438: 31 (2016)

This week have decided we're checking out Rob Zombie's 31 (2016). We look back on its road to production, question the efficacy of its characters, and discuss the impact of its third act. This episode contains spoilers, beginning at 26:44.

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Mentioned in the Episode

Watch the Movie

31 (2016)

Related Episodes

Episode 136: House of 1,000 Corpses (2003)

Episode 235: The Munsters (2022)

Episode 280: The Devil's Rejects (2005)

Main Episode

Episode 96: The Purge (2013)

Episode 117: Hell Fest (2018)

Episode 411: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Episode 435: Scream 7 (2026)

Rob Zombie Talks Insane Clowns and Crowdfunding His New Film '31'

AFM: Rob Zombie Moving Forward With Halloween Horror Film '31'

Saban Films is Acquiring North American Rights to Rob Zombie's Horror Thriller "31" Starring Sheri Moon Zombie & Malcolm McDowell

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Music Credits

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Everybody wants to be a cat. Rob Zombie once had an idea, and it started with a statistic. He had read that Halloween is the number one day of the year for missing first acts, and he thought it sounded like the premise for a film. Five people disappear on October 31st. But getting it made was another question entirely. Zombie actually worked outside of the system by going directly to his fans and launched two crowdfunding campaigns to help finance the project, eventually producing the film for around $1.5 million. When the project was first announced, those very fans speculated that it might be connected to his Halloween films. Instead, it was an original story set on Halloween night in 1976, two years before Carpenter's Classic. The film follows five carnival co-workers who are kidnapped and taken to a compound where they are forced into adapt the game. And their objective is simple: survive 12 hours while a gang of clowns hunts them through the maze. This week we're talking about 31. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We're a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Total joke, a waste of time.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Or a slash.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur, Sean.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Count yourselves lucky, you got fucked by the best.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

The people have spoken, and our patrons are the ones you can thank for this week's film.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

And if you support the show, you'll also get to hear our B-side at the end of this episode where we just kind of dive into all things Rob Zombie. What's cool about this episode is actually nominated by Meat, who said, This episode is special to me because as a Rob Zombie fan, this was his directorial return in over a decade back to the murder hillbilly slasher genre that he excels at. And as a fan of that genre, this checks all the boxes of a Rob Zombie film. Over-the-top gore, batshit crazy characters, a killer soundtrack, and dialogue that would send your pastor to the hospital. I love the mixed bag of killers and survivors alike, all being super unique and Sherry Moon Zombie as a character that feels more grounded for once. I think that this is a Richard Brake's best villain performance he has given as this Joker-esque character, Doomhead, that he hammers home within the first 10 minutes of the movie. This movie is so quotable in the worst ways, and it is a hundred percent slash that is a great way to kick open the doors on any October watch list.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Listen, with a high praise like that, me, we can't wait for October to get this movie into the lineup. So thankfully, your friends in the Patreon community agreed. And we're here to break it down. Now, Sean, I'm assuming, of course, that you've seen this before.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Oh, yeah, I definitely have seen this. I own this movie, just like I own every Rob Zombie film. I remember this one coming out and also just like Meet as a Rob Zombie fan, this one being his first crowdfunded film. There was a promise for this to be one for the fans. And we wanted to see another film like House of a Thousand Corpses. And so I definitely watched this one when it released, and I own it, and yeah, I've seen it many times.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

You bet I've never seen this movie. And I also wasn't sure if this felt inside or outside the chronology of films. I think of Rob Zombies filmography as being sequels to one another, even though that's not the case. But I was like, where the fuck is the Firefly family gonna come into this? And when I considered going into this movie, I went in with the lowest of expectations. Sean, you know the only Rob Zombie movie I've enjoyed is The Monsters.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I know.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Religious to so many Rob Zombie fans, I'm so sure. But what I have appreciated about his films is that there are components of them that I like. It's just a large majority of it that I don't, or a point in which I solidly stop enjoying it. Uh Devil's Rejects was that way. There's a lot that I enjoyed in that movie, but the things that I disliked, I disliked way more than I enjoyed the others. House of a Thousand Corpses, I really liked until it it stopped being something that I liked. It kind of likes 7 in that way. But despite those low expectations and not having a great track record with Rob Zombie, I was absolutely taken aback when this movie opens with Doomhead, Richard Brake, talking directly in the camera in black and white. I'm immediately locked in. I'm immediately paying attention. That's not where I expected to be. Two minutes in. I couldn't tell if this was a frame for a story, if this was him talking directly to us or to another character. Obviously, that gets revealed moments in. But even within that, I was like, this is probably the best looking thing Rob Zombie has ever shot. Like, truly, this is like the best still I've ever seen in a Rob Zombie movie. That was surprising for me to see.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, it is an interesting thing. Like the opening for this film really does catch your attention. It's really one of the best opens that Rob Zombie has done in a film. And I think opening with that quote from Kafka as well, and I think with Doomhead, and you get this, it's just the opening sets the tone for the film, but then it goes in and you get this very grindhouse, grimy, gritty feel. Rob Zombie, you know, loves that backwoods trash feel. He loves his film set in the 1970s. It's not a secret that one of his favorite films is Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So this really fits the theme. It's his track record, but it's it's the vibe that you get. Now, we might not get the strong Texas Chainsaw ties like House of a Thousand Corpses, but we definitely get all of everything else in this movie. And you just gotta love everything that he puts into the movie, even the intentional soundtracks from everything from like James Gang, Al Bowley, Leonard Skinnard, the Mamas and the Papas. You got Aerosmith, you even got his ex-guitar player, John Five, playing during the credits, like the music to the gritty grindhouse 70s backwoods trash feel to that all the way, and you just rewind it all the way to that beginning. It's a it's a vibe for sure. This movie.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

