They're back!
Here Come the Munsters is a 1995 Made-for-TV Movie and Continuity Reboot of The Munsters. Originally broadcast by Fox as a Halloween Special on October 31, 1995, it stars Edward Herrmann as Herman, Veronica Hamel as Lily, Robert Morse as Grandpa, Christine Taylor as Marilyn, and Matthew Botuchis as Eddie.
When the local villagers’ nightly assault on their castle home goes a little too far, the Munster clan decides it's time to find a new place to live. After finding a mostly-burned letter from Herman's niece Marilyn during their escape, they take the small amount of information they can make out as an invitation to come live in Mockingbird Heights, California.
Unfortunately, something is rotten in Mockingbird Heights. Marilyn's father has gone missing, her mother is catatonic, and a mysterious local congressional candidate is pledging to make things very hard for immigrants. With their sponsors out of commission and their stay on American soil in jeopardy, the Munsters have to fit in the best they can while they try to uncover what happened to Norman Hyde.
Tropes:
- Absent-Minded Professor: Norman had shades of this. In his video journal, while making a formula he intends to give Marilyn to fix her appearance, he accidentally sprays foot powder in his face, tries to clear his throat with a drink of coffee… and immediately downs the formula he just made.
- Adaptational Nonsapience: The clock raven this time around is just a mechanical bird that pops out and squawks “Nevermore” to mark the hour, showing none of the original series raven's snide and snarky personality.
- Ash Face: Happens to a man at the airport when he gets a little too nosy about the crate Spot was shipped to the States in.
- Blank Slate: Jekyll is one, which his campaign manager believes makes him the ultimate politician, as he'll say whatever he's told to and has no past that could come back to derail his career.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Not by much and it's Played for Laughs, but the scene of Grandpa taking the top of Elsa’s head off to check on her brain is probably the most innards ever seen in the franchise to date. Also, Grandpa and Lily are shown actually drinking blood onscreen for the first time.
- Bookcase Passage: The Munsters escape the mob through a fireplace variant, which is activated by pulling on the jaw of the mantelpiece gargoyle.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Eddie's classmate Stanley, who had been tormenting Eddie for most of the movie, suddenly flips his opinion after Eddie's transformation is triggered during class.
- Chekhov's Gun: The business card Ralph gives Herman after giving the family a lift eventually inspires an elsewhere unsuccessful Herman to seek employment at the funeral parlor.
- Corrupt Politician: Jekyll, who is mainly a puppet for his even more corrupt campaign manager.
- Dance Party Ending: While "Party" may be stretching it, the movie ends with Herman and Lily, Grandpa and Mrs. Dimwitty, and Eddie and Monique dancing around their front yard in celebration as the credits roll.
- Deadpan Snarker: After hearing Warshowski complain about foreigners ruining America, Roger quips that "Warshowski" is a nice Native American name and asks if it's Apache, stopping the irate detective dead in his tracks.
- Dirty Cop: Detective Warshowski, who has deliberately stalled the investigation into Norman’s disappearance because he knows exactly where Norman is and is in on the plan to get Brent Jekyll elected to Congress, with the goal of one day being head of the FBI.
- Disguised in Drag: Grandpa uses one of his instant disguises to make himself look like a police officer so he can break Herman out, but, much to his consternation, he wound up a female police officer.
- Elvis Impersonator: Grandpa's cure dart turns a band leader at Jekyll's rally into one after Herman accidentally bumps into Grandpa as he's taking the shot.
- Engineered Public Confession: After Brent is changed back into Norman and Mr. Walker calls for someone to cut the microphone, Lily plugs it back in just in time to broadcast Walker detailing his entire plan and insulting the crowd over the loudspeakers.
- Forced Transformation: Grandpa turns Warshowski into a rat to get him out of Marilyn's way at the climax.
- Halloween Special: The movie was first aired on Fox on Halloween night, which is referenced in the movie by the Munsters arriving in America on Halloween.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": After Brent Jekyll is hit with Grandpa's cure dart, he keeps trying to deliver his speech, but gets stuck repeating "Do, do, do". After he fully transforms back into Norman, he laughs and says "I just said doo-doo!"
