31 (2016)

This long-awaited movie is without a doubt Rob Zombie's return to form. He's done a Tarantino in so much as he basically exploded onto the horror world with House Of 1000 Corpses and followed it up with The Devil's Rejects, which we all of course loved with a passion but he painted himself into a corner and put sadly his best work out their first and setting the bar very high for whatever came next.

Halloween was great but  the sequel... hmmm. Then the man just confused the hell out of us with Lords Of Salem. Personally I believe it to be an awesome movie and to be looked at as one that's not just there to give us what we want.

On to 31 - It gives you what you want. It's everything that Rob Zombie movies have led us to expect. We have the "maybe it's the 70s" flares and tight sports tees, 70s rock playing, tons of vomit-inducing violence, dirty psychopaths wearing human flesh and of course, Sherri Moon Zombie prancing about in next to nothing.

Again it borrows a lot from classic slasher films of the past - our heroes are a travelling group that encounter and are kidnapped by a gang and taken to "Murderworld" - a cross between Hostel 3 and Running Man.

Each member of the group are given survival odds by the overlookers who are betting on how long they will last as they are set loose in the compound to be hunted by a series of killers. A Spanish Nazi clown, two chainsaw-wielding clowns, the bastard offspring of Harley Quinn and Dr.Frank-N-Furter and the elite "Doom-Head".

Of course it's a ride of blood, guts, 70s FM classics and legendary soundbytes for future Death Metal albums.

While I take my head out of Mr.Zombie's rear for a while I will say that it is very familiar in style to his first two films, in fact some scenes are way too familiar as if they've been shot before. Overall however, you'll probably love it!

8/10 Masks