The Munsters

The Munsters is a wholesome labor of love that's probably for the most diehard sitcom fans because for better and worse, Rob Zombie makes the Munsters ...

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Rob Zombie enlists his usual ensemble to great effect, including Sheri Moon Zombie and Daniel Roebuck, to breathe new life into the beastly family for ...

As a movie, it’s nothing but loose ends, a lukewarm stew of concepts that haven’t been stirred enough to combine in the cauldron. But as a faux television pilot, the actors, the sketches, the sight gags, and the puns mesh together endearingly in precisely the kind of experience that would have drawn weekly audiences in a more innocent era of broadcast television. Even the set, shot in color as one of the few stylistic updates to the source material, is populated by cheap props lit in artificial neon like a particularly intricate Spirit Halloween display, which only adds to the charming artificiality of the whole affair. Ostensibly functioning as a pre-Eddie Munster origin story for either the original television show or a full-on revival that will likely never come to fruition, the film spends most of its runtime in Transylvania as the family congeals. These conflicts don’t so much narratively resolve as they quietly drop away once they become inconvenient, with priority being placed on establishing the television show’s domestic Mockingbird Lane status quo instead of providing these characters with fulfilling arcs or giving the film anything resembling a consistent throughline. Stripping away his usual violent edgelord tendencies, writer-director Rob Zombie has made a film that is explicit only in how family friendly it is—a departure that’s sure to throw his fans for a loop.

While Zombie remains fiercely loyal to the tone of the original '60s sitcom with his film, the director also recognized that it wouldn't stand on its own legs ...

But after so many starts and stops over the years, Zombie was adamant to see “The Munsters” through and prevent his dream project from slipping through his fingers. The director shares that “The Munsters” was forced to pump the brakes as the entertainment industry configured health and safety protocols for productions to operate during the pandemic. “As long as the studio is still spending money, you get them on the hook. The filmmaker found his shock of the new in what at first seemed to be a creative limitation: Universal would not give “The Munsters” a go if it was filmed in black-and-white, as the original ‘60s sitcom was. Though disappointed at first, the requirement led Zombie to consider what “the opposite of black-and-white” would look like, trailblazing a ludicrously colorful, hyper-saturated aesthetic for his monster mash. “That was always my vision, even 20 years ago,” Zombie says. “I was like, ‘What the fuck?! Zombie still managed to sneak in a brief black-and-white interlude: a recreation of the show’s opening credits, featuring the Munsters walking through their manor’s doorframe one-by-one. You figure out how to deal with it,” Zombie says. What the hell am I watching?’” Zombie says, explaining the tricky task of revamping a beloved property. “Dan would have been a ’60s sitcom actor,” Zombie says. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment releases “The Munsters” on digital platforms, Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday.

Rob Zombie made a comedy and it absolutely works. Here's what we thought of Netflix's The Munsters.

Ultimately, The Munsters is not the movie you think it is. Additionally, it should be noted that this isn't a remake of the series you might know. The only real downside to the film is it gets off to a clunky start. This is an objectively silly franchise, and turning it into a grimdark horror tale would be robbing it of its identity--the same way a grounded and realistic Addams Family would. With a movie this over-the-top, you need a cast that can carry the load. This is a nearly two-hour film that is silly, goofy, pleasantly overacted, and almost surreal in how ridiculous it gets.

Our Munsters review says that Rob Zombie's attempt at a prequel/reboot of the classic sitcom is one of the year's worst movies, and one of Zombie's too.

It’s certainly nothing like watching the original show, save for a very brief recreation of the opening credits, which was shown in trailers already. Watching The Munsters can be like watching a mirror universe version of Svengoolie in which the campy host actually believes his jokes are good. There’s a lot of doubling going on, presumably to conserve the obviously limited budget: Phillips plays two other roles besides Herman, and Roebuck plays another additional part as well as being an extra in at least one scene. Attempting to be a prequel to the sitcom, the story simply trudges through obvious beats. Making over Herman Munster as a Frankenstein creation accidentally imbued with the brain of an unfunny hack comedian, however, says everything about Zombie’s opinion of the show’s humor. To Zombie’s fans, it’s a letdown; to old-school Munsters fans, it’s not just a slap in the face, but a punch by a hand wearing a spiked glove. Trying to make a kid-safe monster movie and an imitation of the sitcom format. Sure, its jokes are old and outdated now, but they weren’t trying to be at the time. She’s horribly miscast and dreadful in the role of Lily Munster, which sees her doing what sounds like a third-rate SNL impersonation. Whether you like [Rob Zombie](http://superherohype.com/tag/rob-zombie) or hate him, The Munsters marks a level of amateurishness that does not befit a director as experienced as he must surely be by now. The Devil’s Rejects, 31, and even Halloween II are masterpieces of white-trash grunge horror, not because Zombie thought the stories through, but because he had fairly free rein to run wild. [The Munsters](http://superherohype.com/tag/the-munsters), featuring Daniel Roebuck as The Count, a.k.a.

An “origin story” of sorts, the film starts before Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) meets Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips). She is still living in her Transylvania castle ...

It is best when used as a visual asset; something you may only want to catch a couple of minutes of dialogue from, but otherwise, it’s best left as background imagery. Original The Munsters stars Butch Patrick (who played Eddie) and Pat Priest (who played Marilyn) had voiceover cameos in the film as well. For example, there is a scene where the Count tries to create the perfect man for Lily when he doesn’t like Herman, but he messes up the spell and creates a chimp-man. Maybe it is all the colors; it makes everything seem almost like a comic book. Wolfgang (also Richard Brake), and his hapless helper Floop (Jorge Garcia) create a Frankenstein’s monster-looking creature, whom Floop names Herman Munster ("Like the cheese"). It is love at first sight for Herman, too, and after a whirlwind romance, the two wed.

Herman Munster and the gang are reanimated with bright colors and lots of dad jokes in Rob Zombie's The Munsters. Read our review here.

And nearly 60 years later, the two competing franchises still can’t seem to get away from each other: this new incarnation of The Munsters arrives on Netflix just two months ahead of Wednesday, Tim Burton’s new Addams Family spinoff series. And while the Netflix film is a prequel, detailing Herman and Lily’s meet cute before the birth of their sitcom son, werewolf boy Eddie Munster, it’s otherwise impressively faithful to the source material’s look and sense of humor. But the newlyweds aren’t shacked up in her father The Count’s castle in Transylvania for long before they’re unceremoniously kicked out, and decide to start a new life in America.