We’re big fans of the Adams Family around these parts, so when we heard that Where The Devil Roams, their follow-up to last year’s Hellbender was on the horizon, Jeffery X Martin and I jumped at the chance to give it a look. Rather than provide our perspectives on the film individually, we decided to give you readers a peek into the ol’ groupchat as he and I discussed the film. Think of it like a podcast that you can read!
In Where The Devil Roams, we follow the Adams Family once again in a story they write, direct, star in, and even score. It’s a real family affair as the foursome have a hand in just about everything we see onscreen. This time around, John Adams and Toby Poser play Seven and Maggie, a loving but deranged couple that are part of a traveling Depression-era carnival along with their daughter Eve (Zelda Adams). Along the way, they meet and interact with a vast array of characters, including their other daughter Lulu, who wields one hell of an axe.
SH: So I totally get what you mean when you say that Where The Devil Roams is quite a bit more esoteric than Hellbender was, and somewhat less focused. It got pretty off the rails in the last third or so but I was enjoying that sweet family road trip so much in the first 2/3 that I think I loved it overall.
JXM: We get a four minute long poetry reading first pop out the box, and that poem is referred to consistently through the movie. It’s an interesting set-up for the rest of the film, which has a larger scope than their previous movie, Hellbender. With that comes some non-linear storytelling and style-shifting that, honestly, confused me. As far as a straightforward horror flick, Hellbender was better, right?
SH: I definitely did like Hellbender more. Weirdly, it seemed a more mature and succinct movie despite coming before this. There’s definitely a bunch of scenes where it seemed like they were trying to shoehorn their writing into the movie without a relevant scene to go with it, but it worked for me outside of the last third where it got a little too out there. The early scenes where they’re just a sweet family going about their merry business charmed my face off, though, and ultimately left me feeling positive on the movie overall.
JXM: I just got lost with the timeline and switching between black-and-white and colour. So many Zeldas.
SH: Everything after the Axe Girl appearance about two-thirds of the way through Where The Devil Roams felt a little too convoluted for me in a way that most of the rest of the film wasn’t. Maybe that’s by design to mirror Seven’s head injury and his distorted view of the world and time in general. I was having such a great time with the movie up to that point. I don’t think the second half ruined the movie for me or anything, but it brought it down a peg.
JXM: That soundtrack, though? Straight fire.
SH: Every track freakin’ rocked. That’s the one thing it’s got over Hellbender – in my opinion, the music was better and there was more of it. As much as I think Where The Devil Roams has a way of meandering off in ways that don’t always work, I enjoyed what amounted to the musical interludes interspersed throughout the main story.
JXM: So you liked it more than I did.
SH: I do think the Adams’ were trying to cram too much into it, but I have a pretty high tolerance for that. I’m going to watch it again for sure.
JXM: I wish they would just make a balls-to-the-wall summer camp slasher movie. There’s a sequence in Where the Devil Roams where Maggie haggles with the owner of a boarding house over the price of a room. While the owner insists the price is 75 cents per person, Maggie read the sign as 75 cents per room. It’s a strange conversation and it goes on far too long, which sucks out the tension for me.
SH: Yeah, not really a fan of that exchange in particular but there was a certain charm to it. I don’t quite know what Toby was going for in those scenes but sometimes her weird delivery clicks in a Quentin Dupieux way for me, or when David Lynch acts in his own stuff. I think it plays as scary because you know she can snap on a motherfucker at a moment’s notice. I can always appreciate that. And it’s not exactly an acting stretch but the love she has for Seven/John always comes through when they have a scene together.
JXM: Even when Seven stops responding to external stimuli.
SH: “A drumstick for you, my love” it’s such a little thing but man, that’s #goals
JXM: “I was only a country-hack doctor.” Self-deprecating, sweet, and totally relatable. Not that I’m a doctor, mind you.
SH: I guess ultimately it’s just a wildly inconsistent movie. Really high highs and a lot of stuff that’s there just to be there. It’s only 90 minutes but I think a really disciplined editor could make a really special 75-80 minute movie out of this? I wouldn’t cut any of the musical interludes but maybe some of the war [flashbacks] and whatever they were doing to the timeline at the end.
JXM: How many times did we see that one stone wall in the war sequences?
SH: Too many. I think it kind of exposed the movie a little. They could’ve gotten that stuff across in a dreamy flashback in half the time I think.
JXM: I feel like I’m being unnecessarily harsh on Where the Devil Roams, and I don’t want to sound like I didn’t like it. It’s a good movie. But it never quite reaches its aspirations, you know? I would have gladly exchanged some of the artistic elements for a clearer and more disturbing story. As much as I recommend Where the Devil Roams for a one-time watch, the only rewatch value I can assign to it would be trying to decipher the parts I couldn’t quite suss out. That may be on me more than on the Adams Family. I’m not too proud to admit when something just goes over my head.
SH: I feel that. I think it’s tough – from both the filmmakers’ perspective and the audiences’ – going from a project that was so effective and clear-eyed as Hellbender and then feeling the pressure to go ‘bigger’ or more ‘ambitious’ in the feature that follows. In doing so, it might be possible to mistake a more complex (a less nice word might be ‘perplexing’) script with something more mature. I think there’s a maturity in being able to trim away extraneous pieces from a story which may not be on display in Where The Devil Roams, though there are some beautiful ideas. Ultimately, I felt that there is enough of the latter that it fascinates me, perhaps even more so on a future viewings. And I remain amazed at the Adams’ ability to produce horror (or films of any sort) at this level with the limited budgets and resources available to them. I kind of want to be part of their family, severed fingers and all.
Where The Devil Roams will premiere on Tubi this winter from Yellow Veil Pictures and the Adams Family.