And oh my gosh, the soundtrack was actually something that I really enjoyed. I was shocked by how much fun I was having. Hey, despite some things and in spite of other things. One thing that I will note is there's some stuff that I disliked in here, but not because of the classic Rob Zombie gripes that I usually have. I found that once the actual game gets going in this movie, there are stretches that feel like it drags for me. And there's a performance in the film that continues to be a weak point for me in Rob Zombie's work. We're gonna talk about that in the second half. But something that I genuinely didn't see coming was that I started rooting for these people. I didn't expect to start caring about any of these people. And, you know, typically I think of Sherry Moon Zombie in a movie, for example, aside from the monsters or Halloween, she's usually part of the central force of people who are just like up to no good. And taking his his casting crew, his collection of folks that he's in in every movie, and seeing them put in a different position in this movie was really interesting to me.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, I think it is different, right? I think you're you're thinking of coming off of the track record leading up to this film. You're coming off of House of a Thousand Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, you know, you're you're coming off of the Firefly family. So you're thinking, maybe you're gonna get something like this, but he kind of flips it around, right? And I think it's definitely a little bit different. And I think even to what you were touching on as we opened this episode, fans were speculating as this movie was coming out on like how what this was gonna be, if it was gonna tie into his Halloween films. And maybe people were surprised that it didn't, right? And I think what took me by surprise when watching this one for the first time really was this whole 31 game of it all, right? It's like this this Hunger Games meets runner man meets purge vibes that was going on in this movie. What ends up for me, I think, kind of being disappointing is how strong this movie started with such a polarizing character, such as Doomhead, and then having to wait so long to see him again.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

You highlighted the exact composition of movies. I guess that's how basic this feels at a surface level, right? The same exact notes about what this movie felt like. One thing that surprised me, and we'll get into a disappointment in just a moment, but I was shocked going back to that introduction of Doomhead, just how good this movie looked. Like there's a lot of intention here in the composition of these shots, and I don't feel like I always get that from Rob Zombie. I feel like I saw that in the Halloween remake or his version of Halloween. I feel like I saw that in a couple other moments in some of his films, but this one felt more restrained than usual, except where we get some action E sequences later on that are like a little it's it's a lot, and that's where I think he gets into the hunger games of it all. But the disappointment for me, Sean, was in the entire climax of the movie. And it's because there's a moment near the end where the tension is completely deflated. It's it's like something so tropey, so stereotypical of a villain to do. This thing happens, and then it's like, well, this feels like it amounted to almost nothing. This actually was another one of those moments where I was like, damn, I was actually here for most of the way, and then you lost me in the end. You had me in the first half, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, definitely an interesting way to end the film. And you know, it's it's left can't kind of ambiguous in a sense, but still, when you think of everything that led up to get there, it's just a very interesting way to land the plane. And was it effective? Was it not? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I think that's exactly why I struggle with this movie being even considered as remotely scary. There's nothing in here that screams horror movie to me. It screams violent for sure, a little unsettling in some ways. But I will say this does feel distinct in that it doesn't feel like a classic slasher. I I I mean, obviously, Meat talked about this murder genre that Rob Zombie has. But even then, this feels different from his other work that I've seen. I think there are moments in here where you get, for example, a villain whose voice alone is creepy as hell. It's rhythmic, it's unsettling, and that lands. But that entire middle segment of the movie, and then what feels like metallic lightsaber duels and just like a really strange ending sucks all the fear right out of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, the fear in this movie comes from maybe its mean-spirited brutality overall, maybe just the chaotic energy of the film. It's definitely not a traditional horror type movie, like it doesn't really fit in just to the slasher genre. And I don't know, I really don't know what it is. I know that you know, Rob Zombie obviously debuted House of a Thousand Corpses, very, very similar parallels, and he even admits to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, very heavily inspired by. And even when you look at interviews with Rob Zombie and he talks about going into the Devil's Rejects, knowing that he did not want to do another film where a group of people land at a random house with some fucked up people and they do some fucked up shit and they have to try to survive. He didn't want to do that same old song and dance. But then you get a movie like this where sure you don't have a house per se, but you are kind of getting that same formula just in, I don't know, in the form of a game. Maybe you can call it a maze. It actually kind of feels like you're walking through a haunted house where the props are trying to come after you, in essence, is what it kind of feels like to me.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

