You know, no matter how you look at it this was an odd choice of movie for Rob Zombie to make considering his previous work. The "Hellbilly" metalhead has made a name for himself behind the camera as a purveyor of vulgar, grindhouse horror and now all of the sudden he's dealing in family-friendly throwbacks to wholesome '60s sitcoms? Even stranger is that this was reportedly a passion project of his. One where he could provide the origin story for the titular monster family that he always wanted to by showing things like Herman's creation, how he and Lily met, their acquisition of "Spot," and what exactly led to the inhuman ménage living the suburban life on Mockingbird Lane. Now, I'm not familiar with the show. I mean, I may have caught a rerun on TV Land or something as a child, but can't recall anything about it and therefore went into this with no prior attachments to the property, uninitiated, and unsure of what to expect. My mother who I watched this with on the other hand grew up with the source material, and she quite liked this movie as a result. My opinions on it however are a bit more mixed. The overall cheap look doesn't bother me, as it was an intentional choice on Zombie's part in an effort to capture a retro, low-budget schlock horror vibe and it honestly wouldn't have been so ugly had he been allowed to shoot the film in black & white like he originally planned. Plus, the studio's refusal to let him do it arguably worked out for the better by forcing a hyper-colorful visual style in response that hearkens back to some of House of 1000 Corpses' neon-drenched brilliance in a way I haven't seen from the director's other projects I've experienced thus far. No, my problem is that the feature's prequel nature means it can't mine humor from the same premise and therefore its creator must come up with comedic material on his own. Which is an issue because to be honest I don't think ol' Rob is a very funny dude. Like, I could probably talk slasher flicks and headbanging tunes with him all day, but we wouldn't be swapping jokes. I've appreciated the man's eye for gore and depravity in the past, yet he's never been able to make me laugh. There's the occasional good one-liner or moment here, but for the most part a lot of the gags fall flat (I particularly don't get the bizarre musical segments). At least until the characters finally leave Transylvania and move into the house and its accompanying material that carried them for 70 episodes back in the day. Even my mom who appeared to be enjoying herself the entire time hadn't been chuckling much before that. That's when this started to click with me and I began to see the potential of the concept. It actually got me really interested in checking out the now decades old show. So as a standalone film this doesn't offer much, but as an extended pilot to a promising looking series? Well, it has some actual value as that.