"Remains to be seen."

Yikes. This is the second "remake " in the festival this year and one that a lot of people were very excited about.  A lot of those same people ended up complaining about many aspects this film.  Personally, I was excited to see what Rob Zombie would do to re-imagine The Munsters and what resulted was an over the top too silly live action cartoon for children that sometimes references the original show.  Yeah I didn't like it.

Maybe it was me but all throughout the promotion for this film, I never once heard that this was a prequel to the series.  Had I known that from the beginning, it would have helped me stop wondering why the characters were acting so out of character and like elementary school goofballs.  Herman specifically for some reason in this version was in a band and Lily Munster had a crush on him and stalked him to meet him thanks to her brother Lester who is a gambling werewolf who owes gypsies money?  You read that right. Granted, I am not a superfan of the original series and I found out later that Lester was a character in the original series for one episode.  While I appreciate the inclusion of a werewolf in this movie, this character seemed out of place and used solely as an exposition tool.  We also don't get to see Eddie Munster who is a favorite of many people so maybe they included Lester to satisfy viewers thirst for a werewolf character. Aside from that, the plot for this movie is so unrealistic and goofy that I gave up paying attention to what was happening and was instead distracted with the stupid puns and over the top goofyness of the characters.  

As far as the positives, there were two standout characters.  Grandpa Munster played by Daniel Roebuck "killed it" and really embodied the character very well. The charisma and charm he brings to the character is very palpable and he is the one character where the goofyness works most of the time. I really enjoyed his performance and for me, he saved the movie.  The other character who stands out is Floop who is played by Jorge Garcia from Lost.  He is another character who is very charismatic and jumps off the screen thanks to Garcia's performance.  The little references to the show such as the pet dragon and an appearance from Uncle Gil.

I was not expecting a copy of the original series but an original take that would make me love the characters in a different way.  Instead, we got Herman and Lily dressed like Sonny and Cher for a segment and not even Elvira herself could save this movie.  To top it off, the end seemed rushed and abrupt making little to no sense.  I firmly believe this should not have been made like it was, hard pass.