I am not the biggest fan of Rob Zombie’s movies. I’ll be the first to admit that. His Halloween movies don’t really do it for me, and the blend of violence and his directing style aren’t my cup of tea. However, when it was announced that he would be doing a reboot/remake/reimagining of The Munsters, I was a bit intrigued. If anything, Rob Zombie is just like you and me, he’s a fan of horror. The biggest question was, would Herman Munster be disemboweling someone or would it capture what the original TV series felt like?
The answer is somewhere in between. In the trailer below, you can see the vibe that the movie is going for. The trailer gives some of the details about the film and extended looks at stars Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake, and Catherine Schell.
For people complaining about the look and feel of this trailer, it seems like he’s leaning pretty hard into the cheesy, camp of the original series. That’s 100% for the best. As much as it would be cool to see a hyper-violent version of The Munsters on screen, that wouldn’t really fit with the story being told. The trailer blasts that out right away, it’s a love story.
Most importantly, it’s a Rob Zombie love story, and this might be the only way we can get that. It looks to be a prequel to the story of The Munsters that we all know and love from the TV series. You can watch the original series on Peacock right now. It ran for two seasons from 1964-1966 and received two feature films, a sequel series, and a failed reboot titled Mockingbird Lane.
We’ll really have to see when it releases. As far as I’m concerned, the trailer captures that feeling of the original series. Does it look cheap? Yes. Did the original show look cheap? Hell yes. This might not play well with Zombie’s fans because of that, but let’s remember some of his other films. They’re grimy, dirty, and they look beat up. This is a breath of technicolor air in addition to some of the black and white sequences. I’m still apprehensive, but maybe it’ll be the spark for a new generation of fans for The Munsters. After all, horror is all about callbacks while looking forward.
The Munsters releases in September 2022.
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