Hello, it’s me, your resident Genuinely Really a Rob Zombie Fan, Yes Really, No I Am Still Not Joking. And we’ve just got the first full trailer for his new movie, an adaptation of The Munsters TV series, which is due out later this year! I would be doing all the other Rob Zombie fans in my life a disservice if I didn’t at least try to jump in on this a little bit, you know, so let’s take a look at Rob Zombie’s Munsters!
0:06: Okay, the old-school Universal Studios ident is a really nice touch. I love the old Universal Monsters movies, and I really, really hope that film has a whole lot of that influence on show.
0:24: I also love this intro – because everything anyone has been saying about this movie since it was announced was “Rob Zombie? The Devil’s Rejects guy?”. His reputation is a fun part of the meta-narrative about this film, which is something I enjoy a lot. The Creepshow-y aesthetic tops it off nicely.
0:32: Okay, so into the actual film now. And it looks…a little cheap? The sets and costumes are nice enough and feel period-appropriate, but the high-quality cameras throw it into too sharp focus and it shows up too cartoony for me. This would have looked awesome in black-and-white or even shot on film.
0: 35: Oh, also: Richard Brake, wahoo!
0:42: Everything about the look and feel of Sherri Moon-Zombie’s introduction as Lily Munster here makes me smile. She looks amazing, the mannerisms are right, the gothy backdrops are gorgeous. The dialogue is a little clunkily written, but I’m willing to overlook that because I’m a sucker for silly gothic romance stuff (like my last book, actually, since you mention it!).
0:52: I don’t care how many times it’s used as a go-to joke in movies like this, but hearing spooky characters describe horrible things as though they’re the height of romance delights me.
1:03: I don’t think Jeff Daniel Philips as Herman looks great. The costume feels a bit off, somehow? Maybe it’ll look better with more movement in the actual film.
1:21 I can already tell how obsessed I’m going to be with Lily Munster in this movie. Sherri Moon-Zombie has this natural silliness to her that adapts really well to some of her roles in Rob Zombie’s movies, and I can’t think of it fitting any better than here.
1:27: Visually, it’s these jarring cuts between really quite lovely, old-school sets and rather bad green screen. I sincerely hope for more of the former.
1:44: No, but see how amazing the house looks in black and white? And the rest of this little re-do of the original credits sequence really pops in this colour scheme. Also, this theme song goes so fucking unbelievably hard it’s unreal.
2:03: There’s not much to say about this as a closer to the trailer, other than it makes it really, really clearly this movie is very much aimed at people who grew up watching The Munsters as kids, who are now likely close to Rob Zombie’s age. I’m totally fine with that approach – in fact, I’d much rather see that than an attempt to “modernize” it to something soulless.
2:18: As a whole, I think this looks pretty fun – if a little rough around the edges. I’m still just intrigued, as everyone else is, to see what Rob Zombie’s going to do without his usual guts-and-gore approach, especially for a project that he clearly as so much love for.
What do you think of the trailer? Do you think it looks good, and are you a fan of Rob Zombie, The Munsters, or both? Let me know in the comments!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Indiewire)
No But Listen 
Reblogged this on The Cutprice Guignol and commented:
Yes, this is happening.
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