What we know about Rob Zombie’s latest Flick ‘31‘
It’s been four years since Rob Zombie’s last film, that being The Lords of Salem. Which came into mixed reviews despite the popularity of the groove metal artist turned horror director. Zombie’s first foray into the horror movie scene was the 2003 cult hit, House of a Thousand Corpses. Since then he has become a favorite amongst horror movie fans, not only directing the sequel, The Devil’s Rejects but the reboot of the Halloween series as well. The latter met with split reviews from horror fans. After that Zombie released the poorly received animated feature, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Whose style was reminiscent of old Ren and Stimpy cartoons which a pretty funny to watch but again only die hard fans enjoyed the release. Then we come full circle back to The Lords of Salem then a 4-year gap leading up to his latest film, 31.
What do we know about 31? Well we do know that it was screened at this year Sundace Film Festival to rather split reviews, more negative than positive. We also know that the film was crowd sourced by Zombie so that he could make the film how he wanted to be without a studio putting limitations on it. Let’s take a look at what we know about the grindhouse god’s latest film.
The idea for the film came to Zombie apparently after reading a statistic that Halloween is the “number one day of the year when people go missing…for some reason,” which you guessed it struck Zombie as a great idea for a film. So he set out to make his goriest film to date. Zombie turned to crowd funding to get the film off the ground, which allowed him to achieve two purposes. One, so he could raise additional funding for the film. Secondly as a way around limitations of a studio so he could make the film as gory as he envisioned without sacrificing one gory detail.
Once that was achieved Zombie set out to make a his film about a band of carnival workers who are attacked and taken captive (cause what horror movie doesn’t have people being taken captive), then forced to play a sadistic game called “31.” The game of “31” involves our merry band of carnies making their way through a maze-like compound and features several clown-faced killers, each bearing a name relating to their appearance and their way of eliminating our band of contestants. Now what is a game without a prize? If the captives can survive for 12 hours, then they get to go free, that’s easy right…right?
The cast includes Jeff Daniel Phillips who is no stranger to Zombie’s films, we saw him in Lords of Salem and Halloween II. We also see Sheri Moon Zombie, Zombie’s wife, in the film as well along with a cast of new and old faces from previous films. Two of the most notable names we see is the return of Malcolm McDowell to the set of a Zombie film, last we saw him was on the Halloween franchise. As well as the return of Meg Foster, who had a role in Zombie’s last film The Lords of Salem.
The films music is apparently scored entirely by John 5, Rob Zombie’s current guitarist. So needless to say the film is being made in the way Zombie wants it to be. So what about the film’s reception at Sundance?
From what can be read on Rotten Tomatoes and other site, the movie has gotten pretty mixed reviews from non-horror fans, which begs the question on its reception at Sundance. Well those folks didn’t seem to care for it either, not taking to Zombie’s grindhouse brand of filmmaking. With some reviewers stating the film ““lunge[s] so eagerly from zero to 11 that [it skips] everything in between,”(Variety) and calling the film ““an unnecessary, monotonous, 102-minute scrapbook of better horror films that fails to muster even a spark of originality.” (Consequence of Sound)
However there are those who enjoyed the film with Shock Till You Drop stating ““Rob Zombie’s 31 succeeds as a throwback to the days of quickie exploitation movies. That’s exactly what it is trying to be, and what it is. So, if you want caviar, keep looking. But if you are in the mood for a candy-colored bacon cheeseburger of a flick with extra grease and BBQ sauce, 31 is for you.” Fangoria echoed that sentiment, stating “If the point of 31 was to create a homage to low-rent, gratuitous cinema, you can’t argue it succeeds, and fans of Zombie’s traditional grit and gore will find those sensibilities unfulfilled. But those who want a little more brains and heart spliced in between slices and chops will walk away—perhaps as intended—feeling a little bit dirty.”
While the film had three go around with the MPAA until finally getting an R rating after some of the films violently disturbing images were trimmed down, the next question is the release date. The film was picked up by Saban, you know the company that brought you the Power Rangers? Rob stated “After meeting with Saban, it was obvious that this was the perfect home for ’31’,” Rob Zombie said. “They have a true understanding of the genre and how to handle it. I am very excited to work with them.” Seems that both sides are excited for the release as Saban President Bill Bromiley stated “’31’ is a treat not just to horror fans, but fans of true auteur filmmaking, the film is executed in true stylistic Zombie fashion. Rob is an unrivaled talent, and we are thrilled to bring his bold new film to audiences across the continent.”
While Fans will have to wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray release of the film for the NC-17 version, the R-rated release is set for a September 16th theatrical release. I’ll be seeing it in theaters as I want to see it on the big screen but I’ll be picking it up once it releases on DVD/Blu-ray to see all the unedited gore he had to edit out.
