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Rob Zombie’s The Munsters (2022) followed the Munster family prior to settling down in Mockingbird Heights in Los Angeles, California, including character origins. With political commentaries in its undercurrent, the film picks up in the second half only to fizzle out with an abrupt ending.
The Munsters is a sequel to the sitcom of the same name from 1960s, which looked at the unusual monster family of Munsters trying their best to live a life of a regular American family in an American suburban neighborhood. The only distinction between the Munster family and humans is that of appearance.
The Munsters features actors Jeff Daniel Phillips as Frankenstein Herman Munster, Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily Munster, Daniel Roebuck as Vampire the Count, Richard Brake as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang, and Sylvester McCoy as the Count’s butler Igor.
It premiered on Netflix on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.
Read on for a detailed review of The Munsters.
The Munsters review: A rather boring watch with few moments of comedic relief
Brief overview of the plot
The Munters began with Dr. Henry Wolfgang and his assistant Floop on the lookout for the two best brains of the world – pianist Franz Pennywhacker and astrophysicist Shelly Von Rothbone. A slight mistake landed the scientist with Pennywhacker and Rothbone’s comedian brother’s brains.
Wolfgang created Frankenstein Herman Munster, who was named so by Floop (Jorge Garcia). After the doctor realized that his invention turned out to be a dummy instead of the boon to humankind that he had expected, he abandoned Herman. With Floop, Herman stepped into the entertainment industry in Transylvania.
He chanced upon Lily, who was looking for true love as Herman, as well as planned on settling down. Lily introduced Herman to her father, the Count, who disapproved of him and said, “He’s got no class.”
Both Herman and Lily married whatsoever, and Lily’s brother Lester duped Herman into signing over the property to Zoya Krupp, to whom he was in debt. The Count received an eviction notice from Zoya, also his former wife, who said that the takeover was her revenge on him.
Homeless Count, along with Lily and Herman, relocated to Los Angeles to a new home and better prospects. However, the family was mortified to find that the neighborhood they lived in was dominated by humans.
Meanwhile, Lester approached the family and handed Herman money as the latter’s share in helping him get to the house. That money supposedly made Herman rich. The film ended with the family rejoicing at the thought of better prospects because of the money.
Film review of The Munsters
Right from the Ricky and Morty-esque title card of the film, The Munsters looks like a costume party that sets a benchmark for Halloween, and nothing more. The ubiquitous shade of goblin green light falling on the characters combined with the choice to use smoke to stage romantic scenes between Herman and Lily, makes the retelling appear like a theatrical performance.
The only difference between a real and average theatrical performance and The Munsters is that the former at least attempts at making its audience feel something, or anything.
Set in Transylvania, the land of vampires and mythical creatures, Zombie’s film opens with a scientist setting out to collect the two best brains in the world. He uses those to bring his creation, a Frankenstein, to life.
Although Frankenstein’s lore is popular worldwide, the flat-headed monster with two nails on either side of his neck has seldom been portrayed as anything more than a monster. The sitcom from 1960s was one of the exceptions in depicting the character in a real setting.
Zombie’s retelling is a step ahead as it provides not only an origin story for Frankenstein, but also renders it a human touch. The name, for example, is Floop’s suggestion while Dr. Wolfgang preferred Uranus. Although the name Herman Munster has been in existence since the first TV show was released, the latest film provides a backstory to how the name came to be.
However, the film does not employ the same tactic to explain the origins of Lily or the Count. Father and daughter seem like the older versions of Dracula and Mavis from the Hotel Transylvania series.
The Munsters looks like it centers around Herman for reasons unknown, with Lily and the Count serving as props to aid the modern Frankenstein. Lily, for instance, rejects the Voldemort-looking monster with the face of a rodent and Dobby’s ears only to fall for a nobody like Herman.
Zombie reiterated the popular cinematic notion of the female lead falling for the roadside nobody, while letting go of the real man by all means, to name a few.
There is an expectation of a swerve towards reality in the monster world when Lily tells Herman, “I’m just a regular gal living a boring, normal life.” The dialogue can be read as a juxtaposition to what is yet to come, until it does not.
Zombie’s film sticks to the Frankenstein narrative of the latter being dumb to the extent that he renders his family homeless on the day of his marriage with Lily. Apart from making certain commentaries on the issues that impact society every day, Herman’s character does little.
But it’s not for the characters to really create action. It was not until the second half that it became clear that Zombie attempted to set the Munster family alongside the humans in order to set the context for the 1960s sitcom.
The sitcom, which goes by the same name, thus becomes the driving plot point for The Munsters, and is not an independent storyline as should be the case. This makes the film a rather boring watch apart from certain moments of horrifying giggles.
The performances are noteworthy, but feel exaggerated for a 2022 film, even though the end goal is to serve as a prequel to content from 1960s.
The Munsters (2022) is currently streaming on Netflix.
