Even more unfortunately, Zombie’s chosen backstory turns out to be exactly what you’d expect. Sadly, his script decides to show us much more of slasher icon Michael Myers’ youth than we’ve ever seen – as if any movie-goer in history ever lay awake at night, wishing they knew more about what makes Myers kill. As you’d hope, Zombie takes the bull by the horns and does Halloween his way, introducing a new level of brutality to the franchise. John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, re-imagined by Rob Zombie? A simultaneously bizarre and enticing proposition. As before, Zombie seems to want us to laugh along with the titular trio, as well as feel unsettled by their rampages, but moments like Foxy slashing a naked woman’s throat, while branding her a “bitch”, makes that impossible. Whereas Captain Spaulding was a freaky OTT clown, however, and a fascinating paternal figure who brought some kind of warped balance to the family, Foxy is just a despicable and one-dimensional redneck psycho. In an attempt to fill Spaulding’s enormous clown shoes, the writer and director introduces Otis’ half-brother Foxy (Richard Brake). Sadly, the death of legendary actor Sid Haig during production meant that Zombie could no longer include Captain Spaulding alongside his central killers Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie). Whereas the first two films’ disturbing power lies in the pervading sense that Zombie is rooting for the bad guys, this one just makes you r eally want his titular trio to die horribly.
While the film does have parts that seem unnecessarily long and plenty of concepts that need better explanation, the film brings it all together and provides us with a hellishly good time.Zombie repeats the linear plot of The Devil Rejects, almost beat for beat, but with one crucial difference. The concept is like many other survival type movies, yet it is the strong and diverse group of characters that makes 31 stand out from the rest. Overall, 31 is pretty decent horror-survival type film. It is not clear whether Zombie intentionally meant for some scenes to drag on for uncomfortable amounts of time, but the overextended dialog may have you losing interest rather quick. This routine of “killing one clown, then the next comes out, then the next” gets old pretty fast.Īnother issue is the change in pace. Somehow whenever a clown is killed the next in line is alerted and sent into the plant. As the characters move throughout the facility, the wigged overseers somehow know their every move, announcing over the PA system whenever a character is killed and is unclear throughout the film if there are video cameras around the compound. One of the problems with 31 is the numerous plot holes that lack explanation. At this point the group realizes it might be better to fight back, and going from prey to predator they begin to hunt down the clowns as well. As Charly ( Sheri Moon Zombie) and Roscoe ( Jeff Daniel Philips) struggle to keep their friends alive, we begin to see a slight change of mindset when the first psychopath, the Nazi midget Sick-Head, offs a member of their group. We are presented with an interesting number of characters throughout the film. Doom-Heads casual manner which he approaches murder makes him actually seem sane if it wasn’t for the sudden bursts of anger which are brilliantly placed in this dialogue. The combination of Zombie’s writing and Brake’s exceptional performance really brings this scene to life. While dragging on a little longer than it should, this one scene sets the tone for the entire movie. Right away we are introduced to the main antagonist, the sinister Doom-Head ( Richard Brake) as he engages his latest victim, explaining that he is going to kill him and that’s just the way it is. Where other movies in the horror genre build suspense and rely on cheap “startles,” Zombie lays out the tone of his films right from the start, slowly introducing us to concepts that leave us feeling uncomfortable and wondering if the world is really as ugly as he makes it seem.ģ1 follows this same style. What really makes Rob Zombie’s work unique is the deep horror that is often evident in his films. However, it is important to note that unlike many films like 31, where there are often deep thematic analysis and hidden subtexts, 31 gives us what it promises and nothing more. A variety of psychotic killers, strong lead characters, unexpected outcomes, and with the violence and gore we have come to expect from a Rob Zombie film. Thankfully, 31 brings us everything we are looking for in a horror-survival film.