Rob Zombie's upcoming feature film The Munsters, based on the 196os sitcom of the same name, has been officially granted a PG rating, becoming the first of his films to do so. Zombie is a prolific horror director as well as a singer, songwriter and voice actor. He previously served as the vocalist for the 1980s heavy metal band White Zombie before turning his hand in the 2000s to directing horror movies. He has directed over 10 horror films to date, but is perhaps best known for his 2003 feature, House of A Thousand Corpses, and 2007 remake of Halloween.
The Munsters originally ran on CBS from 1964 to 1966 and detailed the ordinary home life of a family of friendly monsters, including the vampire matriarch Lily and her father, Grandpa, the Frankenstein's Monster-esque patriarch Hermann, their lycanthropic son Eddie, and the odd one out of the family, their ordinary niece Marilyn. Zombie's 2022 remake of the sitcom will include a host of new characters alongside the classic original characters, including Lost's Jorge Garcia as Floop and Bond Girl Catherine Schell as Zoya Krupp. In its heyday, The Munsters achieved higher ratings than even The Addams Family and was critically acclaimed as a satire of both all-American suburban sitcoms and horror movies.
The Munsters' PG rating was confirmed by horror site Bloody Disgusting, after much speculation as to whether Zombie would bring his gory reputation to the beloved sitcom. The explanation of the Motion Picture Association's decision, however, suggests a somewhat more tame offering. The reasoning given for the PG rating is: "Macabre and suggestive material, scary images and language."
The PG rating for The Munsters may come as a surprise to those familiar with Zombie's past work, as every other movie he has directed has been given an R rating. His name has become largely synonymous in the horror world with violence and gore - but just this once, he seems to have made an exception. Given The Munsters' original status as a family sitcom, however, and Zombie's long-standing desire to reboot the much-loved series, it makes sense that he would want the film to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. The news of the film's PG rating will surely put at ease the minds of fans who feared Zombie would make The Munsters unrecognizable from its family-friendly origins.
Production for the film began in Budapest, Hungary, in the summer of 2021, and since then, Zombie has regularly released behind-the-scenes photos and updates on Instagram for fans. Zombie's passion and excitement for the property has been evident in these social media updates, so his take on the famous family of monsters is likely to please those who grew up watching the sitcom and those who may be discovering The Munsters for the first time. There are always challenges when rebooting a classic, but so far, Zombie seems to be on the right track.
Source: Bloody Disgusting