Indie
[Sundance Review] ’31’ is Rob Zombie’s ‘The Running Man’!
31 is Rob Zombie’s The Running Man and it works. A group of touring performers (Sheri Moon Zombie, Meg Foster, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) is captured by game makers led by Malcolm McDowell who send their stable of killers after them. It’s fast-paced, violent and fun.
This is the same aesthetic Zombie has been employing in all his films. Everything is grimy and crusty, even the characters. The fact that the traveling show is a girlie show may be Zombie challenging us to root for sideshow hustlers and pornographers but probably not. It’s just the usual type of underbelly characters he likes to write about.
The violence is up to Zombie’s standards and you’ve got to respect that it all looks like real squibs and blood packs. These are actors rigged to spew blood like it’s supposed to be, not lazy CGI blood added later. There is also more than one occasion of naked women bloodied and brutalized. That’s a conversation that’s already been had regarding most of Zombie’s other films, so at this point I no longer engage with it. Whether it’s sexualized or confrontational, it’s just something I expect in a Rob Zombie movie.
Most of the movie is shot in shakeycam handheld cinematography, which I am fundamentally against. However Zombie gave me a strange appreciation of the technique in 31. There are two reasons it could be appropriate. One is that the events are so unpleasant we don’t want to see them clearly anyway, but I don’t buy that because Zombie wants us to see them. What I think is that Zombie’s is all about grime and handheld is the cinematic equivalent of grimy photography. It matched. I could follow the kills.
The game makers only ever appear in their master room so they probably shot them out in a day or two. “And Malcolm McDowell” indeed. There’s enough sense of history and unlimited resources there that you feel the players are f***ed. I can’t say the killers are as memorable as Buzzsaw and Captain Freedom but they’re not supposed to be fun. A Nazi little person is creepy as hell, and we get to meet the big bad (Richard Brake) in his downtime, being a vile misogynist in the most articulate way possible.
Some of the gags are a little obvious. Like when the game makers leave the players a meal, how did anyone not see the next thing coming? I mean, did it really taste like chicken?
It is a harrowing ordeal and you know that anyone who even survives will be traumatized for life. It’s not hard to get behind a desperate fight for your life. Set on Halloween 1976, a classic rock soundtrack propels a lot of the violence. It seems Zombie found the sweet spot between his punishing aesthetic and letting the audience have a rewarding catharsis by the end.
Her House of Horrors, the horror division of Independent Production House WOMXNOGRAPHY, has launched its Bite Size Short Grant Program, ahead of its film festival Dollhouse of Horror, which will take place in March 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.
The Bite Size Short Grant Program awards $2,000 film grants to female-identifying and queer horror filmmakers. Shorts must be able to be made for $2,000, with a minimum runtime of 8 minutes. Submissions are now open on Filmfreeway, and are being judged by a panel of horror lovers and content creators.
The 2024 Bite Size Short Grant Program judge lineup is as follows:
“James H. Carter II- A documentary director, film producer, podcaster, marketing specialist, and writer. James is the founder and co-owner of Creepy Kingdom. Creepy Kingdom was founded in 2011 and is a multimedia website, and production studio specializing in creepy content. Their primary focus lies at the intersection of childlike fantasy and the macabre, covering horror films, theme parks, haunts, and much more. Beyond their extensive media coverage, Creepy Kingdom hosts events, offers original merchandise, and engages in film production under the Creepy Kingdom Studios brand producing original films like “Foolish Mortals”, exploring Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” fan culture, and “Georgie”, featuring Tony Dakota from the original “It” miniseries.
“In addition to founding Creepy Kingdom, James has won awards for his documentary work, including the award-winning “Foolish Mortals,” which has earned him recognition. He has been featured on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween special.
“Ashleeta Beauchamp is the editor-in-chief of Peek-A-Boo! Magazine, a cheeky horror magazine created to uplift marginalized writers, artists, models and other creators within the horror community. She also runs The Halloween Coalition, a community group to provide support and marketing for horror and Halloween events around the Southern California area.
“Titeanya Rodríguez is a multi-hyphenate creative, and the founder and owner of HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, home of DOLLHOUSE OF HORROR and the horror division of WOMXNOGRAPHY. As a fellow storyteller and a self-proclaimed artivist, Titeanya’s mission is to create opportunities for women of color and queer women, across film, tv, sports, music, and beyond. She is also the creator of the BITE SIZE SHORT grant program.”
Winners will have a one-night theatrical screening at Regal Cinemas. Submissions Close April 8 at Midnight. Winners will be announced on May 27, 2024. Shorts must be shot and through post-production by June 30, 2024. The screening will take place on July 8, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.
WOMXNOGRAPHY, HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, and Rodriguez are represented by Azhar PR, Granderson Des Rochers, and Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir.
To submit your short to the Bite Size Short Grant Program, go to the FilmFreeway link here.
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