A prequel to the beloved 1960s sitcom; two ghouls Herman and Lily fall head over heels for each other; but unfortunately things don’t go all plain sailing.
With the original Munster high jinx and shenanigans, mixed with the vibe of Disney’s Haunted Mansion Rob Zombie offers more fun horror gags than you can shake stick at.
With a zombie, mummy, Nosferatu, werewolf all thrown into the first few minutes of this Herman Munster origin story of sorts— you can’t go wrong. There’s enough going on for both children and adults in Zombie’s script and on screen offerings. The original beloved characters are given a new lease of life and brought back to screen with the characterisation, costumes music all hitting the note. Jeff Daniel Phillips nails lovable Herman, Sheri Moon Zombie goes out of her way to pay tribute to Lee Meriwether’s Lily. Daniel Roebuck’s nonchalant The Count steals the show along with the excellent Richard Brake as Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang. Both Lily and Herman’s ‘l got you babe’ is scene and Creature from the Black Lagoon montage memorably hits every funny bone.
With fantastic sets, it pays homage to Hammer Horror and Universal classics, the camera work occasionally pays homage to The Munsters era, from zooms to split screen techniques; but with a modern twist. It also offers origins to other Munsters characters, while echoing the original films, specials (pilots) and TV series’.
The puns mesh together wonderfully, but oddly it has (albeit a fitting) DTV feel— far removed from Rob Zombie’s usual gritty filmatic look. The visuals are so neon drenched, think the late Joel Schumacher on Batman acid, that the plot sometimes gets a little lost in the contrasting colours on darkness.
Overall, Zombie balances nostalgia and modern expectations; leaving us with a surreal offering boiling over with ideas.
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