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31 is a 2016 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, E.G. Daily, and Malcolm McDowell. A period piece set in 1976, the film is about five carnies, who are kidnapped by a gang of homicidal clowns called "The Heads". The carnies are forced to play a survival game called "31", where they are chased by the clowns through a maze of rooms over 12 hours. The penalty for capture being torture and murder, while bets are placed on their progress. The film was crowdfunded online twice at fanbacked.com. At a test screening, Zombie compared 31 to his 2005 film The Devil's Rejects. It received mixed reviews, with multiple critics deeming it unoriginal. Plot During Halloween 1976, a group of carnival workers, Charly, Venus, Panda, Levon and Roscoe, gleefully travel through the countryside. Later that night, the group is attacked by people disguised as scarecrows and taken to a strange, large building where three elderly people wearing aristocratic clothes, powdered wigs and make up – known as Sister Dragon, Sister Serpent and their leader, Father Napoleon-Horatio-Silas Murder – tell them that they are going to play the game "31" and that it will last for the next 12 hours. The group is placed in a series of maze-like set of rooms, where they must defend themselves against the "Heads", several murderous clowns who intend to torture and murder them, all the while the group are given odds for their survival and bets are placed on them.