The Munsters (2022 film)

The Munsters is a 2022 American comedy film produced, written and directed by Rob Zombie. Based on the 1960s family sitcom of the same title, the story takes place prior to the events previously adapted in the series, serving as an origin of the characters. The film stars Jeff Daniel Phillips, Sheri Moon Zombie, and Daniel Roebuck as the titular family, with Sylvester McCoy as Igor and Richard Brake as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang.
The Munsters is a co-production of Universal 1440 Entertainment and Spookshow International Films. It was released on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD, and also available to stream on Netflix on September 27, 2022.
==Plot==
Mad scientist Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang and his hunchbacked assistant Floop rob graves for body parts to build an experimental creation. Floop accidentally steals the head of hacky comedian Shecky Von Rathbone instead of Shecky’s astrophysicist brother Shelly, whom Wolfgang wanted because he was considered the smartest man in the world. Wolfgang uses electricity to give life to his Frankenstein creation, which Floop names “Herman Munster.” 
Seeking revenge on her ex-husband The Count, gypsy Zoya Krupp entrances The Count’s werewolf son Lester, who is deeply in debt to Zoya, to come to her tent. Under threat of losing his head, Lester agrees to Zoya’s plan to have The Count sell her his Transylvanian castle so she can turn it into a casino and theme park. Lester calls his father with the proposal, but The Count immediately dismisses his deadbeat son’s latest scheme. Over breakfast served by his faithful servant Igor, The Count talks with his 150-year-old vampire daughter Lily about her unsatisfying love life and disappointing recent date with Count Orlock. Lily and The Count then watch the TV show “Good Morning Transylvania” with host Ezra Mosher. Ezra’s guest Dr. Wolfgang unveils Herman Munster live on the air. Wolfgang is disgusted to discover Herman is a bumbling brute with a goofy sense of humor when he begins performing a stand-up comedy routine. However, Lily falls in love with Herman’s unusual personality.
As Herman becomes a celebrity with Floop acting as his manager, Lily goes to see him perform with his band “The Punk Rods” at Zoya’s nightclub Zombie-a-Go-Go. Herman immediately falls for Lily when they meet backstage. The two of them agree to a dinner date the following night at The Count’s castle. The Count takes an instant disliking to Herman due to his dimwittedness. After Herman and Lily take their date to the cemetery outside, The Count begins scheming with Igor to use a magic spell to get rid of Herman. The Count later tries to conjure a new mate for Lily, but his potion inadvertently summons a semi-sentient chimp instead. A week of dating culminates in Herman and Lily vacationing at Devil’s Island Penal Colony. Herman proposes marriage and Lily accepts, which greatly frustrates her disapproving father.
Herman meets Lester for the first time at his wedding. With Herman as the new head of the household, Lester manipulates him into signing over the castle’s deed to Zoya by promising a lucrative business venture. Following their marriage ceremony, Herman and Lily honeymoon in Paris. On the trip, Herman captures a creature that had been haunting the city’s sewers. Herman and Lily adopt the monster as a pet they name Spot. After Zoya serves him with an eviction notice, The Count angrily confronts Herman. Lily rolls her eyes when she learns Herman fell for one of Lester’s schemes, leaving all of them without a home. By watching TV personality Zombo, Herman gets the idea that they can get a fresh start by moving to Hollywood where Herman can become a famous star. The Count transforms Igor into a bat so he can join them on the trip to California. Realtor Barbara Carr takes Herman, Lily, and The Count on a brief tour of Hollywood before taking them to Mockingbird Heights. Barbara shows The Munsters a model home, but the trio insists on buying a dilapidated old house at the 1313 address.
Herman, Lily, and The Count join their neighbors for a Halloween block party. Unaware of the holiday’s customs, The Munsters assume they are partying with other freaks and weirdos. The residents assume The Munsters are wearing costumes, and award them a $1,500 contest prize. Herman leaves the house for his first day of work carrying corpses at the Gateman, Goodbury, and Graves funeral parlor. Getting his first look at Mockingbird Heights outside of Halloween, Herman retreats in shock when he sees that they live among normal people in an idyllic suburb. Lily and The Count are equally horrified. Lester arrives at the house unexpectedly. Although The Munsters are initially unhappy to see him, Lester presents Herman with a check for his portion of gambling money that Lester won in Vegas using Zora’s payment for The Count’s castle. Herman and The Munsters excitedly realize they are now rich.