If you've been to any haunts attraction where you have a chainsaw wielding clown, you've seen this movie. I hate to break it to you.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

You see, yeah, you've seen these guys. It's one of those movies, I think, though, where you can, like if obviously very far-fetched, but it's one of those movies where if you put yourself in this type of situation, that's where it gets a little bit scary. As wild as this movie is, I guess if you could put yourself in a saw situation, right? It's that kind of vibe. How often is that actually going to happen in real life? Probably not often, if at all, right? Because it's pretty over the top. But when you start to think about what you would do in this situation and you start to wonder what it would be like or how you would handle being put in a situation like this, maybe that's where you're trying to tap into the fear.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

I don't know about that, dog. There are other movies, like we talk about the Hunger Games of it all. Hunger Games is something that I can feel more readily scared of than this movie. And it really is because it struggles with committing to what I think is most frightening about this movie. And I think the characters are so unrelatable that it's like I can't even possibly do that. Now, you take this same thing, put other people in it. Think of like a Hellfest, for example, where people show up at a haunt or the movie Haunts, for example. There are other ways that I think this could have played on that, but this just didn't do it for me in that regard. Yeah, I want to actually go back to this because Sean, you mentioned if this is Halloween with the purge and the Hunger Games and the Running Men, that's not a dig, right? It's just an accurate assessment of the DNA of this movie. There's a group of people, a game, a clock, survive, die, do whatever you want. But what I find interesting about this is the framing device surrounding it. We have some characters, and this is where it taps into a little bit of the purge. It is treated as gamification and sport, and I find that interesting. But what's also interesting is that there's another film that I haven't mentioned yet that this reminded me of. I'm sure you'll know the moment exactly when I say this, Sean. Rocky Horror Picture Show.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah, that moment happens in this movie, and I'm like, oh, okay, so this is the level of shenanigans that we're up to. This is a blender of arguably better, more entertaining movies, but done in a way that feels still distinct for Rob Zombie.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yeah, is it so the movie itself isn't groundbreaking, and I don't think it's even trying to be. Obviously, it's Rob Zombie's movie, so to speak, for the fans, but it also kind of feels like another Rob Zombie movie where it's maybe just his love letter to his inspirations.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

John, I have a question for you. From a Rob Zombie non-believer to a Rob Zombie truther, is there anything Rob Zombie does cinematically that is groundbreaking? Leave music out of the equation. But is there anything he does cinematically in his films that's truly groundbreaking?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

I mean, I guess you would have to define groundbreaking, but I don't think there's anything that would be anything that he's doing in his films that is just, yeah, like just wow factor that's just crazy unique or anything like that. I think obviously he's just someone that is just a really in love with horror as a whole and grew up with it, right? And I think that it shows in the movies he tries to put out. I think despite a lot of heavily inspired, you know, nods, callbacks, whatever it feels like, I do think each time he sets out to do a film, it does feel like he's trying to do something a little bit different. Like if you go from House of a Thousand Corpses to the Devil's Rejects, to his Halloween films, to this movie, even to Lords of Salem. I just think each thing he's trying to do something a little bit different, which I think is interesting, but groundbreaking, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

And that's where I want to really dig in here, Sean, because you mentioned House of a Thousand Corpses very Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's Halloween. He does a lot of different things with Halloween, but at the end of the day, you're looking at Halloween. I think what he did with Halloween 2 is probably the most accurate to like an original take on it. And it's not I'm not saying it's a great one that I love, but it is different. But then you have this movie, and I think the only thing that I've seen of him that I would say is definitely original, but even then it's like to what degree is The Devil's Rejects. And again, I'm not familiar and well-versed with his entire filmography, but it sounds like if I were to take any song and then play you the glee version of that song, it's good. Sometimes they do something a little bit different, but it's distinctly just the glee version. And that's what I feel like Rob Zombie does to his films.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

At this point, just do a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, Rob. Just do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Like a Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

It is waiting to happen. It's perfect for him. He should just fucking do it. And I'm sure it'll be great.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

It probably would be great because it would just fit the theme so well. I really am curious. What is Rob Zombie gonna do next? You know, what is he what's up his sleeve? What has he got in his agenda? Is he even trying to do another movie? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Whatever he does next, I hope it's better than the ending of this movie because this ending is where it all fall apart for me. Now I'm gonna keep this spoiler-free, but the movie does the work in the first two acts, right? It builds something. I was invested in people that I didn't expect to be invested in, and that is such high praise for a film for him. Then the third act just doesn't close it out, it really fumbles the bag. I feel like there's tension that I had that got deflated at exactly the wrong moment. The film ends on this ambiguous note that it doesn't pay off or really justify what came before it. So I'm less I'm left with this feeling where it's giving this could have been an email. It's giving it it amounts to nothing.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, it wasn't even the third act, really, for me. I think the movie was entertaining. I think the characters, you know, I also was rooting for them in a weird way. I think it really I was invested in the story, but I think it's not really just the third act. I I didn't really have a problem with that. I think it's really just the final moments of the film. I really think it's literally the last 10 minutes of the film, is where it kind of lost me a little bit because of how abruptly the tone changes. And then after that abrupt tone change, you get a little bit more, and then you're just like, What's happening here? And the ambiguity of it all. Did we need it? I don't know. That's the interesting thing. So the ending definitely wasn't the strongest part of the film.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

