31 Movie Review (2016)

For better or worse, Rob Zombie has been releasing horror movies for over 20 years. He's made classics such as House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects and some duds like The Lords of Salem and Halloween II. Then there are some that just exist somewhere in between like 3 From Hell and 31, but to be fair, 31 is far better than most people give it credit for. Sure, there are some of the same tropes that Rob adheres to from other films and that can make this feel similar in many aspects to his other films, but I don't mind it because if there's anything he does incredibly well it's make memorable characters and there are a number of them here.

The opening scene with Doom-Head (Richard Brake) is haunting as he gives his devilish monologue to his first victim and is some of the best work I've seen in one of Rob's films and would gladly put it up against anything Otis or Cutter ever did. Malcolm McDowell as Father Murder is also a standout character, but that's pretty much a given as anything Macolm does is fantastic. The wild card here is Sick-Head (Pancho Moler) as a Hispanic Nazi who's as ferocious as a chihuahua in heat.

So, what is 31? Father Murder exclaims that it's war and war is hell! And in order to have war, you must have opposing sides. Here we have a group of carnival workers who were abducted and taken to a compound where they must fight for survival. The group is split into different areas of the compound and put up against different challenges to see how fare against the maniacal clowns that greet them at every corner. The harder they try, the more they are rewarded for their efforts by being given increasingly more difficult enemies to combat.

~TJ