Fitz of Horror Review of Rob Zombie’s “31”

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror)

I am a sucker for “limited” and “One night only” horror releases at my local theaters and the build up and viral marketing campaign for Rob Zombie’s new movie that features sadistic killer clowns has been nothing short of genius.

As soon as I heard it would be playing in my town, I immediately pre-ordered my tickets. This limited “One night only” extravaganza promised 2 world premier videos from Zombie’s new album, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, the director’s cut of the film, Q & A with Rob Zombie (pre recorded) and unique behind the scenes look at the “Making of 31”.

The festivities began right away with 1 of 2 world premier Rob Zombie videos and immediately I couldn’t help but notice that his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, was the star of the music video (more on that later), the music and videos were good but it planted the seed early of ” Does he really have to have his wife in EVERYTHING?”

The movie opens with our main evil clown, “Doom Head”, played brilliantly by Richard Brake (Batman Begins, Outpost, Game of Thrones) giving an ominous speech before brutally killing a victim.

We are then introduced to our main characters/victims, circa 1976,  Carnies traveling to their next event. From here the movie becomes kind of a cliche of all of Zombie’s other films. You will see characters that will no doubt remind you of other characters for the Rob Zombie universe.

As you can probably guess, our traveling 5 don’t make it to their next gig. Instead, they are captured and thrust into an anual game of “31” held by demented gamesman for the simple pleasure of seeing innocent people tortured and killed by their murderous clown henchmen.

All in all this movie was just OK. It felt like we had seen this from Zombie before and that the main characters were just recycled from his other movies…especially Sheri Moon Zombie. The dialogue was great in parts and too much in others. To me it felt like he just played it safe and used “Evil clowns” as a genius marketing ploy.

One thing that did bother me as a horror fan and a fan of Zombie’s, is the point in the Q & A after the movie, Zombie states that he was creatively “stuck” making his other film The Broad Street Bullies” so he took a break and just “came up with the first shit idea off the top of his head” for a movie that would appeal to horror fans and 31 was it, oh and that his personal favorite film he’s done is Halloween 2.

I am still a fan and will no doubt add this to my collection with his other movies but with the statements that were made and the mediocre effort put forward on this film, I am 1 or 2 bad movies away from giving up on his new stuff.