Review : 31

Rob Zombie's track records with movies has so far been hit or miss, with more in the win column. The main problem with the movie is in the screen play. There are some good ideas at work. Zombie works best when emulating the acid crazed world depicted in his band's old music videos. The over grown Riff Raff that is Death and the more Harley Quinn inspired Sex. I have heard complaints that you do not care for the characters because they are scum bags, and I think that this just plays off of the whole, don't have sex in woods moral that is behind most of the slasher films that are post- Psycho.  The antagonists in this movie are more of a problem than the victims and I think this is partially due to how they are written.

First we have the midget Nazi who is ironically Hispanic. That formula is funny, but is the aim of the movie be funny or scary? The chainsaw wielding clowns are alright and I like the girl mummified in the sex doll. It was at this point in the movie that it was clear they characters were just going to make the same don't go in basement mistakes conventionally horror movies are filled with. Going into this I hoped for more technicolored spectacle that Zombie is know for rather than the warehouse this was shot it. Sure it gave it grit, but I am not sure that it gave it the best ambiance as we have seen that type of environment already in the Saw movies and changing it up would have helped contrast it and set it aside as of right now Saw would be one of the movies this will get compared to.

The gore was almost Tokyo Gore Police at times. In many cases the violence was handled more tastefully than expected, there were many things that worked about this movie and the I was able to watch it all in one sitting with out getting bored says something too, I think Zombie should bring writers to help him. I would not call this movie torture porn as no actual torture occurs. I think it's a survival film that falls short of Battle Royal standards, but beats the hell out of the Hunger Games.