==Cast==
==Production==
===Development===
In March 2021, it was reported that Zombie was developing a feature film adaptation of the 1960s television series. This was confirmed by Zombie in June. A lifelong fan of the television series, the writer/director had pursued developing a film for over twenty years. In April of the same year, it was also reported that the project was being developed as a simultaneous theatrical and Peacock exclusive film, but these reports turned out to be erroneous.
===Pre-production===
Zombie flew to Budapest in June 2021 to begin location scouting. On July 2, 2021, Sheri Moon Zombie confirmed that the film was in the pre-production stage. Zombie shared numerous pre-production materials through his social media accounts, including designs for the Munsters' house on Mockingbird Lane and early sculpting for Herman Munster's head prosthetic.
On July 26, 2021, Rob Zombie shared the first costume designs for Lily and Herman. Further costume designs were revealed later that month. Wayne Toth's Ex Mortis special effects studio worked on special effects make-up for the film. Toth has regularly collaborated with Rob Zombie, including on the films Halloween, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. In September 2021, Zombie returned to the US for a series of tour dates but continued to share updates from the construction of Mockingbird Lane on his Instagram.
===Casting===
Rob Zombie used social media to bring casting and character updates to fans during the production of The Munsters. His first announcement came in October 2021, when he revealed the main cast members. This included Jeff Daniel Phillips, who would be playing Herman Munster, Sheri Moon Zombie, who would be playing Lily Munster, and Dan Roebuck, who would be playing The Count. All three actors are veterans of Rob Zombie movies. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in June 2022, Rob explained why he chose familiar faces to play the lead roles. "I couldn't risk getting on set in Budapest and going, my leads aren't getting along, they have no chemistry. So that's why I chose the cast I chose. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie and Daniel Roebuck, they work together a lot and I knew they would just fall right into it."
Actor Richard Brake was cast as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang, "Transylvania's most popular Mad Scientist". This was the fourth Rob Zombie movie that Brake has been cast in, previously appearing in Halloween, 31 and 3 from Hell. Brake finished filming in May 2022.
Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy was cast as Igor, "the loyal servant to the Munsters". McCoy famously played the Seventh Doctor in the Doctor Who sci-fi series. McCoy wrapped in April 2022.
In early 2022, Rob Zombie shared the first photo from the set of Catherine Schell, who would be playing Zoya Krupp. American actor and comedian Jorge Garcia played Floop, "Dr. Wolfgang's hunchback assistant and Herman Munsters best buddy." Garcia is known as having played Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on Lost.
Cassandra Peterson, better known as the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, played Barbara Carr, "the number 1 real estate agent in all of Mockingbird Heights." Speaking to Variety on March 21, 2022, Peterson said the character was "so so different from what I normally do, I'm playing a super straight character."
Actress Dee Wallace was cast as "the voice of GOOD MORNING TRANSYLVANIA!". Wallace has appeared in several Rob Zombie movies, including Halloween, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, The Lords of Salem and 3 from Hell.
British actor Jeremy Wheeler would join the cast as "MR. GATEMAN, Herman’s boss at the one and only GATEMAN, GOODBURY and GRAVES FUNERAL PARLOR". Actor Tomas Boykin was cast as Lily's brother Lester. Boykin, had previously appeared in Rob Zombie's 3 from Hell.
Following speculation about original Munsters cast members, Rob Zombie revealed that Pat Priest, who played Marilyn Munster from 1964 to 1966, had joined the cast of his movie. Priest was the second actress to play Marilyn, replacing Beverley Owen, who left after 13 episodes. In the 1995 TV movie Here Come the Munsters, Priest appeared in a cameo role as a restaurant guest. Another Munsters original actor, Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster from 1964 to 1966, was revealed to have a part in the new movie. Patrick would be playing the Tin Can Man, a character that originally appeared in the November 5, 1964 episode. Speaking about the casting news, Zombie said, "I am thrilled to have another original Munster in my new film. Get ready for some robot fun".
