You Only Have a Few More Weeks To See Rob Zombie’s Strange Reboot of a Spooky Classic on Netflix

Temperatures drop, the spooky season approaches, and fans turn on the 1964 black-and-white sitcom, The Munsters, to get into the Halloween spirit. The Munsters became just as infamous as the Addams Family, focusing on a Transylvanian-American family with a fun twist on some of the genre’s most well-known monsters. Since its inception, not many have tried to replicate its fun, creepy, and quirky family dynamic, except for singer and filmmaker Rob Zombie.

In 2022, Rob Zombie released The Munsters as a horror comedy serving as a prequel to the original sitcom. It brought back the original characters and fleshed out details of their origin stories, but the movie didn’t land with critics and received a 55% Rotten Tomatoes score. Full of color, comedy, and an attempt to bring back the charm of the sitcom, it’s only available on Netflix for a short while longer.

What Is ‘The Munsters’ About?

Rob Zombie’s The Munsters reimagines the classic TV family as a prequel that explains how Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) first came together before moving to their iconic home on Mockingbird Lane. Starting in Transylvania, mad scientist Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang (Richard Brake) and his assistant created Herman Munster by accident; Herman quickly becomes a sensation as a rock star and TV personality, capturing the interest of Lily.

Her father, the Count (Daniel Roebuck), has other plans for her and wants her to marry a wealthy monster. But Lily sticks to her guns and pursues Herman. What follows is a chaotic and comedic story of true love leading up to their wedding. Amid their Cupid-stricken love comes a problem when Herman is swindled, leaving his bride and father-in-law to make a decision.

Reboots can be tricky, especially when fans of the beloved source material are so glued to the original cast chemistry and charm. Rob Zombie’s The Munsters clearly aims to honor the 1960s sitcom, but while it has its distinguishable main characters and sprinkles in plenty of nostalgic references, it struggles to capture the heart of what made the original a classic.

For fans of the original sitcom, the show’s quirks—over-the-top monster antics, campy humor, and family dynamics—still have charm, but the reboot leans heavily into contemporary humor and CGI spectacle. The result feels simultaneously familiar and oddly disjointed, as if it’s trying to appeal to both longtime fans and viewers with no knowledge of the source material. On the surface, it’s full of callbacks that are needed for a prequel, from the exaggerated world of horror monsters in everyday life to Lily’s vampiric style and The Count’s cranky one-liners that echo the sitcom’s original panache. While fans were charmed by the reboot, it has one flaw—its paper-thin storyline.

Yes, the movie is meant to focus heavily on Lily and Herman’s love story that drives the entire plot and eventually leads to the beloved sitcom. But the movie ends up feeling like a stretched-out sitcom episode rather than a full-length feature film. Instead of building tension, exploring the characters beyond what fans already know, or delivering clever twists, the movie mostly drifts from one skit-like sequence to another. You’ll find yourself understanding the straightforward plot, but it ends up being muddled by neon-soaked gags, musical interludes, and extended jokes that don’t always land. For instance, Herman is written as a popular rock star played for laughs, but it doesn’t really lead anywhere. The same can be said of the conman subplot, which is used more as a narrative device than anything substantial. As a result, the movie comes off as being incredibly busy but doesn’t have much going on under the surface. Zombie’s reboot is a fun nod to nostalgia with extreme examples of neon monster campiness but struggles to find depth beyond its loud visuals and becomes a hollow homage to the sitcom.

Rob Zombie’s Reboot Is Full of Campy Horror and Theatrical Gags

Image via Universal 1440 Entertainment 

What makes Zombie’s reboot compelling, however, is its audacious strangeness. The cast fully commits to the oddball premise, embracing the absurdity of a vampire, Frankenstein, and other classic monsters living suburban lives like normal humans. They’re us, but in their own creepy world. There’s a playful energy to the performances, and the production design leans into exaggerated, cartoonish visuals that make the world feel distinct. It’s the original sitcom with blasts of thrown-up color all over it, especially since Zombie was denied by the studios to film the movie in black-and-white like the original. As a result, he created a colorful world, the exact opposite of what original fans would expect…Or is it?

It becomes a double-edged sword with its saturated color palette setting it apart while also stripping away the eerie charm that the black-and-white naturally gave the sitcom. The reboot ends up feeling like a surreal theatrical show or comic book come to life that audiences either love or hate, while still seeping into the world of monsters. In some way, its visuals bring audiences back to the 90s, when Halloween was all about neon colors, glow-in-the-dark, and over-the-top costuming.

The reboot still has its golden moments of dialogue and jokes that genuinely shine. The storyline may be thin, but Zombie peppers in playful one-liners and quirky exchanges that feel true to the characters. Herman’s goofy naivety leads to some funny misunderstandings, and even his freak-out over his new normal suburban neighborhood is a gem to watch. The Count’s witty remarks are true to the unwilling father-in-law, and Lily is the sweet and unashamed woman with family autonomy that fans will come to feel charmed by. The comedy is heightened by the world around them, creating a sensory experience that’s both silly and an odd spectacle. Audiences will either find the reboot invigorating or too chaotic to continue watching. Yet even with its flaws, The Munsters manages to carve out some unique identity, blending nostalgic homage with a bold, playful, and unapologetically strange reinterpretation of a classic TV family.

The Munsters

Release Date

September 27, 2022

Runtime

109 Minutes