The Munsters Review

One of the things that brought my wife and me together was our love of the two comedy/horror TV franchises of our youth: The Addams Family & The Munsters. The Munsters quite often gets passed over when it comes to movies and remakes, with there being only one special to the show’s credit (Though it did get a reboot in 1988 with The Munsters Today, which lasted till 1991). Recently, The Addams Family gain renewed life with a CGI reboot movie, and a spin-off with the Netflix series Wednesday, but will a movie from Horror movie filmmaker/Heavy Metal musician Rob Zombie bring The Munsters back into the spotlight? Let’s take a look.

Title: The Munsters
Production Company: Universal 1440 Entertainment & Spookshow International Films
Distributed by: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment & Netflix
Directed by: Rob Zombie
Produced by: Rob Zombie
Written by: Rob Zombie
Starring: Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake, & Sylvester McCoy
Based on: The Munsters by Allan Burns & Chris Hayward
Release dates: September 27, 2022
Running time: 110 minutes
Rating: PG

Two Munsters in Love… (Story)

The Munsters is an origin story set in Transilvania, during the time before The Munsters became a couple. Grandpa (aka The Count) is looking for a husband for his daughter Lily, setting her up with Count Orlock (The Universal monster Nosferatu). However, the date is a failure as Lily doesn’t take to the Count’s love of his own rats, the black plague, and other activities. Meanwhile, Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang and his assistant Floop (Grandpa has Igor) are robbing graves to create the perfect human being, though through a mistake by Floop getting the incorrect brain, Dr. Wolfgang’s creation becomes Herman Munster, a wisecracking Frankenstein. It’s through Herman’s debut on TV that Lily notices him and falls in love, following Herman to a local nightclub where Herman is playing in a rock and roll band. The two meet and sparks fly, with Lily inviting Herman to dinner at the family castle, much to the displeasure of Grandpa. Eventually, Herman asks Lily to marry him, and she accepts. At the wedding, Lester (A Wolfman who is in debt to local Gypsies) convinces Herman to sign over the deed to Lily and Grandpa’s castle, leaving them homeless. This leads the newlywed Munster Family to pack up and move to Mockingbird Heights, buying the classic Munster house from the local real estate agent. Thanks to the street celebrating Halloween, The Munsters fit right into the celebration with the townsfolk and The Munsters mistaking each other for being in costume and monsters at the same. The next morning, Herman discovers that they have moved into a typical nice suburban 1960s town… And this is where The Munsters TV Show begins…

Meet The Munsters and their friends (Characters)

• Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster
  We all know that it would be hard to fill the large shoes of Fred Gwynne, the original Herman Munster, Phillips does an amazing job with the role, mimicking Gwynne’s mannerisms and even the trademark laugh extremely well. It would have been easy to just play Herman as the typical dumb guy character that seems to be appearing more and more in films these days (See Chris Hemsworth’s character in Ghostbusters 2016 for example), to see Phillips keep to the style and attitude of the original Herman was a blast to see.
• Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily Munster
  Many people do get sick of seeing Sheri Moon in Rob’s films, but that doesn’t stop any other Director/Writer/Producer from using their own friends, family, or partners (Examples: Milla Jovovich in W.S. Anderson films, Ben Falcone in anything Melissa McCarthy is in, and don’t forget Kevin Smith and his friends and family in all his films) in their films which seem to get no backlash. However, in this case, I couldn’t see anyone else playing Lily Munster after seeing Sheri’s performance. Sheri has the look, appeal, and just overall dedication to the character that works with this style of a movie… And I think she didn’t need to use costumes since she probably owns all that type of stuff normally.
• Daniel Roebuck as The Count
  Al Lewis is one hard act to follow, but Roebuck, much like Phillips as Herman, does an almost perfect recreation of Al Lewis’ character. Though his character was changed from a fun-loving Grandpa to an almost antagonist role in the film, with The Count being very untrusting and hating Herman from the get-go, and doing everything in his power to get rid of Herman till the two get married, and even then he doesn’t like Herman till the final moments of the film just so it doesn’t hurt the TV version of the character.
• Richard Brake as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang
  Playing Herman’s creator isn’t much of a big ask, you’re basically just doing a parody of Doctor Frankenstein. However, Brake gives the limited role an interesting style by going a Richard Roxburgh’s “The Duke” from Moulin Rouge in the way he acts and talks. Sure, there is a lot more ego since this is someone who believes that they are creating the perfect human being (Using a very Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter vibe without the transsexual Transylvania twist and some killer legs). But his use of more modern slang and phrases does pull from the overall feel of the campy 1960s era that the movie is based.
• Sylvester McCoy as Igor
  Talk about a surprising casting. Though he doesn’t do much, it was such a thrill seeing the Seventh Doctor Who showing up in The Munsters. McCoy gets his moments in the early part of The Munsters, helping The Count when he wakes up and basically being a Butler to the family in the castle. Not really much to say, but just a nice surprise to see McCoy on screen again.
• Jorge Garcia as Floop
  Another weird role. Garcia plays the stupid assistant to Dr. Wolfgang, causing the issue with the Doctor’s creation that ends up making Herman… Herman. Haven’t seen this guy since Lost was a thing, so it was good to see him working. Much like McCoy, he has a bit to do in the early part of The Munsters but then disappears in the later parts never to return.
• Tomas Boykin as Lester
  The last small character in The Munsters. Boykin plays Lester, a Wolfman who is in debt to a Gypsie family, and gets Herman to sign over The Count’s castle. This whole thing serves as the movie’s B-Plot, much like a Tv show would have, and everything wraps up nicely for both Lester and the family in the end. It’s a shame though because this B-Plot could have worked as a major plot point in The Munsters, but it wasn’t, so it’ll be what it is.
• Cameos: Catherine Schell, Horror movie Icon Dee Wallace, the 2nd Marilyn Munster Pat Priest, Eddie Munster himself Butch Patrick, and Elvira herself: Cassandra Peterson
  Lots of good cameo appearances from many Horror movies and The Munsters icons to help bring a bit of nostalgia into The Munsters. Some of these appearances are very “blink and you’ll miss it” moments, and Butch Patrick’s cameo is voice only, but its good to see so many people who were big hits during The Munsters’ heyday and beyond coming onto the set and doing something to allow The Munsters to tap into that history it has. Of course, Cassandra has the biggest cameo role in the whole film, and rightly so since her Elvira character is a homage to both Lily Munster and Morticia Addams.

