#12 - 31 (2016)

31 (2016)

(dir. Rob Zombie)

Rednecks, Sheri Moon Zombie, carnies, clowns, southern rock, brutal violence... yep, this checks all the boxes on the Rob Zombie movie scorecard.  It feels closest to House of 1000 Corpses than any other of his films, which is either good or bad depending on how much you like that movie.  Personally I really enjoyed The Lords of Salem and would've liked to see him explore some other areas of the horror genre, but this return to his "roots" isn't bad thing either.

On Halloween, group of carnies on their way to the next town are stopped and kidnapped by a group of sadists who have them play a game called "31", where the goal is to stay alive for 12 hours while being hunted by a series of murderous psychopaths.  The killers have names like Doom-head, Sick-head, and Psycho-head, and they range in appearance from a hispanic nazi dwarf to killer clowns.  Doom-head is by far the scariest and most memorable, and his portrayal by Richard Brake is probably the highlight of the film.

If you don't already like Rob Zombie, this is definitely not the movie that will sway you, but for fans of his I think it's a decent movie, just not one of his best.