Awfully Good Movies: Addams Family Reunion

October 11th 2019, 11:28am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Addams Family Reunion (1998)

DIRECTOR: Dave Payne CAST: Daryl Hannah, Tim Curry, Nicole Fugere

The Halloween season is nearly upon us, and so is the long-awaited cinematic animated reboot of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, so to get in the creepy and kooky spirit, let us look at the long-forgotten Addams Family movie which is altogether ooky: the direct-to-video installment ADDAMS FAMILY REUNION!

Even though the first two ADDAMS FAMILY movies from director Barry Sonnenfeld were enormous hits that continue to be beloved and quoted by audiences to this day, the tragic death of Raul Julia convinced Paramount Pictures to sell off the cinematic rights to Charles Addams' cartoon creations, with the property being bought up by Saban Entertainment–that's right, the studio behind POWER RANGERS. So for this third Addams movie, Saban planned on having the film broadcast on TV so it could serve as the pilot for a potential new ADDAMS FAMILY TV show on the newly christened Fox Family Channel (now known as Freeform), with Tim Curry and Daryl Hannah now serving in the roles of Gomez and Morticia.

However, instead of having this reboot provide a fresh new take on the Addamses, the studio executives kept insisting on ripping off elements from both the original 60s TV show and the Barry Sonnenfeld movies, with the movie first heading straight to VHS and not having seen a DVD/Blu-ray release since, and the end result is more of a frightening Frankenstein monster than Lurch the butler. I mean, where the hell can you start with this plot?

Gomez and Morticia find their grandparents have come down with the dreaded "Waltzheimer's disease" and plan on using their upcoming family reunion to find a relative who knows of a possible cure–but wait, turns out that there's been a mix-up with the invitations and the Addams Family are instead attending the reunion of the Adams (with one D) Family. And from there, it's just a mishmash of stale sitcom subplots that fight in vain for your interest: Gomez tries to enlist the help of psychiatrist Ed Begley Jr. for his grandparents even as Begley is in the midst of trying to kill his elderly father for his money; Pugsley falls in love with a shy and geeky girl named Gina who shares his love of worms; Fester sneaks a dog into the hotel who's genetically engineered to turn into a vicious attack dog on command; and Grandmama housesits over at the Addams mansion with Cousin Itt as two members of the other Adams Family are accidentally sent to the wrong address. But regardless of whether this movie is playing on a big screen or a TV screen, the subversive anarchic satire from the first two movies and the sublime performance of Christina Ricci as Wednesday are sorely missed all the same, and the return of Carel Struycken as Lurch does little to ease the hurt. And the worst part of all? Not a single performance of the goddamn Mamushka.