Rob Zombie - singer, songwriter, filmmaker - has rebooted the 1960s sitcom The Munsters into a 2-hour film. I watched a lot of the reruns on television when I was a kid so I was looking forward to seeing the 2022 version of The Munsters on Netflix. Did it live up to it’s predecessor? Let’s take a look.

The Count (Daniel Roebuck), an ancient vampire, is trying to find a husband for his daughter, Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie). He would prefer a rich vampire but Lily has fallen in love with Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips), a creature formed from dead body parts put together by Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang (Richard Brake). Lily and Herman date for awhile before getting married. Just before their wedding, Lily’s older brother, Lester the werewolf (Tomas Boykin), gets Herman to sign over the deed to The Count’s castle to The Count’s ex-wife, Zoya (Catherine Schell). With nowhere to live in Transylvania, the family moves to Hollywood, California for a better life.

I wanted to like this movie so badly. I have fond memories of watching the old TV show as a kid. This version doesn’t have any of the heart or comedy that the series had. For one, they spend way too much time on Dr. Wolfgang getting the parts and putting Herman together. We don’t need to see him building a Frankenstein monster to know Herman is a Frankenstein monster. After that, they spend an agonizingly long time on Lily and Herman’s courtship. The movie doesn’t actually start to get good until the family travels to the United States, which is pretty much the end. While there are a handful of funny moments, there aren’t nearly enough to make up for the 110 minute runtime. As a matter of fact, my husband and I noted that there was an entire 40 minutes at the beginning that was completely unnecessary.

On top of that, none of the lead actors are strong enough to carry the movie. Zombie has this weird on-again-off-again accent for Lily. I think she was trying to replicate Yvonne De Carlo’s accent but it was terrible. Phillips was OK as Herman but he seemed to lack the good-natured heart that Fred Gwynne gave him. And don’t get me started on Roebuck. I don’t think he ever saw any version of Lily’s father. The Count is supposed to be a loving sarcastic man. Roebuck’s Count was just dull.

If you have never seen any version of The Munsters before, you might enjoy this take. However, there are some extremely dated references that you might not understand if you aren’t familiar with 1960s American sitcoms. To be honest, I would recommend you just stay away from this one. It isn’t worth your time or energy.