Why The Addams Family Isn’t Spooky

          Ba ba da bump *snap snap*.   Ba ba da bump *snap snap*.   Everybody sing-along.   Some of you know the words.   The new Addams Family (2019) is in theaters waiting to creep you out.   If you like your Halloween-type movies to be light-hearted, not scary, and suited for children, this movie would fit nicely on your shelf.   If you aren’t one of those people, you might want to wait until it comes out on RedBox.   This was a So-so show.

          There may be spoilers “lurch”ing.

          I was actually excited about this movie.   Some of you may be thinking, “Why?   Didn’t you see the trailers?”   No, I didn’t.   I don’t like to watch them because they are notorious for giving away too much of the movie.   I was, somewhat, disappointed.   If anyone has ever watched any of the other Addams Family shows and films, you’ll know that they are less spooky or scary and more, kind of, goofy.   This movie was goofier and it didn’t have much of a storyline.
          The film starts off with the wedding of Gomez and Morticia, sans Wednesday and Pugsley, (their kids), or Lurch, (their butler).   Their nuptials are interrupted by an angry mob with torches and pitchforks.   They escape and begin their search for a place to call home where they won’t be hunted, which brings them to an insane asylum that they make into their home.   Normally, this would be an arduous process and could have been a movie all by itself.   Yet, it took about 5 minutes.   Also, there were so many jokes, that, even though it was the Addams Family, made it too cartoonish.
          This journey to find a place to call home is the movie’s theme. Even though the Addams’ have enjoyed a 13 year stint in their asylum home, they have to worry about angry mobs again because the town of normal people that has been built at the bottom of the hill begins to encroach on them.   From then on, the story becomes a case of the “normals” vs the “weirdos”.
          The big problem with this movie’s story is that there wasn’t any feeling of threat.   Pugsley and Wednesday regularly try to do each other bodily harm.   So, the audience isn’t concerned with them dying.   On the grander scale, there isn’t any feeling of consequence: what if the town runs them off again?   The characters aren’t worried, so neither are we.   It”s a Monday afternoon for them.   I give this movie 5 🎃🎃🎃 out of 10.   It’s good for the kids, and that’s about it.   You Raaaang?