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mr. Walker tries to blow up 1313 Mockingbird Lane in revenge for the Munsters exposing his plot. Unfortunately, the door he sneaks in through has Spot behind it and the bundle of dynamite he was using gets ignited early, blowing him to kingdom come, but leaving the house no worse for wear.
- Impact Silhouette:
- Herman’s perfectly fine after he gets hit by a car, but the car has a head-shaped dent in the grille.
- Decoy Herman leaves one after breaking through the wall of the police station.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Norman is an interesting variation as Hyde is the original identity and Jekyll is the formula-induced persona.
- Mad Scientist: Norman Hyde, and he has the Einstein Hair and secret lab to prove it.
- Made of Iron: Herman, per the norm.
- Mirror-Cracking Ugly: Continuing the Running Gag from the series, Herman shatters a mirror to pieces while fixing himself up in it. The twist this time is it's the two-way mirror in an interrogation room and he was surprised to see the men on the other side.
- Monochrome to Color: The film starts off in black and white to match the scenes from Frankenstein (1931), before switching to color shortly after showing Herman's face for the first time.
- Never Heard That One Before: The immigration official at the airport states this after Grandpa gives the old “I just flew in…” line. Grandpa's a little offended because he was being quite literal.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Mrs. Hersby. While she's a little put off by Lily's living fur stole, after a few drinks she's slipping her arms into the restraints on Grandpa's electric chair with a steamy look on her face and flirting with Herman.
- Nosy Neighbor: Mrs. Dimwitty. She's introduced doing yard work with her Neighborhood Watch armbands on and a pair of binoculars around her neck. The second the Munsters show up, she’s in their yard, peering through their windows, and starts snooping around their house the instant she’s invited in.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: As opposed to the original series, where Eddie being a werewolf was close to an Informed Attribute, here he actually transforms into a Wolf Boy who appears to operate on Fangface rules, as his transformations are triggered by a projector slide of a full moon and a moon-print beach ball, but strangely not the actual full moon at the end of the movie.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Detective Warshowski and Mr. Walker, who both hate all immigrants with a vengeance and plan to eventually take Brent Jekyll all the way to the White House on an anti-immigration platform.
- Race Against the Clock: After Grandpa successfully creates an antidote, he states that they have 72 hours to get it into Jekyll's system before it will no longer be effective.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Detective Cartwell, who sees the Munsters for the mostly harmless, loving family they truly are and tries to help the best he can, despite his parter's best efforts.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the original series, Marilyn is stated more than once to be the daughter of an unnamed sister of Lily's. Here, she's the daughter of Herman's sister, Elsa.
- Remake Cameo: Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Pat Priest and Butch Patrick appear as a family having lunch at the restaurant where Herman has his first job as a waiter. They even order things that call back to their roles on the original show.
- Schizo Tech: In his ultimate plan to find Norman, Grandpa cobbles together a digital divining rod.
- Stock Footage: The opening uses scenes from the climax of Frankenstein (1931) to depict the angry mob on approach to the Munster’s castle.
- Tempting Fate: While under seige by the villagers, Herman tells Lily he doesn't see any reason to leave Transylvania. Cue a missile through the window.
- Herman: On the other hand, I don't see the harm in seeking a new home.
- Torches and Pitchforks:
- A mob of this sort getting a little too bold is the reason the Munsters decide to leave Transylvania.
- Towards the end of the movie, Grandpa turns part of the crowd at a political rally into another mob while trying to magically calm them down.
- Take That!: After Herman's aptitude test shows he's best suited for terrorizing villagers, he asks the agent at the unemployment office if there's much call for that. She responds by saying the IRS pretty much has that covered.
- Überwald: Transylvania is depicted this way in the opening, despite the film being set in “The Present Day”.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Decoy Herman isn't seen or mentioned again after he escapes the police station.
- We also never discover if the band leader Grandpa accidentally turned into an Elvis Impersonator ever got back to normal.
- And in an almost literal example, the movie completely forgets about Warshowski after he's turned into a rat.
- Werewolves Are Dogs: Eddie gets this treatment. His breakfast is a box of dog food that he eats from a bowl on the floor, Lily tells him not to chase any cars while he's leaving for school, and at the end he gets a license and a collar before he's allowed to run around outside.
- Wormsign: Appears as Herman and Grandpa tunnel into the park where Jekyll's rally is being held. Unfortunately, they come up under the wrong stand.
