The Munsters is getting a reboot from director Rob Zombie, but will his film be R-rated? The original TV show, which aired 70 episodes between 1964 and 1966, was a light-hearted, family-friendly sitcom about a family of monsters and their various misadventures, and about as far away from an R-rated film as possible. However, with Zombie onboard, America's "first family of fright" might be getting a more adult-oriented makeover.
Zombie's career hasn't exactly been geared at a family audience. His horror film output is well-known for its graphic and profane nature, with notable examples including House of 1000 Corpses (2003), The Devil's Rejects (2005), and both the 2007 remake of Halloween and its 2009 sequel, Halloween II. All of these films have featured intense violence, blood and gore, frequent profanity, and disturbing subject matter. What's more, none of them are anywhere near tame enough to earn a PG-13 rating.
With all of this taken into account, it seems unlikely that Zombie's take on The Munsters will be a totally family-friendly affair. Zombie's skills as a filmmaker truly shine when he's able to craft uncomfortable yet thrilling situations around a cast of memorable characters. While it's currently unknown what rating his Munsters reboot will be given, applying that formula to a story about a family of ghouls based on the classic Universal Monsters definitely holds some unique potential.
With the appeal of The Munsters being much wider than Rob Zombie's original films and even his Halloween remakes, it will likely be given a PG-13 rating to appeal to a broader audience. However, even with the restrictions of a lower rating, Zombie will still have the ability to inject his version of The Munsters with his trademark dark humor and violence. In order for this approach to work, Zombie's Munsters will need to be a lot darker than the goofy family audiences fell in love back with in the 60s. As radical as this approach would be, the ingredients for a more intense retelling of The Munsters are all there for Zombie to use.
Many viewers credit The Devil's Rejects as the director's best film and have praised his ability to turn the film's lead characters — a group of psychopathic serial killers who torture and murder innocent people — into sympathetic human beings who the audience can connect to. It's entirely possible Zombie could apply this approach to The Munsters and twist characters like Herman, Lily, Grandpa, and even Eddie into darker versions of their TV counterparts that, despite being more violent, still retain their likability. Of course, it's also possible the filmmaker could surprise audiences by delivering a new version of The Munsters that embraces the family-friendly comedy of the original, but given his horror filmography thus far, such a surprise seems highly unlikely.