For the last year, Rob Zombie has been hard at work on his lifelong dream of writing and directing a feature film reboot of the beloved 1960s sitcom, The Munsters. The House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects director is working within the boundaries of a "PG" rated movie this time around, but for the last several months, Zombie has been gleefully sharing previews of the set and cast on social media that have all been marked by his signature campy twist.
Now, we can finally see what the movie's going to look like in action, because today (June 8th), Zombie and his team have proudly revealed the very first teaser trailer.
The minute-long clip features the three main characters Herman, Lilly and Grandpa Munster (played by Jeff Daniel Philips, Sherri Moon Zombie and Daniel Roebuck, respectively) making their grand entrance through the busted wall of their spooky house. Then, there's a silly scene of the three of them sitting quietly on a bed for an awkard few seconds before Grandpa asks, "Well, now what?"
It's a short and sweet clip but there's a lot to dig into for longtime Munsters fans and longtime Zombie lovers alike. Watch it below via Instagram.
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zombie elaborated on what the teaser-trailer shows to give audiences an idea of what they're in for with his first movie that's not obscenely gory and R-rated. "Yeah, it's 100 percent in the spirit of the show," he said of the nature of the flick. "I didn't want it to be different. I wanted to totally retain the vibe that it had in the '60s."
"I wanted to cast people that had worked together a lot," he said of his casting decisions for the film, which was shot in Hungary. "I couldn't risk getting on set in Budapest and going, my leads aren't getting along, they have no chemistry. So that's why I chose the cast I chose. Jeff Daniel Phillips and Sheri Moon Zombie and Daniel Roebuck, they work together a lot and I knew they would just fall right into it."
He also opened up about one crucial distinction between his version of the Munsters and the original TV show that was notably shot in black and white: his is in color.
"I knew that if I went in and demanded 'This movie's going to be in black and white or forget it!' we would not be talking about the Munsters right now, because it would have never happened. I guaran-fucking-tee it," Zombie said. "But what I did do is I made the colors sort of hyper-real.
"I noticed when the actors were in their makeup and they were just walking around, getting lunch or whatever, they looked like cartoon characters come to life. They were just so insanely colorful. I was like, I have to light the movie in the same fashion. It really seemed at all times like a live action cartoon, which was really exciting."
