The Addams Family: the beauty of the macabre

The Addams family is, without a doubt, one of the best known in the world of television and film. Just by hearing his name, we want to snap our fingers to the rhythm of his unforgettable tune. And the most peculiar family in the world has been entertaining our Halloween nights for many years, mocking death and surprising us with their taste for the macabre.

When we think about horror movies, we look for films that surprise us, that make us experience the sensation of fear from the comfort and tranquility of the seat. We want to feel the terror, but knowing that what we are seeing is nothing more than fiction. Somehow, we find a certain pleasure in these manifestations.

There are those who find horror films comical because of how implausible it can sometimes be and because of the large number of clichés that usually appear in it.; and there are those who would never watch a film of the genre alone.

Making a spectator feel afraid is much more complicated than it seems, since different emotions and subjectivity itself come into play. We could apply this same premise to comedy, making people laugh is a really complicated task and even more so if we want the laughter to be unanimous.

What if we take all those horror clichés and read them in a comedic way? That is precisely what the Addams family does and therein lies the key to their success.

A review of the history

Throughout history, there are countless artistic manifestations linked to death. Likewise, the number of cults that we encounter from our first steps into the world remind us enormously of the ephemeral nature of life. The human being feels an immense curiosity about death, about the unknown.

Thus, this concern has been reflected in various artistic manifestations. Even cemeteries can become outdoor artistic spaces, a good example of this would be the Monumental Cemetery in Milan or the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires; without forgetting, of course, all those previous manifestations such as the Egyptian pyramids or the prehistoric death cult captured in the dolmens.

In short, there are many traces of the past that worship death. Regardless of the culture or corner of the world, We will always find some manifestation that reminds us of that Latin topic so popularized and known as Memento Mori. Because if we know something with certainty, it is that we are all going to die, although our way of interpreting it differs from one place to another. This cult, in turn, has become shrouded in mystery and, over time, has led to terror.

Everything that is unknown or that represents, in some way, a threat to our life will produce terror. In this way, the genre was fed by fears, the hidden and, above all, death to build works (whether literary or cinematographic) that connect with our desire to stay alive. But… is another reading possible?

Of course, Terror as such has been evolving and adapting to the different canons and eras it goes through.. However, it has certain aesthetic elements that are easily identifiable and can lead to comedy. And if there is something more daring than terror, it is, precisely, laughing at it. Thus, monsters that were terrifying can become friends or even laughable objects.

In the 19th century, Gothic fiction gained fundamental relevance and, as a consequence, led to some subgenres.. In this century, we have a good example that draws what will later be known as “horror comedy”; we talk about Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. From this moment on, countless titles would follow in this wake.

In film and television, some well-known films stand out such as Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984), The little shop of horrors (Frank Oz, 1986), Hocus Poccus (Kenny Ortega, 1993), Mars Attacks (Tim Burton, 1996) or Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988).

Likewise, in Spain, director Álex de la Iglesia stands out for offering us the clichés of horror (even the eschatological) in a comedic way with titles such as The Day of the Beast (1995) or The witches of Zugarramurdi (2013). Cinema, sometimes, invites us to outwit our fears, to laugh at the absurd conventions that sometimes surround our lives.

But there is no doubt that the family that concerns us today is one of those that has laughed best at death, it has survived the passage of time intact, captivating admirers from all corners and ages, managing to combine laughter and terror in one harmony. without equal. The Addams Family, for obvious reasons, is part of the imagination of multiple generations when it comes to horror comedy.

The Addams Family, a macabre laugh

The American cartoonist Charles Addams surprised in 1933 with a series of cartoons in The New Yorker. These were macabre characters who embraced black humor and parodied everyday life. A few decades later, in the 60s, these cartoons would end up leading to and inspiring a well-known television series: The Addams Family. But this was not the only family that reigned on television at the time, on another different network, a series about a very similar family called The Munsters.

The black humor and the adoption of horror clichés to later parody them served as the basis for an authentic satire of contemporary values. Somehow, the normal became the strange, the strange; while everything that went out of the conventional was revered. This technique draws a kind of upside-down world that amuses the viewer with its strangeness, but, simultaneously, invites them to question their own values.

We are all born into a society that influences our decisions, makes us capable of discerning between what is right and what is wrong. But these types of genres invite us to adopt a new perspective, a point of view that, through humor, breaks our traditional schemes. The success of the Addams Family is such that a television series was not enough, but films, animated series and even a musical were made.

Its characters are carbon copies of horror films, but brought to everyday life. They are no longer ghostly apparitions that should frighten the neighborhood, but rather peculiar ‘neighbors’. In some way, all this refers us to the idea of ​​what freakof all those individuals who, for whatever reason, do not correspond to the normative at a given time.

The Addams escape all conventions, but they have their own morals, their own rules; and they look at our world trying to make sense of it.

What is also interesting about the laughable element is to see how it is possible to break with conventional values, break with the rules and question them from irony.. And this is not something exclusive to horror comedy, but we can apply it to everyday life. What if normal was the complete opposite? Surely, we would criticize any behavior that went out of our norm.

For example, if we had been taught, like Morticia, that roses are more beautiful without their flower, that is, leaving only their thorns, surely we would cut them off and let ourselves be carried away by the beauty of the thorns, finding it strange to admire anyone. the flower and its petals. In the end, everything depends on the point of view and what we have learned in society.

This play with contrast, ultimately, produces laughter, but it does not leave aside the reflective component. Values ​​are inverted, the macabre is taken as beautiful and we end up questioning everything.. Furthermore, we must not forget that, for many people, the aesthetics of horror can be exceptionally beautiful. And beauty, like taste, is something totally subjective.

Our life is ephemeral, our passage through the world is deeply linked to death… Why fear? Why not make fun of it? The Addams Family has done this successfully for decades and has given us a kind of sigh, a relief that makes our passage through life (or death) more pleasant.

Our life is tragic many times, it is bitter and it is not as we had dreamed of it, therefore, Laughter is a therapy, a catharsis that relieves us in our grayest moments.

In this way, the Addams managed to captivate us with their particular point of view about the aesthetic, the correct, the moral, the comic. And they captivated us so much that, even many decades later, they continue to sweep the theaters of our cities.

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