Shooting is just underway on Rob Zombie's crowd-funded horror 31, and with that comes a steady stream of casting updates. The latest to be revealed, in his third collaboration with the director, is Malcolm McDowell.
31 stems from rocker-turned-director Zombie's interest in the (supposed) fact that more people go missing in the US on Halloween than on any other day of the year. His plot revolves around five people kidnapped during the run-up to the spooky holiday, and held hostage in a facility called Murder World where they're forced to battle for their lives against an insane posse of "vile, bloodthirsty clowns called The Heads" (not to be confused with the Bristolian stoner spacerock band).
McDowell, who played Dr. Sam Loomis (rather differently to Donald Pleasance) in both Zombie's Halloween films, will be essaying the part of Father Murder, the owner of Murder World.
He's joined, as announced so far, by Judy Geeson as his colleague Sister Dragon; Elizabeth Daily, Torsten Voges and David Ury as, respectively, the clowns Sex-Head, Death-Head and Schizo-Head; Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as travelling roadshow owner Panda; and Daniel Roebuck as Murder World "participant" Pastor Victor. The IMDb also, to no one's surprise, lists Rob's other half Sheri Moon Zombie in an unspecified role.
As we said, filming is happening as we speak, but there are no release dates so far.