31 (2016)

I enjoyed Zombie's first two movies. That's about the extent that I can say I am a fan of his in any respect. With that being said, some of the imagery that I had seen leading up to this film had me hoping it would exceed the awful messes that were the Halloween remakes and Lords of Salem. It didn't.

Carnies, the 70's, killer "clowns", and a game that is an amalgamation of better movies (The Running Man, etc). It's not an overly complicated plot, but somehow Rob Zombie was able to make it seem confusing.

Bad acting (particularly from Sheri Moon Zombie, as always), terrible dialogue, and lots of characters with basically no character development. I've read lots of other people say that this is a pointless movie and they are absolutely right. It's watchable, but it's not something I would watch again.

My general thinking at this time is that Rob Zombie is far better suited to be a production artist/set designer than a writer/director.

Fmovies: OK so every fan of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects begged for another film like those. We begged and we begged, we said do a prequel, do an origin story, just give us more of this type of movie. And RZ delayed it, he gave us Halloween reboots, he took a risk and gave us the witch horror version of a Clockwork Orange in Lords of Salem, he even gave us an adult Scooby-do with El SuperBeasto, he took to TV and direct an episode of CSI, literally he gave us a look at other works, but we kept begging for another 1000. And understandably so, those 2 films can be argued that they changed horror films, the villains were glorified and loved. Sheri Moon's acting of Baby was so awesome, 9 out of 10 men would still pick Baby up knowing she was taking them to the house of 1000, the one that wouldn't, well he doesn't like women, Otis was off the chain, totally insane and Capt Spaulding will forever be an icon and should be listed as one of the greatest horror villain in history.

So when I see people complaining that 31 doesn't give us anything new, I'm kind of frustrated, we asked, no begged for this film. I agree it is nothing ground breaking, but RZ already broke the ground originally here. I look at this film more as a favor to the fans. RZ continues to want to direct and write new, different films, but we keep begging for more. So much in fact we helped fund raise for this film, expecting exactly what it was.

Is the film perfect, hell no, it's completely imperfect. It is pure evil, as was House and Devil's.

This is exactly what fans of those movies wanted. A fact paced, blood hammering, film that give us new villains to love.

It is perfectly imperfect.

Now, consider my taste for the past movies filled, as I personally am ready to move on and see the next chapter of creativity from RZ.

31 (2016) directed by Rob Zombie is about a group of five carnival workers who are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned, hell-like compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game, the goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns.

This being Zombie's sixth full length feature film, it feels like much of the same. same visual style, same vulgar dialogue, same vintage camera filters, and the same lead actress that we are all tired of seeing. it's a real shame that Mr. Zombie cant seem to change up his style and make something fresh, or at least entertaining.

the camera work in 31 (16) is truthfully nothing special, at times though it is awful. it becomes nausea inducing and there are a lot of unnecessary close ups. this paired with some of the most annoying and disorienting editing I have ever seen makes this one a real chore to watch. the story drags on and on at a snails pace with no tension or suspense. this is not an exaggeration. there really is no suspense or tension. the setting had some potential, but due to Zombie's direction we never really get any sense of urgency or claustrophobia or anything like that. all the characters are annoying and unlikable and the acting is just alright, sometimes it really is terrible though. the shock factor isn't even there on this one. Zombie is known for delivering some truly brutal visuals but this film seems pretty tame for a Rob Zombie film.

to conclude my review ill say that 31 (2016) is an awful, boring and dull film with no substance. there really isn't a singular good reason I can think of to watch this movie.

the verdict: 2/10

31 fmovies. In 1976, on the eve of Halloween, an itinerant troupe is forced to stop their truck and attacked by strangers. Charly (Sheri Moon Zombie), Venus Virgo (Meg Foster), Panda Thomas (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), Levon Wally (Kevin Jackson) and Roscoe Pepper (Jeff Daniel Phillips) survive. They are forced to participate in a sadistic game called "31" for 12 hours, and whoever survives will be released. Soon they are attacked by sadistic killers dressed like clowns. Will someone survive to the "31"?

"31" is an unoriginal pointless awful slasher with an absurd and stupid story. The greatest challenge is not for the group forced to participate, but for the viewer to see this film until the very end. The only thing good to see is the veteran cast with Malcolm McDowell, Judy Geeson ("To Sir with Love") and Meg Foster ("They Live"). Unfortunately they are wasted in a poor story and screenplay. It is better off watching "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" again. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

to be expected from Rob Zombie, not the best dialogue in the world, unlikable protagonists you want to die, Sheri moon zombie trying and the feeling of wishing he would get to the point. i loved 'House of 1000 corpses' & 'Devil's rejects' is one of my favorite horror films of all time. The only other of Zombie's films that even touches on those films in my opinion is 'Halloween' with the plot of killer clowns playing a totally crazy game of cat and mouse i thought such a simple story arc would be fun and playful horror, But Zombie tries something that i felt just fell flat on it's face. Almost cringy to watch at times, Nazi Clown midgets, c'Mon man... Still a strong director but a terrible writer. This film should be used as evidence to Zombie that he cannot carry a film on his own, if he hired a couple of writers to spoon feed him decent characters for his 'plot' then you could potentially get some decent horror movies. or at least seem satisfying dialogue. or maybe he should just stick to making the antagonist the main point of view, that way the script makes sense. over all, was looking forward to a night of madness , in stead got a student film on crack shot in a sweatshop.

I had no anticipation or information about this movie going in... except for it being a Rob Zombie movie and my enjoyment of all his other movies so far. None of them are perfect but none of them are boring, all of them bring something interesting to the table. Not so much with 31 though... One thing I've generally liked with Zombie's movies is that, unlike a lot of horror films such as Hostel - which promise all sorts of transgressive horrors only to bait and switch with some relatively tame eyeball gouging, Zombie's movies generally follow through on their threats. I never feel safe in his movies (except I'm pretty sure Mrs. Zombie's characters will survive to the final frame). Unfortunately, 31 let all the air out of that balloon dog for me. It didn't ever come close to crossing any lines of standardized horror. Oh sure, Its clown's show up and promise all sorts of vile entertainments... but they never materialize. Instead, we get some badly filmed fight scenes and routine kills that could be out of any war/crime/fantasy film. There's little or no suspense, barely any atmosphere outside of the clowns' initial entrances and Malcolm McDowall's nonsensical prattling. The movie takes its time building up 'Doomhead' but what is he but another loudmouthed guy in a clown suit? I assume he'd go down just as easily to a well-aimed blow to the head. There's really nothing special about him except for the amount of time he gets on screen. He even does the loathsome 'golf clap' routine that should be forever banished to Cliché-land. When the clowns do get their hands on someone they're not likely do do anything surprising at all... just stab them and move on. Unless something nastier was edited out of the version I saw... which I kinda doubt.

The carnies themselves had the potential for being the sort of interesting protagonists I'd pull for... and I DID like that they weren't just a bunch of squealing teenagers (Meg Foster especially was fascinating to look at. Older women like her are so seldom allowed on screen in heroic roles). But they're mostly reduced to just goofing around and swearing at each other... maybe it was just bad improv because the writer couldn't think of what to do with them?

This is BY FAR the least interesting thing I've seen come from Mr. Zombie. I'm still a fan of his previous films, I'll still watch whatever he makes next... but this one is the bottom dweller. Not that it's such a bad generic horror movie, as just that alone it's fairly average... but it's certainly a bad Rob Zombie horror movie. And being that, it's pretty disappointing.