The other day I was trying to think of my *favorite* movie. And I don't think I can honestly answer that question. I know which movies I have seen the most (The Room, Jurassic Park) and which have to made it into the multiple watch category, but "favorite" just leaves too much room for interpretation. So I tried to think of qualities that I liked in movies/filmmakers, and one thing that kept coming up is commitment to an idea or tone. Films like Detention or Scott Pilgrim, that have a unique take/vibe and uncompromisingly stick to it, for good or bad. While I hate it in terms of politics, I like the "you're either with us or against us" concept in genre filmmaking.
And shortly thereafter I watched Rob Zombie's 31. Zombie very obviously has a unique style, and I'd say that 31 revels in that style more than any of his other films. He commits to a grimy, crusty, disgusting vibe and just goes with it. So while I admire that commitment, I have to say that just about everything else in 31 is really bad. I guess you need something like a comprehensible story, or competently shot action, or decent acting - otherwise you've just got some cool production stills and not much else.
My Synopsis: A group of traveling carnies gets their RV hijacked, and five of them are put into some sort of game called 31, where they are hunted by a variety of crusty/crazy characters. And for some reason, Malcolm McDowell and a couple of other aristocrats in powdered wig getups are gambling on it. Like a dingier horror version The Running Man.
Elaborate Genre: Crust-punk Circus Hillbilly Slasher
Overall: Not good. Some of the visuals are cool, but that's about it. The characters are annoying, the acting is sketchy, and the script is half-baked and doesn't really even try to explain anything. It feels a lot like a rough draft.
Really, there are only three things 31 has going for it, and two of them are actors. Meg Foster is engaging as one of the five carnie victims - her overall weathered look, and just the way Zombie shoots her, is more interesting than just about anything else you see in the film. There's more story in her face than there is in the rest of the movie. And Richard Brake gives an very memorable, very unhinged performance as main bad guy Doom Head (every psycho is named _____ Head in the film). And overall, 31 just looks cool. Zombie is no doubt an interesting director visually, and just about everything in the film has a nice, scuzzy look. From the warehouse sets to the characters outfits and facial hair, just about every scene has something cool to look at. The whole film looks like a really fancy-ass haunted house, which is what I assume Zombie was going for.
But even though it looks nice, it's not particularly well shot. The long, static shots are fine, but I just couldn't tell what was happening whenever there was some action onscreen. This was doubly a problem during the fight/stabby scenes. I don't know if it's the editing or the shaky cam or what, but it's hard to get too disturbed when you don't know what's going on. I mean, the concept of things is frightening - you see the scary clown guys with chainsaws and whatever, but if you can't figure out where they are in relation to our heroes, or how close they are when they are fighting, it just loses a lot of it's Oomph. And the sound design is kind of overkill too. There is a lot of weaponry sound effects, and I would bet that well over half of the dialogue in the film is yelled manically.
And that dialogue - woof. There are a couple of lines that are really, really bad, and poorly delivered to boot. (Most of these come courtesy of Sherri Moon Zombie. I'm certainly not a hater - I liked her fine in Lords of Salem, but 31 is clearly not her best work. She wears a great shirt in it though.) I watched this at a friend's house and can't get direct quotes, but on at least two occasions there was audible sighing going on.
So after thinking about it, I think 31 is just kind of a case of disgusting overkill. Every single character (with maybe the exception of Meg Foster's Venus Virgo) is just gross - both the "heroes" and the villains. When the entire cast is despicable, you don't have anyone to latch onto. The result isn't that you feel overwhelmed with grossness (which I assume was the intent) - you just don't care about any of it.
And I guess you also don't care because the story doesn't make any damn sense. I'm not sure what kind of operation these powdered-wigged folks are running, and I don't think there's any way for it to be coherent. So the script doesn't even bother to try explaining anything. But even if you grant that the whole Running Man thing could happen, internally it *still* doesn't make any sense. Malcolm McDowell's character updates and announces the odds each character faces for survival, so I suppose the rich folks are betting on it. But then they bet in a way that totally ignores those odds. (They're surrounded by totally nude women in masks, by the way. I'd think you'd want to keep your yearly killing game on the down low and keep staffing numbers light. But what do I know?) So whatever, 31.
That's about enough of that. I had heard bad things about 31, but knew that I'd have to see it sooner or later. Zombie still has one *great* movie (The Devil's Rejects) and a couple of good ones under his belt, and he's unique enough that I still want to see what he does. But 31 is a big mess.
I would not recommend this film.
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