McDowell is still probably best known to film buffs for playing Alex in the Stanley Kubrick classic A Clockwork Orange, but in recent years he's perhaps become more recognizable to horror fans for his turn as Dr. On the villainous side of the returning cast fence is genre legend Malcolm McDowell, playing a character with the decidedly unsubtle moniker of Father Murder. it's hard to get higher on the punishment scale than a painful death at the hands of a madman.Īs is usual for Zombie, much of the principal cast of 31 is comprised of folks he's worked with on previous films, with his wife Sheri Moon Zombie leading the way - although this time in basically the reverse of her sadistic psychopath character Baby Firefly from House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.
The objective is brutally straightforward: survive a 12-hour period of what basically amounts to hellish torment, and go free. Once there, the unwilling guests are forced to participate in a sort of macabre game for the twisted amusement of those who run the place. Five carnival workers are abducted on the night before Halloween (a.k.a "Devil's Night") and taken to a large remote compound. The plot for 31 - like most of Zombie's films - is pretty simple, although it could be argued that simplicity is often an asset when making a horror picture. The first trailer for the film has arrived, and it looks like its characters are in for quite a blood bath. That really isn't too surprising, all things considered, as whether one loves or hates Zombie's work, it's hard to deny that he imbues his movies with an old-school hardcore style and often overtly sleazy presentation that's quite unlike any other genre director active today.Ĭase in point is Zombie's latest gore fest, which is titled Rob Zombie's 31. Its cast includes, Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Meg Foster.While heavy metal star Rob Zombie's career as a film director hasn't been without its ups and downs, the man retains a fiercely loyal fanbase that continues to look forward to any new horror project he sees fit to put out there for consumption. While trapped, they must play a violent game called 31, in which the mission is to survive 12 hours against a gang of evil clowns. Rob Zombie describes 31 on his official website as follows:ģ1 tells the story of five friends who are kidnapped on the day before Halloween and are held hostage. Countless revered horror films have been doing that as of late, namely Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r’ Treat (2007) which has garnered so much attention over the years that it has allowed him to make one of the year’s biggest movies, Krampus. Rob Zombie seems committed to having this movie be shown nationally in theaters, so it doesn’t look like he is going to go down without a fight. It is set to appear at 2016’s Sundance Film Festival, so those lucky members of the audience will get a chance to see it in late January however, it’s looking like the general public may have to wait a lot longer while things get sorted out.
So, what is Zombie to do? He could easily accept the rating and put the film straight to home media. It has since become one of the most popular horror movies of all time despite the rating. Now relatively tame by today’s standards, the original Evil Dead (1981) had the same issue with getting it past the MPAA before settling and agreeing to an “NC-17” rating as to avoid having to cut anything from the film. However, it’s important to note that things like this simply happen from time to time. Even as a hardcore horror fan, that’s some pretty grisly stuff. He has attached the following image in his post to give you a little insight as to why the MPAA came to this decision. Even though you are a f**king adult… things must be censored for your enjoyment.” Why R you ask? Well, because your local theater will not show an NC-17.
“Maybe three is the charm to get an R rating. “Well, after two tries through the MPAA our rating on 31 remains NC-17,” Zombie wrote. It appears that Zombie’s run into this situation yet again with his newest film, 31. According to his official Facebook page: It took Zombie multiple submissions to the MPAA to finally get it down to a more reasonable and distribution-friendly “R” Rating. The reason? The MPAA would not grant the film anything less than an “NC-17” rating. Musician-turned-filmmaker Robert Bartleh Cummings, better known as Rob Zombie, made his film debut in 2003 with the now cult-classic House of 1000 Corpses in 2003, despite being filmed and completely finished three years later. There’s been a lot of buzz about Rob Zombie in the horror community over the last couple of years.