Originally published at: A sneak peek at Rob Zombie's forthcoming film, The Munsters | Boing Boing
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Herman is giving off strong Seinfeld vibes after he burst through the door
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Grandpa almost looked like Rob Zombie regular Sid Haig. But he was too short and alas Mr. Haig left us 3 years ago.
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I’m still saddened by another childhood memory defilement at the hands of SYFY when they turned my beloved Banana Splits into murderous psychos. This Munsters reboot is too soon for me. And as another “get off my lawn, kids” opinion… I think Rob should have at least kept it in black and white. It’s all good.
Bonus fact: The original pilot for the Munsters was actually shot in color (and had different actors for Lily and Eddie), but they ultimately decided to shoot the rest of the show in black and white (which looks better IMO). Theories as to why range from it costing less to do so and some even say that the color version was too scary for kids.
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Perhaps the sole setup distinction between The Addams Family and The Munsters was there was a distinctly non-‘Wednesday’ character Marilyn Munster which allowed a common-(wo)man (albeit an homage to Marilyn Monroe) observer on the inside for contrast and also obvious humor when the inevitable suitors were ‘introduced to the family’. Her character doesn’t survive well into modern context, so it’ll be interesting to see if they attempt to haul her in.
(bloody obvious, that’s Marilyn on the right)
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If so, they apparently changed their minds later:
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The Addams family were original characters (or at least, based on characters in the original comic) with a gothic/horror vibe, whereas the Munsters were direct parodies of classic Universal horror film characters like Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, the Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon etc.
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Sheri Moon Zombie (Rob’s wife) portraying Lily Munster
Groan… but why?
Rob’s wife
I know, it was rhetorical.
I dunno, I appreciate Rob’s love of horror and creepy stuff, but I haven’t seen anything he has done to give me confidence that this will be “good”.
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Kids People who aren’t old won’t really get the “Now in living color” joke, just like why there was a rush for the bathroom during commercial breaks. (“Why didn’t you pause it?”)
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Yeah, I’ve always thought it was mostly due to costs. Which would make more sense that once it became popular they would have financial freedom to make the feature in color. I personally preferred the black and white version better because it felt more gothic.
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Also the makeup is easier to pull off in b/w. The “Jack Pierce Frankenstein” getup looks pretty silly in color.
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My thoughts exactly!
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I always assumed they kept the show in Black & White because the classic monster movies the TV show was parodying were all shot that way.
Which brings up a question about this adaptation: will a modern-day Munsters remake connect with families that have little if any exposure to those classic horror films from the 30s, 40s and 50s? One of the reasons the Addams Family still worked in the 1990s was because those movies didn’t hinge on the audience knowing anything about the characters beforehand; you didn’t have to be familiar with the TV show to get into the movie. But kids (and even most adults) today are more likely to know of Frankenstein and Dracula through the decades of parody and derivative work rather than the original films.
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I dunno; there’s a guy who set up an email newsletter that sends out a portion of the original dracula story every day, and it’s been the starter for quite a few memes.
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That’s a good question. I know I grew up watching both the original horror films and the Munsters series in syndicated reruns… but I’m Old, and my experience probably wasn’t typical. 
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I beg your pardon, I’m not old… (checks calendar)… oh.
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I guess the commercial success of Hotel Transylvania series shows that the classic horror characters can still draw an audience but I wonder how many people remember a time when the Mummy and the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula and the Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon were actually supposed to be scary instead of just family-friendly pop culture archetypes.
If you were a ten-year-old kid when the most famous adaptations of Dracula or Frankenstein hit theaters then you’d be over 100 now.
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I was in a play with a Van Helsing character in it and the kid playing the role dressed up like Hugh Jackman, because he had no idea of the history of the character whatsoever.
No respect for the verities.
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I hated that movie so much.
Studio Exec 1: Hey, you know how Dracula has an arch-nemesis named Professor Abraham Van Helsing?
Studio Exec 2: No, but go on.
Studio Exec 1: Well I was thinking we could do a House of Dracula reboot where we just throw every movie monster everyone has ever heard of into one film with offensively bad CGI and then Van Helsing has to defeat them all.
Studio Exec 2: So this Van Helsing guy, he’s some kind of action hero?
Studio Exec 1: Well, not really. He’s more of an aged academic. But he knows more about vampires than anyone else.
Studio Exec 2: I have a better idea. Let’s mix things up so that he’s a ripped young guy who knows less about vampires than anyone else in the movie and give him a bunch of anachronistically advanced weaponry for those bad CGI action sequences you were talking about.
Studio Exec 1: We’ll put out a call for A-list beefcakes.
Studio Exec 2: Also let’s change his backstory to make him an ageless immortal who has no memory of his past or his full name.
Studio Exec 1: Hugh Jackman it is.
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