The Munsters

The Munsters

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.

  • Released:
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
  • Stars: Butch Patrick, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, Daniel Roebuck, Jorge Garcia, Richard Brake, Cassandra Peterson, Sylvester McCoy, Dee Wallace, Catherine Schell, Tomas Boykin, Roderick Hill
  • Director: Rob Zombie
 Comments
  • doppleganger19692 - 26 April 2024
    How to make a monster failure
    How could you screw up a movie based on a beloved television series that is rife with potential comedy and parody of both monster movies and social stigmas?

    Rob Zombie has demonstrated how to do just that....sadly.

    Rob has proven that he knows how to make movies. While certainly not on the Orson Welles-level, his motion pictures are usually entertaining if not a tad disturbing (I'm OK with that, art should stir the senses), so I am at a loss as to what happened with his effort to bring The Munsters into the 21st Century.

    One of the themes of the series was "reverse appearance acceptance": scary is good, normal is "unfortunate". Given the current fad of bizarre body alterations, the Munsters would probably find greater acceptance than when the series first appeared during the "coat and tie" 1960's - which would have been a good repetitive subplot. The "shock" over the "normal neighbors" is a poorly-executed one-and-done in this movie: opportunity missed.

    The entire plot or storyline is extraordinarily lame, given Rob's predilection for bizarre stories. Like a watered-down, insipid, half-asleep "first draft" outline that was never finalized. Not sure what was the point of everything being neon colored, including the main characters. A "Young Frankenstein"-type B&W would have been both effective and harken back to the series.

    As for the performances, if they were intended in any way to channel Fred Gwynn, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Al Lewis, it did not come across. The affection between Lily and Herman is missing, and frankly Eddie is greatly missed.

    There's more, but you get the idea: fans of the series will be put out, and there's really no reason for anyone else to watch it. A shame.
  • TheOneThatYouWanted - 8 October 2023
    Sheri is still hot but that couldn't save it.
    Is this movie worth watching? No.

    How was the plot? It is a prequel.

    Was the budget enough? Kinda.

    What is this movie saying about our world? Musical BS..

    What is your emotional response to this movie? Yawn.

    What did this movie make me feel? Liking watching something else.

    What thoughts does this movie spark in me? Yawn.

    What themes are present in this movie? None.

    What is one good or cool thing I could say about this movie to someone else? The color palette worked.

    What does this movie have to say about the big story we are in? Cash cow.

    What does it make me think about? What a waste.
  • defenderpapa - 26 May 2023
    Had cult classic potential... unrealized
    Very campy and silly reimagining of the classic tv show. Was certainly a departure from Rob Zombie's typical horror fare and it looks like a decent amount of budget was dedicated to the set design. I thought most of the actors did the best they could with mediocre dialogue and an unfunny script that could have been so much better. I must say this was the first time I got to see Sheri Moon in a role other than those she played in the group of films which included The Devil's Rejects and I thought she showed a lot more versatlity than I expected. She can really act! Worth a look if you keep your expectations low and just go with the flow!
  • ministerofscat - 26 November 2022
    Not Worth Your Time
    I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. But I couldn't. In fact, I couldn't even like the first ten minutes. The acting is abysmal, the storyline heads nowhere at an alarmingly slow rate, and the directing seems misguided. Everything about this movie was miserable and a complete disgrace to the original series. I really hope that nothing further materializes from this project. And I also hope that Zombie leaves his wife out of future projects, because her contribution to this film was one of the worst.

    As an aside, I heard that Rob Zombie got into a fight with Universal regarding the direction of the film and, out of frustration, he intentionally made a bad movie. If there is any merit to that story, at least he achieved what he was aiming for.
  • sweetwateribizans - 10 November 2022
    The best part was when I turned it off
    I really wanted to like this because I grew up with the Munster's and adore all the characters, but it was so incredibly bad that it was almost unwatchable. I tried to stick it out, but I just could not make it any further, and I finally gave up with twenty-five minutes left to go. (And what a relief turning it off was.)

    I had my hopes up because I adore campy B movies, and I usually love Rob Zombie's work, but this was so disappointingly awful; it was not funny, it was not engaging, it was not entertaining, and I am upset with myself for paying for it instead of waiting until it came out for free on Netflix. But the one thing this movie was, is an insult to the Munsters. So now I'll have to go watch some of the beloved original and hope it works like eye bleach.
  • anitam - 31 October 2022
    This is a Munstrosity!
    This is perhaps THE WORST movie I have seen in the past decade.

    Truly, I do not get how anyone can rate this highly. Sheri Moon Zombie is obviously only in this because of her husband...she is a TERRIBLE actress who seems to only get hired for roles, because he's involved with the movie.

    There is NOTHING remotely resembling the original charm of the Munster's in this Day-Glo waste of digital space. Suddenly Lily Munster is a freaking idiot..she was the intelligent straight-woman, not a ditz who was constantly wavering and waving a hand in the air...just disgusting!

    This may have been Rob Zombie's "vision" but, I found it so irritatingly bad I couldn't 2/3 rd's of the way through the flick.