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Rob Zombie’s “The Munsters”

Well, on Tuesday September 27th, “The Munsters’ by Rob Zombie was released, and among fans of the Munsters, there seems to be a lot of division. This seemed to be the case, even before it was released. Non fans of this have complained about the garish colors, Sheri Moon Zombie playing Lily, and how it is the worst film ever made. My favorite complaint is “It’s not my Munster Movie.” very true. It’s not your Munster Movie, and it’s not my Munster Movie. it’s Rob Zombie’s Munster movie, and after seeing it today, I am very glad Rob Zombie made his Munster movie.

So why do I love this movie? Well to me, the original show was about a loving family, living in a wonderfully creepy house, who just happen to be Monsters. The head of the family is a big lovable oaf, and his wife is very much in love with him. The Grandfather who has a great deal of contempt for his daughter’s choice for a husband also stays with them. That was the heart of the original series, and it’s the heart of this new film by Rob Zombie.

There is a complaint about the color palate used, being too garish. Well, I was fine with that, because this film is camp, and the garish colors remind me of some of the black light posters with a horror theme I used to decorate my room with, so it fits in well with the campy and broad comedy that Rob Zombie has going on in his film. The film is also surrealistic in places, which I think has something to do with Zombie’s love of German expressionist films, like “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”.

Being such a fan of the original series, Rob Zombie has included references to the series, including the Tin Can Man, Zombo, Igor, and a couple of Munster relatives who each had an appearance in a single episode in the original series. I wasn’t sure how Rob Zombie was going to make this all work, but is his film about how Herman met Lilly, Rob Zombie is able to pull it off.

I think when i was first warming up to Rob Zombie doing this version of the Munsters, was when photos of the Mockingbird heights set went online. I really love the idea of the Queen Anne Victorian house in a sea of bland tract houses. This makes the Munster house really stand out, while being an entirely realistic situation. Seeing how this worked in the film, was among my favorite parts of the movie.

So I loved the movie, but will you? My advice is you watch ten minutes of the film, and if you hate what your seeing, you might as well turn it off, because you probably won’t enjoy the rest of it. There are so many other films you could be watching, like “Manos Hands of Fate”, or any of those live action remakes of Disney animated classics. As for me, I plan on watching my Blu Ray again tomorrow, this time with the commentary,