Title – The Munsters (2022) 

Director – Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects) 

Cast – Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, Jorge Garcia

Plot – The origin story of the The Munsters, a very different type of family who must upend their lives in Transylvania to the very different shores of the USA. 

“I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that you were special”

Review by Eddie on 02/08/2023

I never thought I would live to see the day where the world would get to lay witness to a Rob Zombie PG rated movie, but low and behold thanks to 2022’s TV re-imagining/origin story The Munsters, we have all had that opportunity. 

A long-term fan of the 1960’s TV show that ran for two seasons back in the 60’s and has gone on to become one of the most notable cult series of all time, Zombie has done things his own way bringing The Munsters to life in the modern age with his low-budget D.I.Y like film the type of production that could only come from someones passion and love for a project, despite all the naysayers and scoffers that may exist around it. 

Releasing direct to streaming in the latter stages of 2022, by the time I managed to get a chance to view Zombie’s new vision for the iconic Munster family I was to be brutally honest hoping to lay witness to a The Room like train wreck that some online pundits have labelled the film with but what we actually have here is just a very bland and pointless film but not one that becomes so bad it’s good, even if The Munsters offers up an unrivalled case of uniqueness in the way its been made and shot, like someones home movie project come to life before our very eyes. 

Recruiting a cast of familiar Zombie faces that includes previous collaborators Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck and real life wife/screen muse Sheri Moon Zombie as famous Munster member Lily, in what is a performance that showcases why you shouldn’t always just cast a loved one in a film for the sake of it, The Munsters feels in small instances like a Zombie feature but in so many ways this is the complete opposite type of experience we’re use to when it comes to Zombie’s prior hard to stomach horrors that had minuscule moments of playfulness that is ever present throughout this film. 

Juvenile to the point of no return, Zombie is relishing the chance to here shoot for low brow humour throughout his films far too long 100 plus minute ride and the writer/director is clearly having a blast bringing his films playful if cheap as chips looking sets to life but you sense that Zombie’s chance to make this oddball entity work would’ve come from somehow making an interesting story about the monstrous family becoming the far from typical American family we saw in the sitcom but there is no engaging thread or interesting narrative decisions at play here as Zombie seems far too distracted bringing his toys to life. 

There will be some that despise The Munsters and it’s hard to imagine fans of the show being thrilled with this vision of the property but as it stands The Munsters misses its chance to become something more than we expected or a film that thrills with its awfulness, standing out as nothing more than a dull exercise in misjudged fandom that won’t be remembered as a fond surprise or a terribly unforgettable misfire. 

Final Say – 

Rob Zombie shows he isn’t all blood, guts and satanic happenings but The Munsters ends up being nothing more than a bland feature, not horrible enough to make it worth enduring or decent enough to get excited about. 

2 dressed up real estate agents out of 5