It sure wasn't. Now, I can't wait to see if it was enough to actually tank the entire experience. But before we actually rate the film, Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

The gore is pretty high in this one, but it's a specific type of gore that ultimately fits Rob Zombie's grindhouse style. It's not constant bloodshed, but when it hits, it's definitely ugly. It's chaotic, it's mean. The gore, I think, is shot in these dim, grimy environments and is more focused on the brutality than the actual visual spectacle of it all. And so 31 doesn't just spill blood, it drags you through it, grindhouse style, earning itself, I would say, a solid medium high gore score.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

For as wild and fucked up as all of the characters and the antagonists in this movie are, there is no harm to animals, thankfully.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Absolutely wild, feels at the bare minimum you could have done. Let's go ahead and get into it then. 31 from 2016 by Rob Zombie. Was it a hack or slash?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Well, 31 is the kind of movie that almost feels like it comes with a disclaimer. You probably need to be a fan of Rob Zombie to really, I think, fully enjoy the ride, or at least for the most part. And I think honestly, that might be the point. 31 plays less like this mainstream horror film and more like a grimy, blood-splattered love letter to the fans who have been kind of riding Zombies Carnival of Chaos since House of a Thousand Corpses. The premise is pure exploitation and filled with exactly the grotesque personalities that his fans would expect out of a Rob Zombie film. But the real standout being Richard Brake as Doomhead, who delivers one of the most memorable villain performances in Zombies' entire filmography. That said, though, 31 definitely has its rough edges. Even some fans admit that the movie occasionally feels like zombies throwing everything. Every grimy grindhouse idea at the wall just to kind of see what sticks. And you can kind of sometimes feel that tone throughout the movie. But for the faithful, that's also kind of part of the charm. The sleazy carnival aesthetic, the vulgar humor, the blood-soaked brutality, it all feels like Zombie leaning fully into the world he's built over the years. And in many ways, 31 isn't really trying to win over new audiences with this film. It's really just inviting longtime fans deeper into the funhouse of his mind and what he loves. And I think it may not be his most polished film. Visually, there's some really great stuff with this film, but it's loud, it's vicious, it's unapologetically Rob Zombie. And sometimes that's exactly the kind of Halloween night chaos you actually want. And so I think that, you know, despite the rough edges and the absurd plot, this one still gets a slash in my book.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

I love that for you, Sean. And I want you to know for the first time since your very first episode on this podcast, I was 75% of the way through a Rob Zombie movie and thought, oh, this isn't that bad. I mean, it's not perfect, but I'm having fun with it. I'm enjoying some of it. But then it circled into firmly being a hack for me. Now, and I I want to be clear, I'm not saying that this is a hack because it's Rob Zombie. I'm really not. This doesn't even suffer from a lot of what I've disliked in his other work. I for sure prefer this realistically, I think, to House of a Thousand Corpses. I think House of a Thousand Corpses started stronger than this. I think there are components of the Devil's Rechex that is stronger than this, but as a whole product, I think that I find this less painful to get through. It might also be one of the better looking movies that he's done, and that performance reached a break is nothing to sneeze at. My issue with this movie is that it kind of amounts to nothing. And there's real potential here. And I I wish it could be different. I was rooting for this. I was rooting for you, but then the ending tanked it. And I said the same thing about Scream 7. I'll say it again here. A bad ending can undo a lot of good work and a lot of goodwill that's been earned. I trusted you and you scammed me a little bit. This is what I get for trusting you. I might come back around on this one. I think what I want to do is get through the rest of his filmography and then maybe do a ranking for myself of where that where this falls in that lineup. But for now, this one is very disappointingly a hack. And with that, 31 from 2016, as selected by our patrons and nominated by Meat, is walking away with one slash and one hack. And we have so much more to discuss when we get back from our spoiler break. So stick around and we will unpack these spoilers together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