Faithful B-Grade Schlock (What Worked)

Coming from a pure fan perspective, The Munsters is one of the best reboots/adaptations of the original works ever made. You can really tell that Rob Zombie is a huge fan of The Munsters (Which he is, as he has many TV show-era props in his home) to the point where you can put a black and white filter over this movie (Which I did with my copy, and I highly recommend you do too if you know how) and you would think you were watching something made for the 1960s TV show. The casting for the main three is pretty good, with Sheri Moon Zombie actually looking like she could be a contender for a future Morticia Addams if needed (Maybe in an Addams Family Netflix show?)… Actually, all the cast could drop right in as a new TV version of The Munsters if that ever could be a thing.

With The Munsters, you get two things from what a movie like this should do: Have time go quick (The 110-minute run time goes by so quickly you’d think it was a 30-minute show) and leave you wanting more… and that’s what we got here. When The Munsters was over and the credits were rolling (With a great homage to the TV show opening sequence), we both said that we wish there was a TV show version using this cast to follow things up. I know we have the original TV show from The Munsters‘ movie here, but we want to see this cast continue the adventures of The Munsters after the show wrapped up too.

The Munsters… In Color? (What didn’t work)

While we both walked away from The Munsters with smiles on our faces and a laugh in our hearts, The Munsters isn’t quite perfect. There are some points where you see Rob Zombie’s use of low-angle camera work and sweeping techniques from his music videos that you know are there because he loves those shots. Then there are the bigger gripes people online seem to have: The Munsters is presented IN COLOR!! (Insert dramatic sting here) And it “ruins the original work” because it’s not the exact same thing it was over 60 years ago… Honestly, while I do agree that The Munsters being presented in color is a bit out of the norm when pitted against the show (Flashbacks of The Munsters Today came to mind very quickly), and a quick trip through Adobe Premier with a Black and White filter fixed that issue, the way color is used in The Munsters gives it a very 1960s look and feel, like the movie was recorded in the Hippy over-saturated colors of the movies of the age. As for “ruining the original work”… The Munsters Today already did that, so shut up. If there was one thing that I really had to pick on The Munsters that got annoying, it was the use of more modern-era slang and sayings. As The Munsters is meant to be a pre-1960s TV show movie, using modern language did remove the value of nostalgia from the film.

Not Your Typical Rob Zombie Movie… And that’s Great! (Closing)

If you walk away from The Munsters with a negative look on the movie, you have either one of two problems: You either are not a Rob Zombie fan and just want an excuse to bag his filmmaking style once again, or you haven’t watched The Munsters TV Show in a long time. The Munsters TV Show was a B-Grade horror-based comedy with very limited production value and scale, and The Munsters reflects that era perfectly. The acting isn’t top tier, the script isn’t cinema quality, and the distribution is going to see this film go straight to the graveyard. But in the end, The Munsters is a great recreation of a 1960s classic that stands on the same level as it’s source material and should be added to your Netflix watch list as soon as it releases and would be a great addition to any The Munsters fan collection… As it will be when I can get my hands on the Bluray.