Rob Zombie Is Making a New ‘Munsters’ Movie

Alfred Nitsch, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT , via Wikimedia Commons
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Though never quite as outwardly dastardly as their brethren in the Addams Family, the Munsters always had a certain weirdo charm to them — outright monsters, who came from classic horror films and not the pages of The New Yorker, being good neighbors and racing hot rods. While reboots of the mid-’60s shows have been attempted in the past, specifically 2012’s ill-fated Mockingbird Lane, there has always been a simmering thought that if the right director got involved, it’d be a graveyard smash. Now, it appears as if the right director has been found — and guess what, it’s Rob motherfucking Zombie.

According to Dread Central, Hollywood insider site Murphy’s Multiverse has news that Zombie has been tapped to direct The Munsters for Universal, with shooting beginning in Budapest in May. Not only that, but Zombie will cast two of his regulars as the film’s biggest roles: Jeff Daniel Phillips (the Geico caveman!) as the lumbering, reanimated Herman Munster, and Zombie’s wife and muse Sheri Moon Zombie as vampire homemaker Lily Munster. Also involved in the film are Richard Brake (Game of Thrones’ Night King, 3 From Hell‘s Foxy, that evil cafeteria Empire general in The Mandalorian), Jorge Garcia, and Dan Roebuck.

If you’ve never seen it, The Munsters tells the story of a family made up of Frankenstein’s monster (Herman), Dracula’s daughter (Lily), their werewolf son (Eddie, and maybe Rob will clear up the genetics here), Dracula himself (Grandpa), and their bubbly human niece (Marilyn). The Munsters are all good-natured night creatures who mostly want to help out their community and make vermin-based food, but everyone around them is fucking terrified of them, and thus hijinks ensue. The cartoonish nature of the show might feel silly to some, but in the hands of Rob Zombie — whose big hit “Dragula” is a direct reference to The Munsters — it’ll no doubt be a ton of fun.

No release date has been announced for Rob Zombie’s The Munsters. More on this as we know about it.

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Words by Chris Krovatin