Review of 31 (2016) by Ron T B — 17 Sep 2016

I'll start by saying that I am a fan of Rob Zombie's work, with The Devil's Rejects being his best and Halloween 2 being his worst in my opinion. I was really unsure what to think going into 31, since I was anxiously waiting for Lords of Salem, but left the theater quite disappointed.

This is what I will say about 31. I felt Zombie pulled a lot of inspiration from The Running Man and Battle Royale. It's quite violent and brutal with a dirty, gritty feel with an awesome soundtrack much like Rejects, which is one of the best parts. Hands down, my favorite part was the assassin Doom-Head played by Richard Brake; he stole every scene he was in. He felt like a second coming of Bill Moseley's Otis in Rejects.

The majority of the acting of our pack of protagonists led by Sherrie Moon Zombie and Jeff Daniel Phillips was pretty terrible. I imagine Rob Zombie wants to use his wife in his movies, but in this instance, I wonder if he forced her to take part because she felt like she just didn't care and her acting was by far the worst, almost laughable. I'm not saying she's an Oscar worthy actress by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought she was decent in Rejects and Lords.

I can look past the subpar acting for the most part, but the thing that really drove me nuts was the camera work. I understand the use of a handheld camera helps sell the idea of a chaotic situation, but it was definitely too shaky and overused. For me, it also took away some of the intensity of the kills. I felt Zombie did the same thing with his take on Halloween.

Another complaint was the edit. It felt very choppy at times, mainly in the first half of the game being played. Cutting away from a couple of the kills surprised me also. I mean come on, the movie was rated R, don't cut away like it's PG-13. I'm hoping Zombie releases an unrated, possibly director's cut blur-ray to see if they did in fact make cuts for the rating.

All and all, I'll say this isn't Zombie's best work, but certainly not his worst. I enjoyed the brutality and violence, but a few things needed work. I would recommend this to horror fans, especially if you are a fan of Rob Zombie's work.