Where the Devil Roams

I really love the other titles this family has given us. My expectations for a film are rather particular and my tastes are a little exacting. Not many pictures particularly move me. When I heard Wonder Wheel had a new movie, I was genuinely excited. Trying to keep my hopes in check, I still knew they're not going to shy away from making a gripping movie that's unafraid of a supernatural concept. The creepy carnival gig is right up my proverbial street.

But there's so little plot. This isn't a movie so much as an art project and a showcase for their daughter's ability to sing a capella.

I respect what they were going for, I respect what they were trying to accomplish but it's not for me, as much as I really wanted it to be.

This would've been a lot better as a short film and hopefully that concise format would've actually gotten the point of it across. It was painful to sit through and the only way I got through it was by laughing at how absurdly serious they were taking themselves throughout the entire film. Their cinematography has improved since Hellbender and I enjoyed the atmospheric music, but other than those two elements, I have nothing positive to say about this film. As a horror fan and someone who generally loves things to do with carnival settings, I would not recommend this film. If you really want to see it, wait until it comes into a streaming service so you're not paying any extra for it.

And this one is out there. In my best estimate, it is as though they have pureed Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre with Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde and distilled that into a feature-long Dresden Dolls music video.

Set during the Great Depression, it's a tale of ukeleles, dronecore, baby shoes, shell shock and side-show extremity regeneration. As with most of their previous offerings, the Adamses have done a lot of lore and world-crafting but leave a good deal of it unexplained. Weird things just happen in their films as if all is normal.

And I am totally fine with that.

They are making films they want to make - which is admirable in its own right.

Is it shot on a budget? Sure.

Is the acting oddly stilted? Absolutely.

But that is the charm. Like John Waters carefree guerilla cinema style. They're just making quirky horror in upstate NY with anachronistic scoring with no fear of taking things in odd directions. And that is what makes their movies interesting and different.

This one maintains that trend.

The filmmaking Adams family make low budget,chilly horrors that are several cuts above the usual stalk and slash horrors that populate the market. They have a keen eye for character and atmosphere that make for a more subtle horror, with well drawn characters that add to a rather brave whole.

Unfortunately here the plot is bogged down with tedious hallucinationary scenes, an overlong opening that doesn't excite or grab the audience but is daring nonetheless, and a music video that plays weirdly at the end- It adds nothing really.

The piercings and tattoos on the carnival workers,seem too modernistic out of place , like Lucy Osbourne appeared,minus her sodding phone!

The CGI on the WW1 scenes are a little too unsubtle.

Nonetheless, I applaud this family of filmmakers for trying to appeal to the more adult of horror fans. The designs and cinematography effectively evoke the back roads of 30s Catskills, the chilly look got to my bones and they look of the time and place.

After a couple of predictable' found footage' films of late at least these guys know there is room for low budget horror to develop interesting ideas rather than cliched use of the camera and lines of dialogue.

It could have been better but overall a memorable little chiller.

I can only see these guys getting better over time. For a small family run production company they cover most, if not all aspects of their productions, including most of their own music (H6LLB6ND6R is on bandcamp). Even the practical effects were really decent, all things considered. Sure there were some things i didn't really care for, but i think it's important for people like this to exist and be out there, making things they want to make. Great things can be created with little in the way of tools (and/or money), and they did a good job in that regard. I'll definitely need to check out their previous work, and of course looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.