After having watched the entirety of The Munsters, I decided to leave the horrendous reboot series that was made in the 90s alone and instead focus on the first movie based on the show that was made. Out of all the films that have been made on The Munsters, this one is definitely the one most closely related to the original series. The first thing fans of the show will notice is that at long last, we finally get to see how the Munsters would look like in color. The plot itself also resembles one you would see in a regular episode. Herman and Lily Munster find out that their English relative Cavanaugh Munster has died, and bequeathed them with a manor located in Shroudshire, UK. After leaving the house, Herman, Lily, Grandpa, Eddie and Marilyn (Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, Al Lewis, Butch Patrick and Debbie Watson respectively) get on an ocean liner to make the journey. On the way, Herman gets seasick and is convinced he's dying. Grandpa tries to make him take a pill to reduce nausea, but he won't take it until Grandpa does. When the latter swallows it, he realizes he accidentally took one that transforms him into a wolf. Grandpa is detained onboard the ship in a kennel, but Herman rescues him. Meanwhile, Marilyn meets a dashing young man named Roger (Robert Pine). After getting to know each other, they kiss, but it coincides with Roger seeing Herman carrying a wolf back to his cabin. Roger breaks off the kiss, and Marilyn is convinced he doesn't like her, so she leaves him. After arriving at Munster Hall, Herman's cousins Grace and Freddie are angry that Herman is going to inherit the title of Lord Munster, not Freddie. Lady Effigie (Freddie and Grace's mother) plots to get rid of them by scaring them out of the mansion, but on their first night, Herman and Lily are delighted and feel welcomed when skeletons appear through sliding panels in the wall. After Freddie is scared away by seeing Herman for the first time, the latter and Grandpa decide to go down to the basement of the manor without telling Lily. The pair are shocked when they discover a coffin containing a huge amount of english pounds. Grandpa and Herman venture a little further and learn that there's a whole counterfeiting operation going on in the basement, and it's spearheaded by someone known as Gryphon. Marilyn goes to see Roger at his house and attempts to reconcile with him, but once his parents find out she's a Munster, she is ordered to leave. The family are considered bad luck and not wanted in england. Herman decides to enter a race using a dragster Grandpa built (the Dragula), and Freddie schemes to kill Herman in order to take his title away. At the race, Eddie and Marilyn watch in the audience while Grandpa and Lily are held captive by Freddie in the basement of the manor. Right before the race begins, Roger, who is supposed to compete against Herman, is knocked out and his car hijacked by Gryphon. Lily and Grandpa manage to escape and ride horses alongside the racetrack, trying to warn Herman he's about to be killed. He manages to finish the race anyway (backwards) after someone empties an oil drum onto the track. Gryphon crashes right into Herman, but he doesn't even flinch and the car is wrecked instead. Herman then finds that Roger wasn't driving the other car at all, and once Gryphon's racing helmet is removed, it's revealed to be Millie, a barmaid. The relatives of the Munsters are all arrested, and Lady Effigie steps into a car to escape, only to find out it's driven by Lily. Once she's taken to the police, the Munsters decide to donate their estate to the city. Marilyn and Roger get together again, but she has to leave once Herman drives off with the others. I have to say, after hearing about how terrible this movie is (even from avid fans of the show) I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I'd be. Don't get me wrong the plot is pretty stupid and I was let down to only see about 2 minutes worth of color footage of the Munsters house, but at least the original cast is all here (minus Marilyn). I have no idea why they decided to drop Pat Priest and hire this other girl, but nobody ever heard of her after this movie so it was a complete waste. As for the rest of the cast, they behave just like how they do on the series itself, so nothing really feels out of place, but at the same time, it feels like something's off. The Munsters is a truly hilarious show, but throughout this whole film, there was only one time I actually found something funny. Maybe it's the absence of the laugh track, but if something is truly laughable, you don't need it pointed out. There's also the question of Lily, since her palms appear to be an ashy red color, but the rest of her is the same turquoise complexion as Herman. Shouldn't she and Grandpa be white as can be since they're vampires? Overall, Munster Go Home wasn't all that funny for reasons I can't really explain, but it does at least faithfully recreate the look and feel of the show, since the whole thing resembles a Munsters episode stretched to about 90 minutes. I consider this to be the true ending to the show, and will continue to act like the garbage that came later doesn't exist. If you love the show, you'll do the same.
Review of Munster, Go Home!