This episode of Hacker Slash is brought to you by the Terraplex, the only haunted house attraction that asks the question: why pretend to die when you can actually experience it? Tired of haunted houses where the chainsaws are fake, the blood is corn syrup, and the teenagers running the place apologize when they scare you? At the Teraplex, we believe in authentic horror. Every room is staffed by professionally unhinged maniacs who are contractually obligated to hunt you like a confused extra in a grindhouse nightmare. Step right up and spin the murder wheel where your fate is decided by beloved mascots like Doomhead, our customer service representative with a smile so wide it's legally considered a weapon. Stickhead, who's here to prove clowns can absolutely get worse. And Sexhead, because nothing says romance like homicidal interpretive dance. Each room features immersive experiences like the Chainsaw Corridor, where the props are real and the OSHA violations are even realer. Clown Alley, where laughter is mandatory mostly because it masks the screaming. The Lord's Lounge, watch wealthy elites gamble on how long you'll last before becoming the decor. And don't worry about the waivers, you'll sign 31 of them before entering, each one lovingly notarized by a guy named Tiny, who definitely isn't legally allowed to notarize anything. At the Teraplex, we don't just break the fourth wall, we break a fourth rib. So come on down and ask yourself the question everyone in a Rob Zombie movie eventually asks: why did we get in this fucking van? Welcome to the Terraflex. You came for the haunted house, but the house came for you. They're messy and aggressive. And most of the kills feel like desperate fights rather than staged horror set pieces. Instead of clean cinematic kills, the violence in this movie often turns into these frantic struggles. And the 15 kills that we get in this movie, they're not really about clever tricks. They're about chaotic, blood-soaked survival where every fight feels like someone wildly trying to slash their way out of a maze of nightmares. And you get the really shaky camera work when this is happening. It feels like there's a lot going on. But I gotta know, Chris, which of these kills stood out to you?

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Oh, it's for sure for me the one that I found to be the most satisfying. And it was not even close. It's Sickhead. And it's one of the earlier ones that we get. It's not the most elaborate, it's not the most gruesome, but it is for me the most satisfying, Sean. I think that matters more in this moment because this is a character who came in loud. He came in creepy as fuck, obnoxious. I loved his voice so much. I hated his voice, but I loved it so much.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

And let's also just highlight the swastika painting on his chest tells you everything you need to know about this motherfucker. And when he finally goes down, it's because someone you weren't expecting steps up at exactly the right moment. And that's what I loved most. This movie didn't make it quick. He takes a while to actually die. It feels like he suffers a bit, and I was fine with every fucking second of it.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah. I think what's really interesting in this movie, and we can get back into different kills, and but just to kind of hone in on what you're saying here, is what's interesting about this film is normally we're kind of going through a horror film. You're getting the antagonist doing these brutal kills to the protagonists, right? The villain is coming around and killing a bunch of people, and you're you're watching those deaths. And what's interesting about this film is it, you know, there's deaths on both ends, don't get me wrong. The deaths that are really brutal and in and like in your face are a lot of times the antagonists in this film. And so it almost kind of flips around in this movie, which I think is a very interesting direction. It's it's an interesting choice for sure. And it I think that's what allows you to kind of root for these characters a little bit because you're getting a little bit of that rah-rah-rah, where you're seeing like the teamwork come together, you're they're fighting back, you know, they're vulnerable. You don't really expect it. Also, in the beginning, you're thinking, like, oh, here we go. These guys are gonna be chasing them down through this warehouse, wherever the fuck they are, one by one, they're gonna get got. There's no way this group of carnies are gonna make it out of here. And lo and behold, they start fighting back. And, you know, they might not all make it out alive. In fact, really only one of them does, but they do put up quite a bit of a fight. And so, even starting with Sickhead and the brutality of like taking him down, also as a character, just absolutely ridiculous. The swastika with the fluent in Spanish going on here, like, just you just don't like come on.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Let me tell you, what I didn't fucking need in this movie, and I almost rated this movie a slash just so I could talk about this is the worst part of the movie. Not only was the Nazi speaking Spanish, but it was Sherry Moon's zombie speaking Spanish. It was a little ridiculous. That was played for a comedic bit.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah, it was wild. I will say though, if we're going down the trajectory of some of these antagonists, I think just the duality of Psycho and Schizohead going down because these two were fucking wild, and even it just the just the dialogue that was happening between these two was absolutely grotesque. I mean, they're definitely not right in the head. It just their title speaks for itself. This group of supposedly brother psycho schizo clowns that are just here to kill and I guess rape is what they're all about. Watching them go down was pretty fucking satisfying. I mean, tripped by Roscoe, right? Landing psycho head on his own chainsaw and then held down by Venus and literally shredded in half was so fucking satisfying.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

It was satisfying to see and think of every fucking chainsaw wielding clown that's jumped out at you at Halloween Horror Nights. But also in true Rob Zombie fashion, because Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface, doesn't do shit with that chainsaw in his first movie, he just cuts his own leg.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

