Director: Rob Zombie
Notable Cast: Sheri
Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Kevin Jackson, Malcolm McDowell, Meg Foster,
Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, Daniel Roebuck,
Elizabeth Daily, Tracey Walter
Love him or hate him, Rob Zombie knows how to keep people
talking. To say the least, his films are divisive and his style even more so
within that same discussion. While I appreciate the love and style that Zombie
brings to the table, it’s hard for me to say that I have ever loved anything he
has done. His best, the often overlooked The
Lords of Salem, was a huge step
forward for him as it toned down his manic style, delivered tension, and showed
an improvement in his writing – my main issue with his work. Needless to say, I
was rather stoked for 31, his latest
love letter to grindhouse 70s cinema, because if he could somehow combine the
restrained thoughtfulness of The Lords of Salem with the energetic visual
and brutal onslaught of his earlier work, it would be a grand success. That
does not happen in 31. 31 is a step back. 31 is a film that knows no restraint. 31 will have its fans for its gratuitous gore, violence, sex, and
vulgarity, but 31 is also something
of a shit show when it comes to being a good film beyond its excessiveness. Take
about disappointment.
 |
| Mourning for characters is for good writers. Not Rob Zombie. |
At this point, Rob Zombie’s style of gritty 70s inspired
grindhouse cinema has not risen above a gimmick and 31 might be worse off for it. There is a ton of potential in this
film and there are these shining moments of inspired horror that seep through and
it almost makes the experience more frustrating as the audience sees what might
have been. The concept is fun and many of the secondary performances are worthy
of a second look, particularly the main villain Doomhead whom kicks off and
ends the movie on high notes with his intensity, insanity, and sheer evil
screen presence. However, the film finds itself on shaky ground thanks to many
of Rob Zombie’s artistic and style choices. Frame shifts, grainy visuals, and
horrendous shaky cam make many of the more intense ‘battles’ of the film damn
near unwatchable. What might have been a fun chainsaw fight is castrated by
editing and blurry focus and an intense scene where a female clown named
Sexhead (face palm) attacks one of the protagonists is undercut by a stobe
light that feels like it has violated my rights as a human being. Rob Zombie’s
style comes first and foremost in 31,
the rest of the film be damned if need be.
The writing here, while pretty poor, is standard Rob Zombie
affair. Zombie does vulgar for the sake of vulgar and while I was sincerely
disappointed with it, the audience at my screening was eating it up. It’s too
bad that 31 often mistakes vulgarity
for charm. As the various characters are introduced we see that they are all,
essentially, assholes. Rob Zombie likes to use this in his films, but here the
assholishness seems particularly uninspired and their penchant for telling
terrible vulgar jokes, smoking weed while making fun of Jamaican accents, and
just generally being unlikable did nothing for the rest of the movie and its
narrative. Even when characters start to step up and become “heroic” as the insanity
heightens, no one cares and the audience cheered for their deaths. It’s hard to
care when all the characters try to shock and disgust and then try to win the
audience over with their conversion to hero. It just didn’t work and when it’s
partnered with patchy performances (Sheri Moon Zombie is par for the course in
mediocre to terrible performances), 31
doesn’t inspire the connection for the audience to actually give two shits.
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| Clowns don't need shirts. Never really have. |
This is only one problem with the writing too as the film jams
in as many weird moments of imagery as possible. Now I mentioned the villainous
Doomhead as one of the better selling points for the film earlier, but he’s not
the only clown in town to lay down some hurt. However, the others range from cliché
(clowns with chainsaws) to just plain dumb (a Hispanic midget with a love for
Nazi imagery). At times the feeling of ‘anything goes’ when it comes to the
violence and sex can be its own selling point for audiences, the film did
receive an enthusiastic applause when it finished, it just feels as though it
was in there for the sake of being there rather than having a rhyme or reason. Why
does the midget clown sport an Easter rabbit costume head when he shows up? Why
does the film oddly include a dream sequence where two dead clowns show up to
tell vulgar jokes? Why is there a scene where Doomhead pops up to tell our
protagonists to go outside before awkwardly fading into showing our
protagonists outside? Perhaps 31 was
gunning for a dream like quality, but that would be giving the film the benefit
of the doubt and honestly, 31 feels
like Rob Zombie being as much Rob Zombie as possible instead of actually needing
a reason for the film’s narrative.
As a result, 31 is
easily one of Rob Zombie’s worst films to date. It doesn’t trump Halloween II in just how bad it is, but
it’s right down there with it. The film tries to replicate the nightmarish
manic energy of his debut House of 1000
Corpses and incorporate more of the 70s grindhouse feel of The Devil’s Rejects, but it fails to
succeed at either. There are moments of inspiration in the film and when they
show up it’s just a sad reminder of what 31
might have been if Rob Zombie focused down on writing a movie with sense versus
hoping that his scattershot style will carry it. This film will find its cult
audience like every Rob Zombie movie does and I hope with the proper
expectations that fans out there will enjoy it for the big ball of vulgarity
that it is, but for me it was simply disappointing on every level.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
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