Several characters were announced to appear in the movie, but no casting information was given. This included Uncle Gilbert. Uncle Gilbert appeared in the original episode "Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights". and is a family favorite of the Munsters family. He was played by actor Richard Hale. This also included the character of Zombo. Zombo originally featured in the episode of the same name, episode 22 of the second season. Count Orlock also returned. Rob Zombie's Instagram post at the time hinted that Orlock was a former beau of Lily's before she met Herman.
===Filming===
Principal photography officially began in November 2021, in Budapest. Filming had wrapped by July 7, 2022.
===Music===
Rob Zombie revealed that long-time collaborator Zeuss would be composing the music for The Munsters. Zeuss had previously scored the music for Zombie's 3 From Hell and 31.
In July 2022, two original songs for The Munsters were released. "It's Zombo" and "The House of Zombo" feature performances by Rob Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie. The two tracks were made available on streaming platforms and a limited edition 12-inch single from Waxwork Records.
On September 23, 2022, the full soundtrack was released on streaming platforms. Disc one features original songs from the film, including the previously released "It's Zombo" and I Got You Babe", featuring vocals by Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie. Disc two features the original score music by Zeuss. It was also released as a double vinyl LP by Waxwork Records. In total there are 56 tracks with a runtime of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
==Release==
===Marketing===
The first teaser trailer was released on June 8, 2022. This was an exclusive via Entertainment Weekly and included Rob Zombie's first commentary on the making of the film. On July 6, 2022, Rob Zombie unveiled the official one-sheet poster for The Munsters on his Instagram page. The first trailer was released on July 13, 2022, revealing elements of the plot, while also indicating the film's scheduled release month. Despite the filmmaker's life-long fandom of the series, the trailer was met with a mixed-to-negative reception. On July 20, 2022, a second trailer was released by Universal Pictures All-Access YouTube, via an exclusive with USA Today. This second trailer included details about The Munsters being made available for home release.
===Netflix===
On July 18, 2022, Zombie announced that The Munsters would be released on the streaming platform Netflix in the fall, around the same time as Netflix's Wednesday, an update of The Addams Family. A date of September 27, 2022 was given in late August for the film's Netflix premiere.
===Home media===
On July 20, it was announced that The Munsters would be released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms, starting on September 27, 2022. The "Collector's Edition" will include an hour-long behind the scenes feature called The Munsters: Return to Mockingbird Lane, plus feature-length commentary from the director.
==Critical reception==
 On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Leigh Monson, of The A.V. Club, gave the film a B-, writing "As a movie, it's nothing but loose ends, a lukewarm stew of concepts that haven't been stirred enough to combine in the cauldron. But as a faux television pilot, the actors, the sketches, the sight gags, and the puns mesh together endearingly." Matt Donato, of IGN, gave the film a 6/10 rating, saying "The Munsters is a wholesome labor of love that's probably for the most diehard sitcom fans because for better and worse, Rob Zombie makes the Munsters reboot he wants to see." Karl Smart, of The Outerhaven, gave the film a 4.5 rating out of 5 stars, writing, "Coming from a pure fan perspective, The Munsters is one of the best reboots/adaptations of the original works ever made." He also states, "If you walk away from The Munsters with a negative look on the movie, you have either one of two problems: You either are not a Rob Zombie fan and just want an excuse to bag his filmmaking style once again, or you haven't watched The Munsters TV Show in a long time."
Steve Schneider, of Orlando Weekly, gave the film a 1/5 rating, writing, "Zombie has zero ability to structure a story: While his flick feels nearly interminable at 110 minutes, entire sections of plot seem to be missing, or at least glossed over. And he doesn't know how to tell a joke." Benjamin Gummery, of Indie Mac User, also gave a negative review, saying, "The film falls completely flat tonally as Zombie takes a step back from his more edgier and gore filled roots and instead leans into the comic and Kooky. A poor attempt to reinvent a classic."
==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:2022 films
Category:2022 comedy films
Category:American comedy films
Category:American fantasy-comedy films
Category:American monster movies
Category:American romantic comedy films
Category:American vampire films
Category:Films directed by Rob Zombie
Category:Films produced by Rob Zombie
Category:Films shot in Budapest
Category:Films with screenplays by Rob Zombie
Category:The Munsters films
Category:Reboot films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:2020s English-language films
Category:2020s American films