Soon a bunch of people will be talking about the fact that they have seen Rob Zombie's latest directorial effort, 31. The project has been quite mysterious so far, there have been two screenings but no one who was in attendance has ever shared their reaction to the film. At 11:59pm on Saturday, though, an audience will get to see 31 when it screens at the Sundance Film Festival at the Library Center Theatre, and they will certainly be talking about it afterward. I won't be there, but I can't wait to read what the people who'll get to see the movie this weekend will be saying about it.
Here's what we do know about 31: It stars Richard Brake, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Meg Foster, Judy Geeson, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Jane Carr, Ginger Lynn, Daniel Roebuck, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Pancho Moler, Tracy Walter, E.G. Daily, Torsten Voges, David Ury, Lew Temple, Bari Suzuki, and Devin Sidell, it's rated R for "strong bloody horror violence, pervasive language, sexual content and drug use", and it has a 102 minute running time.
The Sundance write-up:
It sure sounds fun: a band of carnies road trippin’ on a sunny Halloween day in 1976—just a freewheelin’, magical mystery tour of good times and better weed. But this here mellow is getting harshed, baby. First, the sky gets darker. And then everything else does, too.
Our huckster heroes are forced to match wits with a fiendish crew of psychobilly fascists who love chaos, pain, and greasepaint. And the audience is up against an equally unpredictable opponent in writer and director Rob Zombie. With characteristic flair and zero remorse, Zombie rips the wings off of his little counterculture butterflies, baring their true, animal natures—not to mention a shitload of viscera.
Like any nightmare, 31 is terrifying because you never know what’s coming next. But here’s a little hint: don’t get too attached to anyone or anything, especially body parts. Those knives are sharp as hell.
As the screening draws near, Zombie has done something that he has done many times before and shared a picture from the movie on his social media accounts. This time we have an image that appears to show David Ury's Schizo-Head menacing Meg Foster. How exactly this confrontation turns out, some lucky moviegoers will know within the next 48 hours.