"I'm a fan of Zombie's other work and music, but this movie is terrible. like not even B quality, more like D. I can't imagine there is an actual living person out there that liked this movie. It's not even "Good because it's so bad." There will be no cult status ever attributed to this film, it sucks, and he needs to stop using his wife in everyone of his films."
-Me for real
I have seen this movie a few times since it was released in 2016, for reasons I can't really explain. It's by no means anywhere near as fun as HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, but it keeps me coming back for some reason.
so let's talk about... whatever there is I can talk about here.
God this movie is disgusting
31 is a 2016 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, E.G. Daily, and Malcolm McDowell.
On Halloween 1976, 8 carnies are travelling in their van through the desert on their way to their next gig. After having a bit of fun hanging out in the van, they stop for gas. They have a few creepy encounters at the gas station and head back on the road. During the night they find the road blocked by scarecrows, as they investigate they're attacked, while some are murdered the rest are kidnapped. They awake chained up in a fancy room where 3 aristocratically dressed people tell them they have been chosen to participate in their annual game of 31. They must attempt to survive 12 hours in an underground labyrinth-like factory compound known as Murderworld. The 5 carnies each armed with a weapon try to kill to stay alive while they are being hunted by clown-like killers known as the Heads. Sick-Head, Psycho-Head, Schizo-Head, Sex-Head, Death-Head and Doom-Head. The 3 people running the game bet on who will survive the longest because no one has ever survived. The prize for surviving is their freedom.
Rob Zombie has built his entire career on being a horror fan. A horror fan who loves the entirety of horror history, with a special soft spot for '70s Grindhouse. In both his music and his movies, he set out to make art for an equally dedicated classically educated horror audience with fiercely punk results, and more often than not he succeeds. HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES is a delightfully depraved Halloween treat I watch every year, and THE DEVILS REJECTS is a worthwhile neo-western that leans even further into yucky. From the very start of his career, Zombie makes it clear he is perfectly comfortable using rape/sexual assault to make already despicable characters even more hateable (Anti-hero my ass) with what sometimes feels like total emotional detachment. But of course, my take on Rob isn't that he is some kind of Henry Lee Lucas hellspawn sent to Earth only to document suffering. But that being said, this movie captures a lot of the issues with Zombie all in one fell swoop. In his work's increasing yuckiness and depravity, Rob feels like a little kid on the playground chasing the girl he likes with a dead mouse.
This movie is the culmination of every nasty little idea the studios wouldn't let him go through with, a crowd-funded clusterfuck of meaningless violence and paper-thin characters. John Waters uses what he refers to as good bad taste to point out the absurdity and frustration that comes from society itself, but Rob shocks and disgusts us for seemingly no real reason. Most of his films have no points to be made, no overarching themes and ideas to keep you curious after it's all over. With Zombie, you basically get the same thing every time. A gaggle of recognizable character actors and horror icons, being raped and murdered by some foul-mouthed sideshow act from hell. HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVILS REJECTS was a damn fine start to his career, but he is an artist unquestionably on a downward spiral.
I mean for real, did you see THE MUNSTERS remake?
5/10 because again, I'm weirdly drawn to this movie every once in a while
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