It's just the running gag that you know you'll never be able to redeem yourself unless somebody decides to remake Texas Chainsaw like completely and fucking put that chainsaw to use. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Yeah, the Texas Meat Hook Massacre. You can call this movie anything else, Texas Barbecue Massacre. But in that first film, it was not a chainsaw massacre.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah, pretty wild. Did like also seeing Schizohead getting decapitated with the chainsaw by Panda. So the chainsaw in a double use against these two was pretty good, you gotta admit.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah, no, I can get down with that. I actually also really liked when sex head was choked, and I was like, finally, you can we came around to it. This girl was flirting her way in the beginning of this movie. It was so satisfying to see her go at the end.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Oh, I know. Getting choked with the chain and then the throat like sliced open and just seeing the blood spew out, pretty gnarly for sure. Uh you know, someone that we probably didn't expect to last as long as she did, Venus made it pretty fucking far into this movie. Unfortunately, her demise was also pretty brutal, getting stabbed multiple times, gutted by Doomhead. But it did take for us to get to Doomhead for her to go down, so I'll give her that. But it was also just the way she was propped up afterwards, all mutilated on that X-Cross looking thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, I was really sad to see her go. I really was hoping, especially when they started to share the odds and really just how everybody was gonna shake out by the end of it. I wanted the odds to continuously be in her favor. Now, someone that I do want to shout out is someone who did not make it very far into the movie at all. And I want to go back to that Rocky Horror Picture moment because there is that beat where the surviving group is forced to consume one of their own. Oh and it's absolutely Meatloaf's Eddie. It's not telegraphed, it just happens and you sit with it, and that is one of the unhinged details that I could appreciate about this movie. And when I look back on it now, I'm like, damn, they really just ripped that right out of the playbook. But also, why was that one of the better parts?

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah, it definitely was a very, very strong nod, we'll call it to Rocky Horror Picture Show. And listen, really, you know, it was still a great scene, definitely almost the exact same thing, but it was great. It was great. I mean, just the whole the whole crew just slowly starting to eat and and just say, okay, like let's let's it's a free food, and then the reveal of the tablecloth and seeing their dead buddy Levon under there. Whew, that's wild. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Are you throwing up that meat?

SPEAKER_01 34:51

I you know what? I don't know. I probably would gag initially. However, if I'm really hungry and that's my survival, I might have to do what I have to do, Levon. I'm sorry. If you're making it taste good, if it's a nice meat pie with some gravy, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

I want to point out, Sean, that these motherfuckers have not been gone three weeks without eating. Their whole challenge, start to end, was 12 hours. People have fasted for far longer than 12 hours. That man did not have to eat anybody.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

They're like, we gotta eat, it's we gotta be fool bellies.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Have you seen what people are like in a food coma?

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah, that's true. Don't eat too much, you'll be just tired and lazy.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Genuinely. But I will say that I think back to that scene, and it is a great example of how much I enjoy and really love the cinematography in this movie, even jumping into the beginning, right? This movie leverages a lot of shallow depth of field. I think even that beginning scene, the camera is pressed against Doomhead's face. It feels intimate, it's such a specific choice, and it's something that felt restrained, controlled, and measured. Whereas I feel like so often in Rob Zombie's film, I never get that feeling from the camera work.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Yeah, the cinematography was really, really well done. The camera work was well done. We can continue to talk about that. It is definitely one of the better works of Rob Zombie for sure. I also think is the use of colors in this movie, too, was actually visually appealing. And you know, it starts off with the black and white that kind of draws you in. It slowly goes into color, which is good. And then as we get into the game of 31, every piece of that game, there's just these really like vibrant colors that just stand out, and I feel like it makes the film really, really nice to look at, to be honest with you. It really kind of draws you in.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

It really does. I deeply respect this movie for what it does cinematically. I also want to highlight the set design because uh Rob Zombie's sets and his films always feel grimy, but somehow this didn't feel dusty and grimy. It does a little bit in the beginning, let's be clear. Like on the road trip for sure. What I appreciate is that this is kind of like this industrial labyrinth, and as everybody's running through it, it adds like a nice layer of texture, and it also feels like a real place. I couldn't imagine ever being stuck in this place, but it feels a little bit more real to me than some of what I've seen in his other films.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, it definitely does for sure. We've already kind of been talking about all these different moments throughout the film, and I know we're gonna probably continue to harp on like the opening scene with Doomhead walking through the door, the close-ups, the hall in black and white with Al Bully's Call It A Day playing in the grid in the background. A great way to open the film. The dialogue between him and the and the priest before his death was a solid, solid opener, the pastor. And that horrifying monologue, I just want to point out we've talked about this scene of being really great for the the cinematography and the the quote that it opens up with and the the use of the black and white and everything, but I just want to acknowledge that this was probably one of the best monologues in modern horror, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

Holy shit, absolutely. This was actually my favorite scene of the movie, Sean. But this motherfucker monologue way too long at the end. But we get so far into this monologue before we even see who this guy is talking to. The moment that really got me was I ain't no fucking clown. I am certainly not here to elicit an amused response. It was unsettling, it was gross, it set a bar that I think the rest of the film could not possibly live up to. And I I think it's worth acknowledging like that. What a strong way to start the movie. Honestly, if the ending wasn't so fucking pointless for me, this would have been a slash based on his opening. It's just, you know, the strongest part of the movie was also the weakest part of the movie because this motherfucker really pulled a Dr. Evil and just talked his way into losing the battle.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

