For the last year-plus, there’s been this crazy rumor going around that Rob Zombie, metal god-turned-filmmaker of hard-R nightmares like The Devil’s Rejects, was making a movie of The Munsters, the beloved ‘60s sitcom about lovable, benign monsters. What’s more, it would be a family-friendly affair, nothing like his unspeakably intense contributions to the Halloween franchise. Last fall, Zombie shared a behind-the-scenes photo, proving that this incredible thing was real. And now there’s a teaser to show, no, really, Rob Zombie made a nice-looking Munsters movie.
Indeed, Zombie is so serious about recreating the good vibes of the original show, which ran for a mere two seasons in the mid-‘60s, that the majority of the teaser simply recreates the show’s opening credits. It’s even in black-and-white! The big difference is the new cast: Jeff Daniel Philips as Frankenstein’s creature lookalike Herman Munster, Sheri Moon Zombie as vampiric Lily Munster, and Daniel Roebuck as her dad, the one known as Grandpa. The footage shifts to color for its final moments, in case you thought Zombie would be fully faithful to the original.
Of course, it’s still a typical Rob Zombie in some ways. He didn’t cast big stars. Instead, he stuck with regulars, including his wife, who’s appeared in all of his films. Will they be a bickering family, shouting and yelling as they so frequently do in Zombie’s films? Or will it really be one of those improbably nice films from an extreme artist, like that time David Lynch made an incredibly nice and lovely G-rated movie about Richard Farnsworth riding a lawnmower cross country? We’ll found out later this year when the movie is released.
You can watch the teaser for Rob Zombie’s The Munsters above.