Review: 31 BD + Screen Caps

THE MOVIE — 2.0/5

I’m not wholly familiar with Rob Zombie’s works outside of his Halloween remake which, albeit I’ve only seen it once several years, didn’t mind while his follow-up was atrocious. Otherwise, those two have been my exposure to Zombie as a filmmaker. His latest, 31 actually starts out well enough with a Tarantino-like dialogue-filled opening but peters out during the second act before an attempt at redemption in the finale. A failed attempt, but an attempt nevertheless.

31 takes place in 1974 as a van filled with carnival acts — Charly (SHERI MOON ZOMBIE), Roscoe (JEFF DANIEL PHILLIPS), Panda (LAWRENCE HILL-JACOBS), Venus (MEG FOSTER), Levon (KEVIN JACKSON) and a few others, who, frankly aren’t worth mentioning as they get cut out of the picture rather quickly — who are on their way to their next gig when, following a pit stop to fill up on gas where they meet a couple colorful characters, are stopped by obstacles in the middle of the road. Soon enough, freaks come out of the woodwork, slaughter a few of those nobody characters and capture the rest.

Taken to some unknown facility, the survivors are told by Father Murder (MALCOLM MCDOWELL) they are a part of a game called 31 in which they must make it through a 12 hour stretch alive, escaping the grasps of numerous colorful killers including: Sick-Head (PANCHO MULER), Schizo-Head (DAVID URY), Psycho-Head (LEW TEMPLE), Death-Head (TORSTEN VOGES), Sex-Head (ELIZABETH DAILY) and Doom-Head (RICHARD BRAKE), who is easily the best of the bunch and the more interesting one to the point I wish the movie was about him than these throwaway characters.

Throughout odds are placed for bets between Father Murder, Sister Serpent (JANE CARR) and Sister Dragon (JUDY GEESON), all three of whom are obviously aristocrats who seem to also dabble in the occult, though that latter part is only vaguely touched upon presumably for Zombie to return for a sequel.

The film was written and directed by Rob Zombie and as I said, I’m not exactly a fan of his work mainly because my knowledge of his work is limited but if this is any indication, I can’t think I’d enjoy his other original idea offerings. That said, the atmosphere wasn’t bad and the performances from the likes of Sheri Moon Zombie and, especially, Richard Brake were at least decent while Malcolm McDowell was clearly doing the director a solid (well, same could be said as SMZ).

However, 31 is just another disposable horror flick with a bunch of thinly written, throwaways written to be fodder for some blood-thirsty psychotic killers, but even on that front the film is quite blasé with no clever kills (victims or perpetrators).

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5

This release comes with a matted slip cover; inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy.

Zombie might not be a master horror filmmaker, but he sure knows how to release some great Blu-rays and DVDs. This one comes with an Audio Commentary with Zombie but the highlight is a feature-length making-of documentary, In Hell Everybody Loves Popcorn (131:27; HD), a two-hour, and 5-part feature placing viewers in the middle of the filmmaking process almost on a daily basis.

VIDEO – 4.5/5

AUDIO – 4.75/5

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Overall, 31 is another below average horror movie from Rob Zombie though the opening sequence with a creepy ass performance from Robert Brake at least was memorable, shame the movie wasn’t about his psychotic clown character. The Blu-ray released by Lionsgate has great video and audio transfers and the features are highlighted by a 2 hour making-of documentary.