That is true. That is so true. You just talked yourself out of running out of time, and then who knows what happens after that? Because then we get to the very final fucking moments of the film where we are confronted at the end. The game is over. Like, essentially, the game is over. Like the time ran out, he didn't kill Charlie, and so that's it, right? Theoretically, she's the first survivor of 31. She walks, she's going down the street, and then this fucking motherfucker pulls up behind her, and then they have this kind of face-off, and he pulls out his knives, and she like I guess clenches a fist because now she's feeling tough because she's fought so hard. But like, we all know that if they're facing off, she's going down, right? Like, there's no way she's living now.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

She did nothing, she is only alive by the mercy of the game makers and the rules. She is Katniss and Pita who only survived because they wanted to threaten to eat the nightlock berries. Absolutely not. She was cooked, she was backed into a corner, tail between her legs. She had nothing going for her. There is no world in which she survives this man. Absolutely the fuck not. And you cannot convince me otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

It's very, very true. It's very also just sad the way that it ended in that regard. And I think, you know, many, many fans probably feel the same way, even if you like this movie like I do. The this opening scene is just it's just admittedly stronger than anything that follows, which is unusual for a horror film. And so that kind of is unfortunate. But there were some other pretty good moments. We talked about the the dinner scene, which is really good. That call back to to Rocky War Picture Show, the ripoff, whatever you want to call it. That was definitely good. Uh, but I do think there was also a moment. I guess we're gonna keep going back into because I think the best moments are genuinely where we do get to see Doomhead. And so, like the scene where Doomhead is getting ready, the classical music, the face paint, that evil sinister look that he has, getting himself amped up to kill. What a moment that was. Because we get the monologue, we know he's very charismatic as a killer that he sets the tone for this character, but then we get to see how he's kind of getting ready to go into one of these situations, and it just adds to everything that is about this character, and you just want to you want to see more, even though it's really fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 41:51

He is just such a standout, and what I didn't care for was I I didn't need to see Richard Brake's ass as he's like screwing somebody when he gets a phone call. Right, I could have done without that whole thing. I'm like, ma'am, at what point do you think you could not have done better than his? And also, it's weird to see her get so spicy with him, and she has uh presumably no idea what the fuck he does for work, and he's just saying, like, you're not even allowed to shower. Ma'am, he's not gonna know if you shower, just right. You don't need to ask permission for that. But he truly is a standout, it's not even close, like he might be uh again. I know I love the monsters for a really silly reason, but next to Danielle Harris as Annie Brackett, he he might be like my favorite Rob Zombie character. He is distinct, he has a specific energy, a specific voice, and it feels like he honestly deserved a better movie to carry.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yes, and you know what's I think, and maybe this is just me spitballing here, but what I I think is that uh we, you know, Rob Zombie comes out with House of a Thousand Corpses, right? And we end up creating this character. I'm not saying we, we created the character. Rob Zombie ends up creating this character in Captain Spaulding, and Captain Spaulding becomes arguably the most lovable character in some weird fucking way in that movie. In in that trilogy, I guess you could say you really do like Captain Spaulding. Like he became kind of like the villain that you want to see. Like Otis is there for sure, and Sherry Moon is there, but but Captain Spaulding, there's a lot, you know, it kind of blew up. And I think it's interesting because these two are almost like they're similar, but they're opposites. You have now Doomhead, which, you know, if this is a movie for the fans and the fans are like, we love Captain Spaulding, he's like, Well, I'm gonna give you something. I'm gonna give you a little bit of Captain Spaulding, but I'm gonna give you a fucking really more like an even more fucked up version of Captain Spaulding, because you have very similar it's very trashy. Captain Spaulding is known to be fucking Women and doing all kinds of weird shit. We've seen those scenes very similar to what we're seeing with Doomhead in this movie. Very trashy, very trailer part trashy type stuff. But like this right here is a different no jokes. I'm just gonna get down to business. I like to fucking torture people.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Yeah, here's my thing. We're in March right now. This is March Madness, Monster Madness, the horror games. Give me a bracket of Captain Spaulding versus Doomhead, and then give me a bracket of Doomhead versus Artha Clown. Because I still think Artha Clown fucking stomps them.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

We need a clown off.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Oh yeah, we need a clown seed for sure. Are you down to clown? Could you imagine a whole district of all of Horror's best clowns? Pennywise, Frendo, Catherine Spaulding, Doomhead, Artha Clown, Killer Clowns from Outer Space. Stop me if you've heard these before. We could absolutely fucking do it.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

There can be. There's a strong bracket.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Yeah, a hundred percent. But I do want to be clear that this movie manages to make me give a damn about the characters. And I also want to highlight someone that I was excited to see was Herman Munster outside of Herman Munster makeup. I need you to know, Sean, Jeff Daniel Phillips, who plays Roscoe Pepper. I recognize his voice, not because I've seen The Munster so many times, or because I've even watched his portion of Halloween 2 from Rob Zombie so many times, but because I have the Munster's soundtrack on my Halloween playlist. So periodically, all I have is this guy's voice, just as Herman Munster fucking singing Halloween songs.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

