Zombie later held a second campaign in February 2015 to raise additional funds for the film, stating that it was due to multiple requests from fans that wanted to contribute funding.
Zombie also stated that he would use crowdfunding to cover part of the movie's costs, because "as the years go on, the game changes all the time, and a movie that you could get made years ago, you cannot get made anymore, because the business changes, things change." He added that crowdfunding would allow him to make a movie that might not have been otherwise funded traditionally and that "if you wanna do stuff outside the system, you've gotta function outside the system". In July, Zombie announced the plot of 31, which follows a group of five people that are forced to participate in a gruesome game called "31". He also noted that 31 referred to October 31, Halloween. Zombie commented on the speculation, stating that it would not follow Captain Spaulding and would be an original story and was not based on any previous work.
Fans and media outlets speculated that the film would be a third film in the House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects universe and would follow Sid Haig's character Captain Spaulding, that it could be a film centering upon serial killer John Wayne Gacy, or that it would be a third film in Zombie's rebooted Halloween film series. Plans to create 31 were first announced in May 2014 via a teaser poster that showed the words "a Rob Zombie film", a bloody clown face, and the number "31". Michael "Red Bone" Alcott as Randy "Fat Randy" Bumpagussy.Malcolm McDowell as "Father Napoleon-Horatio-Silas Murder".Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Panda Thomas / #1.Jeff Daniel Phillips as Roscoe Pepper / #3.
He alights from a van and takes out his daggers as he and Charly prepare for one last confrontation as the film ends, leaving their fates unknown. This doesn't satisfy Doom-Head later he catches up with Charly, who is covered in blood and headed down an isolated road. The aristocrats are concerned that Charly is the first person to win "31". He almost defeats her, however Doom-Head is stopped by the aristocrats, who tell him that time has run out and Charly must go free. Charly, who made it outside but found herself in the middle of nowhere, makes her way into an abandoned house where she is ambushed by Doom-Head. Roscoe is then stabbed to death by Doom-Head. The two manage to make it to one of the exits, however Roscoe urges Charly to go on without him, as the night's event has left him too severely wounded to progress. Doom-Head taunts Charly and Roscoe, telling them that the doors have been opened to the outside world. The remaining three try to find a way out, but only manage to get one of their number – Venus – trapped inside a boiler room, where she is brutally murdered by the final Head, Doom-Head, who was brought in by the aristocrats to join the game. The carnies eventually manage to kill their assailants, but not without sustaining their own casualties, with only Charly, Venus and Roscoe left alive. The protagonists come across five "Heads": Sick-Head, Psycho-Head, Schizo-Head, Death-Head and Sex-Head.
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. 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. During Halloween 1976, a group of carnival workers, Charly, Venus, Panda, Levon and Roscoe, gleefully travel through the countryside.