The latest in a long line of unasked-for Hollywood reboots is Rob Zombie’s 2022 take on the classic TV sitcom THE MUNSTERS. About a family of monsters inspired by the classic Universal critters, it ran from 1964 to ‘66, and inspired several spin-offs on the big and small screens. This feature, which purports to be a prequel, premiered on Netflix, a move that may or may not have been pre-planned by Universal, who were stung by the universally negative reception to the July, 2022 unveiling of the film’s trailer. That would explain the lack of publicity that greeted THE MUNSTERS’ release (you can be forgiven for being completely unaware of its bow) and the absence of anticipatory reviews.
…the universally negative reception to the July, 2022, unveiling of the film’s trailer.
The reception thus far has been as expected, with the film’s imdb rating hovering at an uninspiring 4.5. Naturally some Zombie defenders have popped up, such as a fellow on YouTube who lauded the film thusly: “They went 200% in on retro campiness. So don’t expect a big Hollywood production….” The problem with this view is that this MUNSTERS is in fact a Hollywood production, although precisely how “big” it was remains an open question (the budget has been estimated as being between $9 and $40 million).
Those unfortunates who’ve sat through Zombie’s animated feature THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO (2009) will know what to expect: a stream of tiresome pop-culture laden one-liners that aren’t funny, but which are tasked with taking the place of traditional storytelling. In fairness, the original MUNSTERS series, regardless of how much we may have loved it as children, was far from great (with THE ADDAMS FAMILY, broadcast alongside THE MUNSTERS, emerging as the superior program—it seems appropriate that WEDNESDAY, a Netflix production spun off from ADDAMS, appeared to have received the publicity denied Zombie’s MUNSTERS).
…a stream of tiresome pop-culture laden one-liners that aren’t funny, but which are tasked with taking the place of traditional storytelling.
This film takes place, supposedly, before the events of the TV series. The Frankenstein’s monster-esque Herman Munster (Jeff Daniel Phillips) is created in a laboratory by a mad scientist (Richard Brake), and promptly becomes a punk rock star (who knew there were punk bands in the early 1960s?). As such he’s noticed by vampire babe Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) and it’s love at first sight, although Lily’s father the Count (Daniel Roebuck) disapproves of the union. Herman and Lily get married nonetheless, only to have the Count’s loser son Lester trick Herman into signing over the deed to the family castle.
Following a honeymoon in Paris, Herman elects to relocate the family to Hollywood. There they buy an old cobwebby house on Mockingbird Lane, and do so on Halloween, with the surrounding neighbors all dressed in monster costumes. Thus Herman and Lily freak out upon venturing outside the next day and discovering all the “beautiful people” have turned normal. Their grief is assuaged when they’re handed a check by Lester, who used the money he made from selling the castle to strike it rich in Vegas.
Given that this film was 1) aimed at children, and 2) a comedy (two things for which Rob Zombie isn’t known), its failure comes as no surprise. The scenery and photography, which tends toward cable TV-worthy green filtered illumination, couldn’t have looked more cut-rate had Zombie and his collaborators tried to make everything appear cheap—which may well have been the case. The boppy cartoon music that underscores every scene and the exaggerated performances (a style that, for once, suits the emoting of Zombie’s non-actor wife Sheri Moon) certainly suggest a live action Loony Tunes skit directed by Joe Dante or Tim Burton, but not Rob Zombie, whose filmmaking talents don’t encompass such overwrought stylization.
Given that this film was 1) aimed at children, and 2) a comedy (two things for which Rob Zombie isn’t known), its failure comes as no surprise.
There are some potentially interesting bits. A car ride through an animated landscape whose denizens are made to interact with the live action principals displays a verve and imagination the rest of the film lacks, while the Halloween-set house warming sequence contains some genuine wit—it’s almost, but not quite, funny.
Vital Statistics
THE MUNSTERS
Universal Studios
Director: Rob Zombie
Producers: Mike Elliott, Rob Zombie
Screenplay: Rob Zombie
Cinematography: Zoran Popovic
Editing: Vanick Moradian
Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake, Jorge Garcia, Sylvester McCoy, Catherine Schell, Cassandra Peterson, Tomas Boykin, Levente Torkoly, Jeremy Wheeler, Roderick Hill, Mark Griffith