MD Bastek
Rob Zombie announced recently on Instagram that Cassandra Peterson, AKA Elvira, has a role in his upcoming reimagining of the 1960s horror-themed family sit-com The Munsters.
However, Peterson won’t be appearing as horror’s beloved Mistress of the Dark. She’ll be playing Barbara Carr, the top real estate agent in Mockingbird Heights. On the TV series, the Munsters lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. Many sources speculate that Carr is the agent who sold the Munsters their home.
Peterson came into the homes of horror film fans in 1981 as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, a campy, vampy horror host of Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Since then, Peterson’s Elvira character has become a horror icon appearing at various events and on TV shows. Peterson’s Elvira is the titular character in two films, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) and Elvira’s Haunted Hills (2001) as well as novels and comics. Most recently, Peterson published her autobiography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark, and co-wrote Dynamite’s Elvira: The Wrath of Con one-shot comic alongside David Avallone.
The Munsters was a family-friendly sitcom that aired on CBS from 1964-66. The series followed the misadventures of a family of classic movie monsters who move from Transylvania to a suburban American town. The family includes Herman, a Frankenstein-type monster who’s married to vampire Lily, their son, Eddie, a werewolf, and Grandpa, Lily’s vampire father, and niece Marilyn who is human.
Many horror fans are curious about what Zombie has in store for Munster fans. Zombie is known for boundary-pushing films with over-the-top sex and violence. Zombie also announced that the movie will have a PG-13 rating; he posted the following statement on Instagram to address those who may be concerned about his reimagining of the beloved family-friendly clan of classic horror movie monsters:
“For those of you speculating, wondering and assuming that ‘The Munsters’ would be dirty, violent and nasty…well, you are wrong […] It’s all good down on Mockingbird Lane.”
The cast features Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster, Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily Munster, and Dan Roebuck as Grandpa Munster. The actors playing Herman and Lily’s son, Eddie, and niece, Marilyn, haven’t been announced.
Zombie posted a photo of Peterson in character on Instagram. Judging from Barbara Carr’s look, Zombie’s film will have a vintage retro 1960s look.
Zombie first stepped into the role of filmmaker with House of 1,000 Corpses (2003), which kicks off his trilogy about the homicidal Firefly family. He followed up House with The Devil’s Rejects (2005), and 3 From Hell (2019). Zombie also reimagined John Carpenter’s classic Halloween in 2007 which he followed up with a sequel Halloween II in 2009. Some of Zombie’s other films include The Lords of Salem (2012) and 31 (2016).
No release date has been announced yet. The film is expected to be released sometime in the fall.