That's awesome for sure. Oh my gosh, that's good. Definitely cool. I actually I just thought of this, and I'm sorry to even go back to it, but I just thought we were I was thinking of characters, and then it dawned on me because we were just talking, I was looking, I was talking through like the House of a Thousand Corpses cast. Going back to that dinner scene that was obviously the Rocky Horror Picture Show scene. There is after the meal, you can see these two goons that are wearing masks that are made of skin that were supposedly meant to look like Otis and Captain Spaulding from House of a Thousand Corpses. There's that little Easter egg type dealio in there, which I just remembered.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

You know, that's good for them. I appreciate that. I am curious though, thinking of crossovers, Halloween too, Halloween, Malcolm McDowell, Sam Loomis. What was your take on the aristocrats? Oh my god, aristocrats, not aristocrats. The aristocrats, not the famed everybody, everybody wants to be a cat. No, none of that.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

Oh my gosh. What was my take on the aristocrats? I mean, my thing is I'm not necessarily mad at the idea. My whole thing is it just seemed a little bit strange. Did we even need to see them? Did they just take up space in the film?

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah, we absolutely didn't need to. I think it would have been more interesting to ditch the aristocrats and make Doomhead the person who organizes the game 31. And then when the others can't get it done, he goes down there to get it done himself, and then he doesn't fuck up the ending. I think it could have been way better.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

That is true. At that point, though, it's like all we really need is Doomhead and some victims and an environment. That's all you really need. We don't need all the other shit.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Why did we get more complicated than that, Rob Zombie? The complexity of the aristocrats was unnecessary. The ending where you have a moment where the biggest, baddest antagonist you have talks his way into running down the clock, absolutely fumbled the bag, didn't need to do that. Again, this movie squandered its own potential. It's so disappointing.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

Yeah. Give me some kind of follow-up to this film and give me Doomhead with, you know, like maybe some retribution, you know. Let me see this character at his full potential. I don't know how that works, but I think this character is actually so good that he actually does deserve to go on into another film somehow.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

100%. Sean, for me, he was the best part of this movie.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

I can imagine that for sure. It's arguably he is the best part of the movie. I think the worst part of this movie is probably for me, it's honestly the shaky camera work. I'm not gonna continue to harp on the ending. I think if I'm gonna really pick this apart, I don't like the shaky camera work for me. I think it's supposed to add to the chaotic feel of the fight for survival sequences. I get that, but I personally would like to focus on the kills a little bit more from a visual standpoint. Like I need to I want to be in that a little bit more. I don't want to feel like I'm part of the rumble.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Yeah, no, I 100% get that. People have the same complaints about the Hunger Games, and that the POV of the camera, the speed and shakiness of the camera can be a lot. It can be something that absolutely diminishes the viewing experience, and I get that. Thankfully, for me, it wasn't that bad. I think the place there really stood out was the chainsaw fighting. That was something where I was like, okay, it feels like a bad lightsaber fight, and it feels like we're getting up close because it looks real dumb if you look as if you're zoomed out from this experience. And I will say that I it's not that I will never watch this movie again, but it's not that I'm going to prioritize watching it again either. I need to get through the rest of Rob Zombie's filmography and then I'm gonna consider revisiting this one. Again, Doomhead alone is worth it. This movie had potential, but I can see what it was trying to do, and also still hold space for the fact that I didn't care for what it ended up doing with that in the in the f in the last place. So it's gonna go into the hack pile for now. I'm curious to see if I feel differently at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Well, I mean, hey, listen, the thing is is that you don't have much more to get through the filmography here, so I think only two more, maybe, is all you have to get through at this point now.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Three from Hell and Lords of Salem.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Yeah, unless you watch the animated film that he did.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

Oh no. But we still do have to do Halloween 2 on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Well, for the podcast for sure, but you've seen it, so you know. This isn't one that I watch like super regularly, I'll admit that. I do own it, but then I do think that it is one that you can play during the Halloween season. I agree with Meat. You know, I think this is a good one to kick off the Halloween season. It's definitely got the vibes. It's obviously set on Halloween, it fits the whole theme. And you said it, Chris, like the premise, the the birth of the idea of this movie was the the fun fact, I guess if you can call it a fun fact, or maybe just an interesting fact that a lot of people go missing on Halloween. And so this kind of adds to the lore of that. And so, yeah, it fits the spooky vibes. It's a good one for the spooky season, and I think it's definitely worth a rewatch if you're just trying to get in that mood.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Well, I can't wait to see if this holds up on a better rewatch in the spooky season. But for now, there we have it, folks. 31 from 2016 as nominated and chosen by our patrons as earned one slash and one hack. Let's really have a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_01 51:48

If you had a good time playing 31 with us and you want to go even further than this episode, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com slash hack or slash this is where you can enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content with early access, extended episodes with our P sides, movie nominations, and of course, live shows.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, a first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

You know what they say, Kimo Sabi, in hell? Everybody loves popcorn.