The film focuses on a bizarre, macabre, aristocratic family who reconnect with someone whom they believe to be a long-lost relative, Gomez's brother Fester Addams.

The film was commercially successful, making back almost seven times its production costs, and was followed by a sequel, Addams Family Values.

Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford owes money to loan shark/con artist Abigail Craven, and notices that her adopted son Gordon closely resembles Fester.

Tully proposes that Gordon pose as Fester to infiltrate the Addams household and find the hidden vault where they keep their vast riches.

Tully and his wife Margaret attend a séance at the Addams home led by Grandmama in which the family tries to contact Fester's spirit.

Gordon learns the reason for the brothers' falling-out: Gomez was jealous of Fester's success with women, and wooed the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna Amor away from him out of envy.

Gordon, under the guise of Fester, grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley, whom he helps to prepare a swordplay sequence for a school play.

After the play, Dr. Pinder-Schloss insists that "Fester" must once again leave, so the Addamses throw a large party with their extended family and friends, during which Abigail plans to break into the vault.

With help from the Addamses' neighbor Judge George Womack, whom Gomez has repeatedly infuriated by hitting golf balls into his house, Tully procures a restraining order against the family, banning them from the estate.

While Abigail, Gordon, and Tully try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get past the booby trap blocking access to the vault, the Addamses are forced to move into a motel and find jobs.

Morticia returns to the Addams home to confront Gordon and is captured by Abigail and Tully, who torture her in an attempt to learn how to access the vault.

Using a magical book which projects its contents into reality, he unleashes a hurricane into the house, which strikes his own head with lightning and launches Tully and Abigail out of a window and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.

The movie ends with a coda, taking place seven months later at Halloween; it emerges that Gordon actually was Fester and really had gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle, where he was found and adopted by Abigail.

[8] Raul Julia was cast as Gomez Addams; he was attracted to the role because of the character's irreverent portrayal, noting that "even his depressions are wonderful".

[2] In a 2012 interview, Sonnenfeld recalled that he had originally intended that it be unclear whether Fester really was an imposter or not, but the actors strongly opposed the notion and selected then 10-year-old Christina Ricci ("Wednesday Addams") to speak on their behalf.

Ricci "gave this really impassioned plea that Fester shouldn't be an imposter... so we ended up totally changing that plot point to make the actors happy.

[14] According to Huston, actress Judith Malina's way of enduring being "embedded in latex for over twelve hours a day" was to "smoke an endless series of joints in her trailer throughout filming".

With the projected release date competing with Steven Spielberg's Hook, Orion feared that The Addams Family would be another expensive flop, and decided to cut its losses.

The Mamushka sequence, a musical dance number, was significantly longer in the original cut, but was shortened following negative responses from test audiences.

The Addams Family grossed $113,502,426 in the United States and Canada and $191,502,426 worldwide, turning a significant profit against the $30 million production costs.

The website's critical consensus reads: "The movie is peppered with amusing sight gags and one-liners, but the disjointed script doesn't cohere into a successful whole".

[33] Variety magazine wrote: "Despite inspired casting and nifty visual trappings, the eagerly awaited Addams Family figures a major disappointment".