I’ve always fancied myself more of an “Addams Family” fan but I have great respect for the “Munsters” franchise. It’s a shame that Rob Zombie, the professed horror fan has so oddly botched his one attempt at reviving the “Munsters.” Zombie has the golden opportunity to really reinvigorate the Munsters for a new generation and drops the ball for what I can only describe as a disaster of a reboot.
Lily is a typical 150-year-old lovelorn vampire who’s looking for the man of her nightmares — until she lays her eyes on Herman, a 7-foot-tall green experiment with a heart of gold. It’s love at first shock as these two ghouls fall fangs over feet for each other in a Transylvanian romance. Unfortunately, it’s not all smooth sailing in the cemetery as Lily’s father has other plans for his beloved daughter’s future, and they don’t involve her new bumbling beau.
From the get go, Zombie the director seems ot have the best intentions in mind, but with the Munsters he sets himself up for failure. A lot of the comedy is based around sitcom comedyand he instead goes for an easier route than a family horror comedy. Instead of embracing the formula he gives us a prequel reboot tat shows us when Lily first met Herman sans Eddie, Marilyn and any of the other quirks of the original series. Zombie can never seem to decide on an aesthetic, opting for sixties low budget often. This makes the movie feel low quality, and filming through a digital lens doesn’t detract from the bargain basement feel either.
Zombie really has the advantage here of showing off some of the ace comedy that “The Munsters” was capable of, not to mention its incomparable heart hidden beneath its monstrous surface. Instead it’s another really goofy vanity vehicle that feels scaled back by Paramount who you can tell originally envisioned this as a theatrical release. Instead it’s relegated to streaming and it doesn’t make much of an argument for existing in that format, either. The plot goes in all directions with Zombie jumping from sub-plot to sub-plot and stuffing the movie with characters. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Moon Zombie simply have no chemistry and spend most of their time giving performances that do nothing to emulate original stars Gwynne or De Carlo.
They seem to be aiming for their own interpretation of the characters which simply doesn’t work in the long run. Overlong, dull and tedious, “The Munsters” could have stood another rewrite or two or…you know, the actual family.