Is The Munsters Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
No, 1 out of 10. It's a monster comedy about a Frankenstein creation who does stand-up.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
1 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
It's gone before the credits finish.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It is a goofy monster romance, so watch it with anyone old enough to enjoy a pun.
The Munsters runs one hour and fifty minutes and is mostly about a Frankenstein creation who does stand-up comedy and a 150-year-old vampire who finds him charming. The mad scientist who built him from spare parts has regrets.
The premise, briefly
A mad scientist builds a bumbling Frankenstein creation named Herman, and a lovelorn vampire named Lily falls for him against her father's wishes.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The Munsters lose the castle to a scheme of Lester's, move to a suburb called Mockingbird Heights, and are horrified to find that everyone there is normal. Lester then shows up with a check that makes them rich.
The scene you're dreading
Early on, the scientist hits a zombie pianist on the head to take his fingers, Floop steals the wrong comedian's head, and electricity brings Herman to life. It is the grimmest scene in the movie, and it comes first.
The dog
No dog dies in The Munsters. The family's pet is a reptilian sewer monster named Spot.
The Munsters is a comedy with a grave-robbing opening, and the scariest thing in it is the neighbors.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Grave robbing with a comedy hole in it
The movie opens with Dr. Wolfgang and his hunchbacked assistant Floop digging up graves for parts. They strike the zombie pianist Franz Pennywhacker on the head so he stays dead and take his fingers. This is the nearest thing to a gruesome scene, it comes first, and the rest of the movie is a comedy. Wolfgang wanted the head of an astrophysicist, but Floop grabs the head of the hacky comedian Shecky Von Rathbone, and electricity brings the creature to life. Floop names him Herman Munster. Elsewhere, the Romani woman Zoya Krupp is scheming to buy the Count's castle through the Count's werewolf son Lester, with her brother Bela threatening to behead him if he refuses. The Count says no. Over breakfast, the Count and his 150-year-old daughter Lily discuss her love life and a bad date with Count Orlock. Then they watch Wolfgang present Herman on a TV show, where Herman starts his stand-up routine. Wolfgang is disgusted, and Lily is smitten.
Herman becomes a celebrity with Floop as his manager, and his band, the Punk Rods, plays at Zoya's nightclub, which is where Lester points Lily toward him. They fall for each other at once and agree to have dinner at the castle the next night. The Count dislikes Herman and schemes with his servant Igor to get rid of him with a spell. When he tries to conjure a better match for Lily, he summons a semi-sentient chimpanzee instead. After a week of dating and a vacation at Devil's Island Penal Colony, Herman proposes and Lily accepts. At the wedding Lester tricks Herman, now head of the household, into signing the castle's deed over to Zoya with the promise of a business deal. On their honeymoon in Paris, Herman catches a reptilian creature from the sewers, and they adopt it as a pet named Spot. Zoya's eviction notice reaches the Count, and Lily finds out about Lester's trick.
Moving to the one street that is not haunted
The lawyer Shady MaGoon confirms from prison that the family has no case against Zoya. Herman sees a TV personality named Zombo and decides they should start over in Hollywood, where he can become a star. The realtor Barbara Carr gives them a tour, then takes them to Mockingbird Heights, and the family insists on buying a rundown house at the 1313 address instead of the model home. On Halloween the neighbors hold a block party, and the Munsters think they have finally met other freaks. The neighbors think the family are wearing costumes and give them a $1,500 contest prize. Later Herman leaves for his first job carrying corpses at a funeral parlor, sees Mockingbird Heights in normal daylight, and retreats in shock because he lives among regular people. Lily and the Count are just as horrified.
The ending, explained
Lester turns up at the house unannounced. The Munsters are cool toward him because of the stunt Zoya forced him into, but he has come with a check for Herman's share of the gambling money he won in Las Vegas, using the payment Zoya made for the Count's castle. Herman and Lily realize they are rich. The castle is gone, and the family is living at the 1313 house among its very normal neighbors.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Munsters scary?
No. The Munsters is a 1 out of 10 with low dread. It is a monster comedy with a grave-robbing opening and nothing else scarier than the neighbors.
How does The Munsters end?
Lester brings Herman a check for his share of gambling winnings from Las Vegas, which makes the Munsters rich. They have lost the castle and moved into the 1313 house in Mockingbird Heights.
Does the dog die in The Munsters?
No dog dies in The Munsters. The family's pet is Spot, a reptilian monster they adopt in Paris.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Munsters?
Nobody has confirmed whether The Munsters has a scene after the credits, so it is safest to wait for them to finish.
Who is Spot in The Munsters?
Spot is a reptilian creature that was haunting the Paris sewers until Herman caught it. In The Munsters, Herman and Lily adopt it as their pet.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of The Munsters is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
The Munsters is one hour and fifty minutes of a Frankenstein creation telling jokes to a vampire. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur the horror that is actually scary before you see it.
