By : Ryan Dailey
The Munsters encapsulates everything that was great about the original. Rob Zombie even takes his color pallette from the instances when The Munsters were presented to us in Technicolor, such as in their first movie back in 1966. The amount of love the director has for the source material oozes from the screen like one of Grandpa Munster’s home-brewed concoctions.
The origin story of the anti-Cleavers is woven magnificently, and fits perfectly canonically in the established lore. Doctor Henry Augustus Wolfgang (Richard Blake) is hell-bent on creating the perfect intellectual being. Things go awry for the good doctor when his slow-witted assistant, Floop, (Jorge Garcia) steals the brain of recently deceased flopped comedian Shecky Von Rathbone instead of the brother of his also recently passed great philosopher, Shelley Von Rathbone. This nice little piece of lore perfectly explains Herman’s penchant for bad dad jokes.
Lily (Sherri Moon Zombie) sees Herman’s television debut and sees literal hearts.
The film tells the tale of Lily and Herman forging their relationship, despite Grandpa’s protests.
We watch as the couple get married, go to Paris and eventually land at their home at 1313 Mockingbird lane.
Hate for this film started before production even began. Horror film “purists” slandered the casting, the director and everything in-between. Rob Zombie is a product of his interests. His serious horror films reflect his love for Carpenter and Craven and gritty films like Silent Night, Deadly Night and I Spit On Your Grave. Even his animated venture shows a great love and is a great homage to films like Felix The Cat. Zombie is constantly slammed for showing nepotism by casting his wife and friends in every film he does while those making these uneducated remarks neglect to mention the king of nepotism, Kevin Smith.
Rob Zombie gives the horror community his heart and soul in everything he does, and the fact that he can adapt his style from what we see in 31 or Lords of Salem is a testament to the talent that flows from this man.
If you grew up with the source material or discovered it on physical media or in syndication, The Munsters will no doubt take you back to that magical time when you first found out about this lovable family of Universal monsters.
The Munsters is currently streaming on Netflix and is available on Blu-Ray.