What Rob Zombie’s 31 May Have Borrowed From Marvel Comics

These individuals learn that they haven’t just been kidnapped by these psychotic clown killers, but they’ve also been thrown into a murderous maze that’s part of a game called “31.” They must survive the next 12 hours in a deadly dungeon, all while a higher class of aristocratic society watches the whole sick experiment and places bets on the proceedings. Zombie’s film has lots of fun with this twisted subculture, but his fictional world bears a resemblance to the routine of a certain antagonist from Marvel Comics.

Arcade is more of a niche villain from Marvel Comics, but he’s a frequent nuisance to superheroes because of his elaborate Murderworld. Murderworld is an amusement park-set death trap that’s full of tricks, elaborate robots, and holographs, all of which are meant to wear down superheroes. Money and betting isn’t typically a component of Murderworld, but it’s taken on many forms over the years and has, on occasion, taken on a gambling aspect in a similar route to The Most Dangerous Game. Other than the murderous labyrinth aspect and the carnival veneer, there isn’t much in common between the two.

There are a number of similarities and a shared aesthetic between the amusement park setups of Arcade’s Murderworld and 31, but it mostly seems like a coincidence. The simple fact is that plenty of horror movies use an amusement park setting to anachronistic effect in order to make it more frightening. It’s not that original of an idea in the first place. This is a case of some parallel thinking that still ultimately goes in different directions by the end of 31’s story. The original Murderworld has a giant pinball setup, and it seems like if Zombie were going to rip off anything from the series, it would be an insane visual like this.

Arcade’s Murderworld has been utilized in many different ways, but it’s really just Marvel’s go-to way to come up with a crazy dungeon full of traps and obstacles. Even Murderworld originally takes inspiration from Tron’s alternate reality setup, and isn’t wholly original. 31 doesn’t go far enough with the idea to be considered a true Murderworld adaptation, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see a future Marvel Cinematic Universe entry combine together the idea within the horror genre.