The Munsters (2022) (Collector’s Edition) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Rob Zombie

Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck

Release Date: September 27, 2022

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 6/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

From writer/director Rob Zombie comes the strangest love story ever told. Lily is just your typical 150-year-old, lovelorn vampire looking for the man of her nightmares . . . that is until she lays eyes on Herman, a seven-foot-tall, green experiment with a heart of gold. It’s love at first shock as these two ghouls fall fangs over feet in this crazy Transylvanian romance. Unfortunately, it’s not all smooth sailing in the cemetery as Lily’s father The Count has other plans for his beloved daughter’s future, and they don’t involve her bumbling beau, Herman. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll howl at the moon as The Munsters make their way to Mockingbird Lane!

Please Note: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

Rob Zombie invites you to witness the origins of your favorite ghoulish family in ‘The Munsters’ which joins Lily, a hopeless romantic vampire who at 150 years old is seeking out someone that’ll make her blood run cold who she can spend her life with. Herman on the other hand was created in a lab and is now trying to find himself as he begins a hopeful life as a rock star. But when the two cross paths for the first time it is love at first sight. Unfortunately, Lily’s father The Count wants none of it and has other plans for his beloved daughter that doesn’t include the goofball Herman. But does he even stand a chance against the power of true love?

Written and directed by Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects, The Lords of Salem) who does a pretty solid job at the helm of ‘The Munsters’ guiding along the goofy fun and over the top silliness with a clear passion for the characters. The film’s cast includes Sheri Moon Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses), Jeff Daniel Phillips (The Lords of Salem), Daniel Roebuck (TV’s The Man in the High Castle), Richard Brake (31), Jorge Garcia (TV’s Lost), Sylvester McCoy (The Owners), Catherine Schell (TV’s Space: 1999), Cassandra Peterson (Elvira’s Haunted Hills), Tomas Boykin (3 From Hell) and more, with the majority delivering fairly capable if not at least mostly fitting performances in each of their roles.

‘The Munsters’ is a goofy, humorous, vibrantly colorful and often intentionally stupid look at the origin of Herman and Lily’s early days as they fall in love and make their way to the infamous home at Mockingbird Lane that fans of the series know so well. It’s certainly a drastically different type of film for Rob Zombie who is well known for his graphic, vulgar and nasty horror offerings and as someone who has followed his filmmaking career since catching ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ in theaters opening day back in 2003 I must admit I have soft spot for most of his films. Granted they may not be Oscar contenders, yet they’re always thoroughly dark and enjoyable.

This time around Zombie tackles his first PG rated (and fairly family-friendly) offering with ‘The Munsters’ (a property that he’s always been a well-known diehard fan of) and does a decent job of following the tone we might expect to see in such a film. Gone is his trademark graphic violence and constant vulgarity and instead he delivers a silly, over the top and fairly faithful adaptation of the beloved sitcom family that may not play out exactly like the series, but should it really? Zombie actually dares to do something different here and give us a look at how these two lovebirds met and came to be where they are on the series which may upset some fans who were craving a rehash of the series and nothing more, but actually makes for a relatively clever way to approach the film. His love of the series and these characters is evident throughout and every comedic moment and gag may not land as well as intended but it still manages to keep you thoroughly amused from start to finish.

Overall, Rob Zombie’s take on ‘The Munsters’ is an enjoyable, silly and overly colorful look at the origins of Herman and Lily and how they found each other. Always over the top and ridiculous with plenty of elements that might not work as well as intended, but it maintains a breezy, light-hearted and just plain fun tone that may not make it a great film, but fortunately it never attempts to be and instead wisely embraces its goofy and ridiculous nature and then rolls with it throughout. ‘The Munsters is recommended if you’re a fan of Zombie’s filmmaking efforts or if you were a fan of the classic series that it’s based upon. For those of you who aren’t overly fond of either though, you probably won’t have any regrets in skipping this one.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Munsters’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks rather great as a whole and delivers a clean, sharp and richly colored presentation from start to finish that does a tremendous job of capturing the almost overly colored film and allowing its vibrant appearance to shine through splendidly, while never allowing anything that’s occurring onscreen to become negatively affected or rendered problematic along the way. It holds up smoothly from start to finish and should thoroughly satisfy anyone interested in checking it out. Overall, this is a pretty fantastic high definition video presentation that shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack provides a crisp, clean and consistently immersive audio presentation throughout. It regularly utilizes all five available channels in order to send the music, background elements, plus bits of dialogue and plenty more throughout the various speakers at every logical opportunity, while also giving the subwoofer some time to shine along the way; all while making sure that any dialogue or other simultaneously occurring audio elements never clash with one another and remain clean and fully audible. Overall, this is a fully capable 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that holds up well throughout and complements the film nicely.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Munsters’ includes a couple of noteworthy extras. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Director/Writer/Producer Rob Zombie’, along with the Behind the Scenes Documentary ‘The Munsters: Return to Mockingbird Lane’ (running approximately 62 minutes in length) which chronicles the filming process and includes tons of behind the scenes footage.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 6/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘The Munsters’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Universal 1440 Entertainment & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

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