Critics don't know what to make of Rob Zombie's The Munsters movie in the first reviews for his new movie. The comedy is a remake of the classic 1960s family sitcom of the same. Starring Daniel Roebuck, Jeff Daniels and Sheri Moon Zombie, the film serves as a prequel to the events of the series, telling the origin story of how Herman and Lily Munster, TV's monster Mom and Dad, met and fell in love.
Zombie, a heavy metal musical icon with fifteen million albums sold since the 80s, is no stranger to the world of filmmaking. In the early 2000s, he broke into directing with House of 1000 Corpses and its sequel, The Devil's Rejects. He then directed Halloween in 2007, a remake of the classic 1978 slasher, and its sequel Halloween 2 (2009). All of Zombie's subsequent films have played in the horror and comedy genres, by either blending the two or dancing in between, and the director's latest movie is no different.
The Munsters, which was released on September 27, immediately incited a flood of decidedly mixed reviews:
Alyse Wax, Collider
Ultimately, The Munsters is not a good movie. But it is great fodder to put on in the background of a Halloween party. It is best when used as a visual asset; something you may only want to catch a couple of minutes of dialogue from, but otherwise, it’s best left as background imagery.
William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“The Munsters” is a love note to the characters from the sitcom but not their trappings; there’s more to “The Munsters” than the Munsters, but he seems to have missed that. Zombie’s film, though clearly sweet and well-intentioned, seems only partially formed, a Frankenstein monster with only half the parts.
Scout Tafoya, Roger Ebert
His newest movie, a tonally straight-forward and shockingly faithful-in-spirit adaptation of the show, simply titled “The Munsters” (technically the sixth movie made with these characters) is like a missing piece from his directorial work, a completely innocent, at times screamingly funny movie that’s mostly about an idealized world made of '60s cultural icons, a slicing of reality’s fabric so we might step directly into Zombie’s visions of his past sitting in front of the TV.
Josh Spiegel, Slash Film
The half-hearted way in which "The Munsters" was produced, from its meandering start to its abrupt finish, implies that it exists to mark a box on a checklist, to ensure that Universal Pictures has proved it finally mined one more bit of IP. What a baffling, misguided film.
Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
While his choices here fascinate as often as they clash with one another, Zombie’s struggle to reconcile his vision with the source material results in a perplexing, failed experiment that quickly overstays its welcome with painfully unfunny jokes and a bland story.
Matthew Mahler, MovieWeb
Many Rob Zombie movies have a dark, twisted sense of humor, but The Munsters is a far cry from any of that. His film also won't make anyone a fan of the original show, and actual fans of the original will probably hate this.
Patrick Cavanagh, ComicBook.com
This clearly comes from a place of love and Zombie and his cast are offering up a charming authenticity but the core concept begs the question of why this was made in the first place.
Matt Donato, IGN Movies
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.
John Serba, Decider
Flounders and dithers and shows no sense of comic timing, and quickly wears out its welcome.
Zombie's Larger-Than-Life Take on Munsters Divides Many
As pointed out by The Munsters reviews above, Zombie's new take on the classic sitcom is a tough film to pin down. However, throughout his film career, Zombie has never shied away from camp or from divisive approaches to his work. For example, his over-the-top short Werewolf Women of the SS, a faux trailer that prefaced Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse in 2007, was an homage to the low-budget '70s indie horror films. It's not surprising that Zombie's vision of the beloved TV show would not take itself too seriously, but camp is a tough style to pull off. Though the meandering nature of The Munsters plot and less-than-witty dialogue could be very well be self-aware and intentional on Zombie's part, some people just won't get the joke.
Though his work has consistently found box office success, Zombie's films have a history of dividing critics. His tongue-in-cheek, campy approach will certainly be lost on many and may continue to struggle to find its place with mainstream cinema audiences. But as Halloween approaches, diehard fans of the director will be able to decide for themselves whether The Munsters has a place in the Rob Zombie cult film canon. Only time will tell as The Munsters is now streaming on Netflix.
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