FRIGHT FEST: SMALLS FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE WITH ROB ZOMBIE'S 31

Why is it that I keep watching Rob Zombie films? I like the guy, but his films more often than not are terrible. Luckily, this is one of his better films.

It's October 31, 1976 and a group of traveling, foul-mouthed, redneck carnies are kidnapped by warped aristocrats and forced to play a game called 31 where, for 12 hours, they must survive against a murderous horde of psychopaths.   I have to give Zombie some credit here. While his characters all start out as disgusting, ugly people by the end I was surprised to find I had grown to like some of them (including some of the psychos too). These characters would be victims Venus (Meg Foster) and Roscoe (Jeff Daniel Phillips), and psychos Sick-Head (a bilingual Nazi midget who speaks mainly Spanish with some English interspersed throughout played by Pancho Moler) and Doom-Head (A truly despicable character played by Richard Brake. He looks pretty cool in his get-up during the last act and has some of the film's best lines). It's a tough feat to start out with unlikable characters and find a way to bring the audience somewhat onto their sides, but Zombie kind of pulls it off (Here's a pat on the back Zombie). I also have to give Zombie props for using Aerosmith's Dream On and The Mama's and Papa's California Dreaming on the soundtrack.

As for the film itself, the script is pretty bad (par for the course for Zombie) and it's one of his ugliest films to watch. All the kill scenes are punctuated by shaky cam shots so it's kind of hard to make out what's going on on-screen (confusing and frustrating). There is basically no plot and our characters are thinly developed (including the psychos). The first 24 minutes are pretty tough to get through as we are introduced to our victims (This part is just the group talking worse than a 5 dollar hooker and making many sexual references). I was also shocked that almost all of Zombie's usual surreal/imaginative visual imagery and atmosphere was absent here. That said, I did find the film entertaining in a bad B-movie/ Grindhouse flick kind of way (I also will never understand why Zombie keeps featuring his wife in his films. Sheri-Moon is pretty bad here, which is confusing because I saw that she could actually act in his previous flick: Lords of Salem).

Rob Zombie's 31 is filled to the brim with blood, gore, some of the foulest language ever sampled, murder, lots of nudity (We see everything here, and I was none too impressed by it honestly), bad lines (sometimes so bad they're funny), and general chaos and anarchy. Naturally 31 won't be for everyone, but if you are a Zombie fan then I'd say it may be worth a watch.

2 STARS