Synopsis
Reboot of "The Munsters," that followed a family of monsters who moves from Transylvania to an American suburb.
Directed by Rob Zombie
Written by Rob Zombie
Starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Brake and Jorge Garcia
Released available to buy on DVD and digital
Review
The Munsters for some is going to be a very nostalgic experience. Even in this new incarnation, you can still get some of that, particularly in Herman.
I can’t remember what happens within the show specifically, but the movie focuses on Herman and Lily meeting, and the family moving to the suburbs. There’s a lot more monster interaction than human, which definitely feels a little out of place, but it is hilarious at points, so I can definitely forgive it.
I’m not entirely sure what the aim of making this was, I can’t see it getting a sequel or a series, and, although I did find out about it before it was released, I never saw anything again until I spotted the DVD when doing my weekly shop.
I doubt it will rock many people’s worlds, especially as I don’t think it’s available anywhere to stream, but I’m glad it was made… even though Rob Zombie mistreated Halloween so badly.
There are a few recognisable people in the cast list. Obviously, Mrs Zombie makes her appearance as Lily, which seems a little bit over the top even for the subject matter. Opposite her is Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman, and he has the mannerisms down for this role, seeing it out of the blue I thought it was perfect, I can’t guarantee it’s accuracy side by side the original.
Daniel Roebuck stars as The Count, and it’s a solid performance with the mild humour you’d expect from character and actor. The interactions with the other characters is great, especially the contempt he has for Herman.
The best, and completely unexpected performance, was Richard Brake. He has two roles (as do the others), the main being the doctor. I am sure he has done a variety of genres, but I have never seen him in this type of comedy, I’m only really familiar with his more dramatic roles, so this was a fantastic discovery.
It was nice to know they brought back a couple of original cast members, and topped up with a few recognisable names. Thankfully, I think, there weren’t a lot of characters you had to decipher, with the busy and fast paced storyline, it would have overwhelmed everything and left this a confusing mess.
Somehow there’s a lot that happens in this relatively short film. It doesn’t necessarily suffer for that, but we do seem to chop and change frequently to different scenes.
A lot of the original humour came from the Munsters interacting with the general population, and though we do see that in this film, it’s very much contained in a small portion of the run time. The monster portion was entertaining, but perhaps not in keeping.
As always, I don’t notice some things unless they’re terrible or incredible when it comes to the score and cinematography… well this is no exception.
Couldn’t tell you what the score involved at all, but I can tell you that there are some music scenes that had my finger hovering over the fast forward button. I genuinely thought my ears might have been bleeding.
Cinematography goes the completely opposite way, and there is one simple scene between The Count and Herman before dinner at the castle that absolutely cracked me up, and it was done so well. The Count definitely has the lurking mastered.
If you get the DVD of The Munsters, you’ll be treated to some extras. In them you’ll see the stages of the costumes and make up, and for this project, that’s incredibly interesting. The looks captured the essence of the original and gave the contrast with the “normal” world, there definitely could have been more of those clashing lifestyles in this though.
The Munsters was definitely amusing, with hits of nostalgia, I would honestly recommend it just to see Richard Brake with “sidekick” Jorge Garcia. It’s very much on the one watch and done list, there’s no real repeatable watch value unless you go back to the series to try and compare things directly.
What you should do
If you spot this one streaming and have a pang of nostalgia, absolutely give it a go, there’s enough to keep you engaged. Do not, like me, pay £7 for the DVD on impulse in a supermarket.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
The skill of lurking? The ability to glide effortlessly? The ability to be a comedic genius? Oh wait, got that one already!
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