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Transylvania: While the Count (Daniel Roebuck), a vampire of old, tries time and again (and fails) to find a fitting suitor for his daughter Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie), and while his ex Zoya (Catherine Schell) tires time and again to get her hands on his castle, also with the help of their son together, heavily indebted werewolf Lester (Tomas Boykin), mad scientist Dr. Wolfgang (Richard Brake) creates an artificial human being out of bodyparts - but unfortunately his hunchbacked assistant Floop (Jorge Garcia) has given the monster (Jeff Daniel Phillips) a stand-up comedian's instead of a scientist's brain, and the wise-cracking creature, soon to be christened Herman Munster, is soon expelled by his creature - but Floop takes him under his wing and soon makes him a big hit on the Transylvanian stand-up circuit. This doesn't escape the attention of Lily, and once they meet in person, it's love on first sight, and soon they marry, much to the Count's dismay. Now in Herman, Lester has found the perfect victim for his scheme, and he has him sign over the deed to the Count's castle. With little left and nothing to lose, Herman, Lily and the Count travel to Hollywood where a crooked realtor (Cassandra Peters) sells them the most rundown house on the block - and they love it. And arriving on Halloween, they feel right at home, too - but are positively scared when they see what their neighbourhood looks like on any other day ...

In 1964, two series with roughly the same theme, The Munsters and The Addams Family, premiered within six days, with both series becoming deserved TV classics over time, with their fanbases interestingly sharply divided. In 2022 it was a bit of history repeating when this here prequel to the classic series debuted roughly the same time as Tim Burton's sort-of sequel series to The Addams Family, Wednesday. This time the verdict among fans of the macabre was much clearer, while Wednesday got lots of praise for Tim Burton's style and Jenna Ortega's (admittedly fantastic) performance, Rob Zombie's The Munsters was almost universally panned as soon as the first trailer dropped. And I think that's a rather unfair assessment, as while Wednesday was basically a overly clichéed high school drama cum murder mystery set in Tim Burton land that was disappointingly low on any kind of humour, with Christina Ricci (from the Addams Family-movies) as the only interesting casting choice, Rob Zombie actually tries (and often succeeds) to bring back the flair and humour of the series of old - and besides bringing back Butch Patrick and Pat Priest from the original series in voice roles, he also employs a few other genre veterans, like Elvira Cassandra Peters, Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy and Space 1999's Catherine Schell.

Now was Rob Zombie's film actually pretty great then? The answer, rather disappointingly is no. There's just too much wrong with this, as for one it doesn't have a proper storyline, no classic three acts, the story just meanders along, jumping from one idea to the next with little rhyme or reason - really as if it was a few episodes of a series shortened and cobbled together. Which also means, without a clear storyline the film, at 109 minutes, goes on quite a bit too long. Then the humour that has worked so well in the 1960s and in a sitcom format seems horribly outdated and out of place in a feature film from the 2020s. Plus, the film's over-saturated colours do take time to get used to. But it's at least lovingly made and captures the spirit of the series quite well, and one thing's for sure, I'd rewatch this rather than the rather over-rated Wednesday any time.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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