Watch the Embarrassingly Bad First Trailer for Rob Zombie’s The Munsters, If You Dare

From the moment the project was announced, it was always difficult to know what exactly to expect from a Rob Zombie reboot of The Munsters. Was the horror auteur, known for sick and grimy fare such as House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, going to apply an R-rated patina of gore to the old-school spooky family sitcom from the 1960s? Or was the entire gag here that Zombie wouldn’t be doing that, and would instead present a faithful Munsters reboot without any of his trademark squirmy violence?

Now we apparently have our answer: This is a PG, sincere reboot, and dear lord it looks like a terrible one. The first trailer for Zombie’s The Munsters dropped today, and the immediate reaction will no doubt be one of incredulity and mockery—the project looks embarrassingly amateurish and cheap, as if Zombie and his cast had zero access to modern, professional filmmaking equipment. The Asylum could have turned out something more polished-looking than this. YouTube comments have already been turned off.

Granted, fans were no doubt expecting this film to be suffused in campiness, and the performances in this trailer—from the likes of Zombie’s ever-present wife Sheri Moon Zombie and others—are about what we were anticipating. What we didn’t see coming was the sheer garishness of the visuals, obsessed with high-contrast colors and colored lighting shining directly onto actors’ faces like a high schooler’s attempt to replicate Dario Argento’s Suspiria. Nor could we possibly have anticipated just how bad the sound of this trailer would be, with muddy and echoing dialog and voiceover that sounds like it was recorded in a closet. And that’s not even mentioning the FX, which again evoke comparison to the likes of The Asylum. You’d accuse them of shooting on an iPhone, but an iPhone would probably produce a trailer that looks and sounds better than this monstrosity, presented on YouTube in glorious 720p.

Really, though—this is the project that has been getting coverage from major publications all through its production cycle? Was it really not clear what a disaster this was likely to be? Is this all an elaborate joke, a diversion from Zombie’s REAL Munsters project? Regardless, Zombie’s The Munsters is currently scheduled for release in Sept. 2022, in what we can only assume will be a streaming only deal. Check out the hideous first trailer below.