As to the title, presumably because the game of "31" is played every October 31st. Not a very inspired name for the game or the movie, which gets to the central problem of the movie: it's not very inspired.
I liked The Devil's Rejects; for what it was, it was extremely well-done. FWIW, I dig White Zombie too.
When it comes to horror, though, I don't care for retreads. A genre which arguably has a greater freedom to be transgressive than any other mainstream genre arguably should be taking advantage of that freedom. But just as many people with the freedom to vote don't bother to vote or even to register to vote, so too does horror often fail to deliver.
Part of the problem, I guess, is there's a lot of horror fans that DO like the same thing over and again. Rob Zombie was apparently catering to that.
Does he himself like the same thing repeatedly? It certainly seems that way. I'd be curious to see what he might do if he stepped out of his comfort zone: direct a film written by someone else (and not one written specifically for him), do not include Sheri Moon Zombie in the cast (have her work crew if he dislikes being away from her for too long), do not set the film in the 1970s, do not use clowns, do not reference Nazis, do not over-rely on blood & gore. Could it be done? I have my doubts, but would be delighted to be proven wrong.
I liked The Devil's Rejects; for what it was, it was extremely well-done. FWIW, I dig White Zombie too.
When it comes to horror, though, I don't care for retreads. A genre which arguably has a greater freedom to be transgressive than any other mainstream genre arguably should be taking advantage of that freedom. But just as many people with the freedom to vote don't bother to vote or even to register to vote, so too does horror often fail to deliver.
Part of the problem, I guess, is there's a lot of horror fans that DO like the same thing over and again. Rob Zombie was apparently catering to that.
Does he himself like the same thing repeatedly? It certainly seems that way. I'd be curious to see what he might do if he stepped out of his comfort zone: direct a film written by someone else (and not one written specifically for him), do not include Sheri Moon Zombie in the cast (have her work crew if he dislikes being away from her for too long), do not set the film in the 1970s, do not use clowns, do not reference Nazis, do not over-rely on blood & gore. Could it be done? I have my doubts, but would be delighted to be proven wrong.