Rob Zombie is renowned for intense, bloody and controversial grindhouse horror. He made his mark on the genre with the jaw-dropping Firefly trilogy, comprising House of 1000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects and 3 From Hell, but also gave us the Halloween reboots and the cult classic 31. His next project could go beyond all that, though, and into a new realm of blood-soaked terror, as he’s set to adapt… The Munsters. No, I’m not kidding.
Zombie is reportedly a huge fan of the classic 60s sitcom, claiming to have seen every episode of the original show “at least 17 times.” The news comes after many failed efforts to resurrect horror’s second most famous family (sorry, but The Addams Family is still top of the pile), including TV pilots, sequels and reboots, and Zombie’s take could follow in the vein of his unique brand of gonzo horror, as he’s bringing back the majority of the cast of 3 From Hell.
Insider Charles Murphy of Murphy’s Multiverse is reporting that Sheri Moon Zombie, who played Baby in the Firefly movies, will portray vampire housewife Lily, Jeff Daniel Phillips is starring as loveable reanimated corpse Herman, and Dan Roebuck and Richard Broke round out the roster in unknown roles. The only two names listed in the cast that weren’t in 3 From Hell, meanwhile, are Lost‘s Jorge Garcia and Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
So, what can we expect from this? Somehow it seems unlikely that Zombie is going to turn out a goofy, family-friendly comedy, so I’m betting we’re getting a brutal new take on the concept. After all, he’s got a lot of experience telling stories about extremely messed-up families and their gruesome antics.
But this announcement is so bizarre that anything is on the cards at this point. Let’s hope we hear more from Zombie soon on what he’s got in store for us, as his adaptation of The Munsters is definitely a movie to keep an eye on.