedes McNab), they stare down this pastel hellscape like miniature anarchists they are. Wednesday’s expression alone could curdle milk.
And then… there’s the Thanksgiving pageant.
We will be wrapping it up from here, but we potatoes could write an entire dissertation on this scene alone! The camp’s saccharine production of “A Turkey Named Brotherhood” is meant to celebrate the “first Thanksgiving.” The white campers are cast as pilgrims; the few children of color are cast as “Indians.” It’s staged as a sugary display of unity and “gratitude.” But when Wednesday, playing Pocahontas, steps forward, something magnificent happens.
She smiles. She recites her lines. Then she burns the entire illusion to the ground.
“We cannot break bread with you.”
Her speech, calm, articulate, and feral with truth turns the play into a rebellion. She refuses to celebrate colonization, refuses to smile for comfort, and refuses to be part of a myth that paints genocide as hospitality. She and her fellow “outcasts” set fire to the stage, the pilgrims, and the false narrative of American innocence. It’s chaotic, hilarious, and deeply cathartic!
We potatoes cheered! Loudly!
We potatoes could not love it more, because Wednesday isn’t just being rebellious… she’s being honest. The real Thanksgiving story, the one rarely taught, isn’t about harmony and shared feasts. It’s about the beginning of colonization, the theft of land, the spread of disease, and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. It’s about violence disguised as gratitude, cruelty rewritten as community, and erasure packaged as patriotism. Wednesday’s monologue doesn’t exaggerate, it clarifies. It names the truth beneath the costume glue and papier-mâché corn, and she does it in front of smiling parents who would rather applaud a lie than confront history.
And watching this scene in 2025… hits a little different. We potatoes cannot ignore how fiercely some people are fighting to keep these myths alive. Entire groups are trying to ban conversations about racism, colonization, Indigenous history, and the ongoing harm that these sanitized stories cause. They are rewriting textbooks, punishing teachers, and insisting that acknowledging the truth is “divisive.” It is the same whitewashing Wednesday calls out, the same desire to protect comfort over honesty, the same refusal to face how violence shaped this country. Wednesday’s rebellion feels less like satire now, and more like prophecy. A reminder that telling the truth has always been treated as disruption when the lie is profitable.
That’s the brilliance of Addams Family Values. Behind every absurd joke lies clarity. It’s a critique of how society packages harm as heritage, how it weaponizes “tradition” to keep power intact. Wednesday isn’t just rebelling against camp counselors, she’s rebelling against the story itself. Against the sanitized lie that we were all taught to smile through in elementary school, paper feathers glued to our heads.
The language of “family values,” “protecting children,” and “preserving traditions” has only gotten more sinister. It’s the same rot in a different casserole dish. When Wednesday burns that stage, she’s not just torching a set; she’s torching hypocrisy.
We potatoes felt that in our bones!
We potatoes love the Addams Family! The Addamses, for all their oddities, are the only truly functional family in the film. They love each other fiercely. They embrace difference instead of suppressing it. They don’t conform, they don’t apologize, and they don’t lie about who they are. Meanwhile, the “normal” families, the chipper counselors, Debbie’s pristine suburban façade are collapsing under their own repression. The real horror here isn’t the Addamses’ morbidity. It’s the lengths to which people will go to appear normal.
Visually, Addams Family Values is incredibly fun! The mansion is dripping with gothic splendor, every shadow intentional, every candle perfectly ominous. The camp scenes are blindingly bright in contrast, creating a satirical hellscape that’s all beige and false cheer. The film dances beautifully between the macabre, comedy, and heartfelt absurdity. Every frame feels intentional, as though the film itself is in on the joke.
The performances? Untouchable! Raul Julia’s Gomez is absolutely wonderful and remains a masterclass in romantic mania. Anjelica Huston glides through every scene like a stunningly beautiful haunted dream. Christina Ricci’s Wednesday is iconic! Every line a dagger dipped in honey. And Joan Cusack’s Debbie? She deserves her own altar. Her meltdown at the end is one of the funniest villain monologues ever! “But what about Debbie?” We potatoes cackled!
So is Addams Family Values perfect? We potatoes are tempted to say yes. Maybe the pacing wobbles a touch, maybe the absurdity teeters near overload, but that’s exactly what makes it brilliant. It’s a satire that wears a guillotine grin. It’s a love letter to the weird, the defiant, and the honest.
And that Thanksgiving scene? Chef’s kiss! Still one of the most important moments in film satire, and still uncomfortably relevant today.
So, if you need a film that cuts through the November nonsense, pick up Addams Family Values and let it be your companion for the evening! Watch alone, watch with your found family, watch with your dog, your snacks, your blanket… whoever or whatever brings you comfort. You don’t owe this season togetherness. You owe yourself peace, honesty, and a good laugh. This film delivers all three!
Cheers to the Addams family, to love in all its creepy, kooky glory. Cheers to Wednesday, the truth-teller at the bonfire. And most importantly, cheers to you! You are not too dark, too much, or too different. You are exactly as you should be.
Now, let us pass the stuffing… and light the match!
We give this film 5 out of 5 Morticia Addams cocktails!
The Addams Family Values Drinking Game
Take a sip anytime:
Morticia says "Gomez"
Gomez says "Tish", "Morticia", or "Cara Mia"
Wednesday threatens or attempts to kill Pugsley or Baby Addams
Debbie loses her temper or attempts to kill anyone
Debbie lies
Fester is awkward or goofy
Anyone says "Addams"
Anyone says "Thing"
Anyone says "Fester"
Anyone says "Chippewa"
What did you think? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it? What movies should we watch? Any and all thoughts are welcome! Let us know in the comments!
Do you like this drinking game? Are there rules missing? Is the game too intense? Are there movies that you think we should make a drinking game for? Let us know in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly! (Drinks can be water, soda, anything nonalcoholic, etc. Please be safe, have fun and take care of you!)