The Munsters

I always preferred The Munsters over The Addams Family. After hearing a lot of negative reviews about this film, I still decided to watch the movie. Of all the negative rants I have read, the reviews missed one major problem- The cast doesn't have the wit to pull this film off. It's just meh for me.

The original cast (Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo and Al Lewis) could run rings around the dialogue given. The new cast seems to not want to bother turning in a performance.

The film has too much of a TV movie feel. It might work well for children but not fans of The Munsters

I can see why Universal chose not to release this film to the theaters.

When I first heard about this being made I was excited but worried at the same time. Since the original the straight to DVD/TV movies were just horrible. The only Munster related show that was any good was canceled and that was "Mockingbird Lane". When I read that Rob Zombie was making a movie about the Munsters I thought to myself, he was a big fan of the TV show he will probably do this justice.. Well.. Not quite what I expected.

When I first heard that his wife was going to be playing Lily, I didn't have high hopes for that character. I will have to say I think she did a great job. I have no complaints when it comes to the actors in this movie. But when it comes to the story it is just a mess. I don't think we needed a backstory to this movie. Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein. I think all it needed was a short 20-30 minute backstory and then jump right into them living at 1313 Mockingbird Ln. The story needed to be about them adapting to where they are now living. Instead we just got a small piece of that at the very end.. The set that they built for the movie (The Munster House) Looked amazing. It looked and felt very much like the old TV show. But the sad part is we got very little time spent there. It almost felt like it was a waste to build that house if you were only going to use it at the very end of the movie.

At the end of the day I really hope people and fans see the potential of this movie. I really believe it would make a good TV show with this cast rather than a stand alone movie.. but with someone else writing the scripts. I know Rob Zombie has been complaining that the budget was slim but after seeing this movie I don't think it was the budget that hurt the movie in the end. I believe the lack of storytelling and moving the story along is where the movie fell flat.

I'd give this a 5.7 out of 10.

Okay so I understand the negative reviews. It was pretty cheesy and dumb and the script was lacking. If you compare it to the original you will be very disappointed. Still I was somewhat entertained and got a few laughs out of it. The acting wasn't great but I did think the lead actor who played Herman was pretty good. I got the most laughs from him. The actress who played Lily left a lot to be desired and Grandpa was meh. The sets were kind of cool and it got me in the Halloween spirit. I will agree that the use of green lighting was overkill. Would I see it again? No. But it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be based on all of the terrible reviews. So I am split down the middle on this. It could have been much better but it also could have been worse in my opinion.

The writing is awful, overall, but the plot line wouldn't matter much if the "jokes" were even slightly amusing.

It almost seems like the main goal was to make sure that no one wants more of this garbage!

The costumes were great and the sets were pretty cool, but there wasn't much else positive about this movie.

I do want to mention that Shari Moon Zombie obviously put in some time and research watching Yvonne Decarlo as Lily. It was great to see the same mannerisms and expressions, but most of the performances fall flat. This stands out even more with the over the top nonsense that simply isn't funny at all.

I'll be honest, the second i saw the obviously out of place title card - my heart sank a little. I interpreted it as a sign of things to come, and i wasn't entirely wrong.

While i did enjoy some aspects of this film, it felt so tonally off, and it wasn't helped by certain cinematic choices. It feels like it tries too hard with the visual humour when the strong suit of The Munsters has always been subtle humour with an alternate take on modern life, but Rob Zombie's choice to structure the film as a cartoon come to life just feels like an unnecessary step to take since you're dealing with what're essentially Universal horror monsters. The transitions are incredibly jarring and they really take you out of the moment, and since they're so frequently spaced throughout the film and get worse with each one it really feels like the film never even has a chance to get going. Which is only made worse but the strange pacing of the plot and and a very sudden ending that comes out of nowhere.

As for the cinematic choices, not concerning transitions, the green lighting is so disheartening. It's unbelievably overused and it takes so much away from some of the more beautifully detailed sets. I can't really think of why it's used so much, other than perhaps as an homage to the green skin of the black and white characters that was always hinted to in the sixties show, but when you have actors caked in colourful makeup the lighting just comes across as another unnecessary presentation choice.

It's not always pleasant to look at and the jokes don't always land, but it does have it's enjoyable moments - such as Richard Brake's overly campy performance channelling Vincent Price from his B movie performances in the Roger Corman 'Poe' movies - yet it's hard to justify the film's existence on that basis since it doesn't have much to offer fans of the source material, and i honestly can't see this depiction of the characters appealing to a new generation of fans.

There have been numerous attempts to reboot this series since the 1960s (and not to doom this movie to failure just yet), but none of them have been successful in their attempt at rebooting the property. However, it still feels as though it has been done better, and on more than one occasion. In 1995, Fox's Halloween TV special "Here Come the Munsters," was a delightful reiteration of The Munsters which provided the family an origin and was effective in spawning another sequel and being as close to the original series as you could get. And more recently the Halloween special in 2012, "Mockingbird Lane," provided the family with a much darker edge that they desperately needed to settle into a new century, and sadly this reboot did fail. But in comparison - especially as Tim Burton's "Wednesday" series is soon to be released - i do think a more serious and darker take on The Munsters is what would have been needed in 2022 instead of a rehash of the original show which just exists as a queer vanity project for a hardcore fan of the show.

I am a huge fan of The Munsters and Rob Zombie's but sadly this just felt a little off to me. And maybe it's just because i really wanted to like it, but can't avoid it's abundantly obvious flaws.

I will give it another chance, since it does have a certain appeal, and i may bump it up to three stars depending on how i like the film when i watch it in black and white. Nevertheless, on a first watch for a big fan, I'm completely split down the middle.