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Posts Tagged ‘continuation of a TV show’

Munster, Go Home!

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

After having a great time with Rob Zombie’s new DTV movie THE MUNSTERS I got interested in the fact that there had been one actual theatrically released Munsters movie, with (almost) the original cast from the TV series. In fact, the reason I knew it existed was because I’d watched Zombie’s 2002 appearance on MTV’s Cribs, and he had a big poster for it prominently displayed in his house.

MUNSTER, GO HOME! came out in the summer of 1966, a few months after the series ended, and the same day as THE ENDLESS SUMMER. (I hope somebody made that a double feature. I don’t know why.) Like the show, it was released by Universal Pictures, which is why Herman (Fred Gwynne, PET SEMATARY) can have a flat head without it being a copyright violation. I wonder if it would’ve caught on otherwise?

The premise of the movie is that a distant relative dies and Herman inherits a manor called Munster Hall in Shroudshire, England. The family heads to the new place, so there’s a comical boat journey. Herman tries to travel incognito, not because he’s a monster but because he thinks people will make a big deal about seeing Lord Munster. (But he has “LORD MUNSTER” bedazzled on the back of his jacket, which I now know is referenced by Herman’s “ROCK STAR” jacket in the new movie.) (read the rest of this shit…)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (and 1992 – Weird Summer epilogue)

Friday, September 30th, 2022

Just as the Weird Summer of 1992 was wrapping up, New Line Cinema gave us arguably the season’s weirdest wide release. Sure, it played half as many screens as its fellow August 28, 1992 releases HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, PET SEMATARY II and FREDDIE AS F.R.O.7., but I think it’s fair to call it mainstream. There was awareness, it was based on a recently popular TV show, and it at least opened bigger than FREDDIE. As far as per screen averages it came in 4th place for the weekend.

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME is, of course, David Lynch’s big screen prequel to his pop-culture-phenomenon TV series Twin Peaks. I’ll get into my history with the show later, but for now I’ll just note that I’m unfamiliar enough that I watched this as pretty much an outsider, looking at it almost as a stand alone movie.

And at first it really does fit into the indie releases of ’92 – it makes sense as a contemporary of NIGHT ON EARTH, ONE FALSE MOVE, RUBIN & ED, and JOHNNY SUEDE. It tells the story of FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch, ZELLY AND ME) teaming up stoic veteran Special Agent Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak, MARRIED TO THE MOB) and nerdy bow tie wearing rookie Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland, RENEGADES) to investigate the murder of a teenager named Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley, CHERRY 2000, HIGHWAY TO HELL) in the small town of Deer Meadow, Washington. (read the rest of this shit…)