 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: 31 • Year: 2016 • Country: UK, USA • Director: Rob Zombie • Main cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, Jeff Daniel Phillips • Runtime: 102 minutes • Production company: Bow and Arrow Entertainment, PalmStar Media, Protagonist Pictures • TRAILER |
I have to admit I was looking forward to this movie. After the great surprise The Lords of Salem (2012) was, a perfect evil bad dream for eyes, ears and brain, I was hoping Rob Zombie would follow that trail and deliver another introspective and nightmarish piece.
A Rob Zombie movie is something that will always bring hours of entertainment. Not only for the movie itself, but because his works always get divided opinions. So if you go to see any of his movies with a group of friends, know that there will always be one who loved it and another one who totally hated it. And in between, all kinds of opinions. And 31 is not an exception for this.
In general tems, 31 goes back to the aesthetics of the director’s early movies House of 1000 Corpses (2004) and The Devil’s Rejects (2005). And also, this last work can perfectly summarize what a Rob Zombie film is: the circus workers, arid desertic roads, dope and sex jokes, and gore, lots of gore. Because 31 is a film that drinks from the fountain of 1970s classics like The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) but with Zombie’s personal signature.
After watching the movie, I got the feeling that something is not complete. It starts with the introduction of a very bad guy, amazingly portrayed by Richard Brake (for me, the best fact this movie has). With that strong beginning, me and my friends at the theatre were like “woah, this is going to be epic”. But the epic slows down fast, very fast. Some of the things that happen in the movie are unexplained. Luckily, thanks to a smart script and the fact that we already have a background in horror movies, the audience can more or less fill the gaps. Still, the feeling of chaotic narrative and unfinished story remains in all the film. Besides that, and this is a personal opinion shared with many of my friends, Rob Zombie had in hands the most perfect ending in a horror movie for the last years. But at the end it all didn’t go as we all desired. I guess if you have already seen the movie you know what I mean. And if you haven’t, just go back to this review after watching it and let’s discuss it.
But if there is a strong point with 31 is how simple everything seems to be. Besides the chaos and empty gaps mentioned before, the script is strong enough to provide a good hour and half of entertainment. Rob Zombie has spent all his life being a lover of the horror genre, and this is absolutelly patent here. The cast is plenty of recurrent faces in the Rob Zombie film universe, starting with his wife and star in all his movies Sheri Moon Zombie and continuing with diverse actors like Jeff Daniel Phillips, Meg Foster, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, etc. This is not only a random movie, this is cleary the work as a strengthened team sharing one same goal.
This is the real Halloween night. Rob Zombie shouldn’t had done those 2 remakes. In my eyes, Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) are totally unnecessary. His real version of our favorite day of the year is this movie.
31 is 666% Rob Zombie. It’s not the most original film in the genre, specially in 2016. But it still is an interesting slasher film, with a wide catalog of influences and made by lovers of gore. If you expect a big thing, probably you will be disappointed. But if you only want entertainment, some frights and lots of gory violence, here you can find some candy. I enjoyed it in the cinema, and will look forward to have it on my DVD collection.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3835080
