FANTASIA23 REVIEW: Where the Devil Roams [2023]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 93 minutes
Release Date: November 3rd, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Tubi
Director(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams & Toby Poser
Writer(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams & Toby Poser

The Adams Family is back with a nasty little blood fest on the old-fashioned carnival circuit. Maggie (Toby Poser), Seven (John Adams), and Eve (Zelda Adams) are merely bit players on-stage, providing an interlude where the parents mime a dance dressed in black as their otherwise mute daughter softly sings between them in white with angel wings. Most audiences attending for grotesquery and the weird stop paying attention to mill about, but the trio doesn’t mind much. They’re not in it for the performance—just the anonymous traveling this lifestyle provides.

Because despite a seemingly calm demeanor, these three are haunted souls. Maggie’s first murder occurred as a child and she hasn’t stopped since. Seven suffers from PTSD of his time as a medic during the war, marked so deeply by the violence he witnessed that the tiniest drop of blood puts him into a catatonic state. That’s why they must always prepare their targets (mostly wealthy tycoons who look down on them and/or steal their venues from desperate owners) for death. If Seven’s eyes are covered, Maggie can do her worst. And Eve can silently smile before taking a photograph of the result.

The Adams and Poser (who write and direct together amongst most other duties in their well-documented DIY way) can’t simply get away with putting an eccentric family of psychopaths on-screen without a semblance of story, though. Where the Devil Roams therefore also needs a narrative hook to give purpose to the bloodshed by way of a black magic heart and deal with Satan first introduced by poem in a faux vintage prologue and next by the infamous Mr. Tipps (Sam Rodd).

As long as he doesn’t bite off more than he can chew, Tipps can dismember himself without any true harm beyond the presumed promise of his soul upon death. With the supernatural power of a stolen heart, all he must do is recite a prayer while using a needle covered in its viscera to sew back whatever appendages he lops off. It’s not an exact science, though. And he’s seen what happens when the limits of its healing potential are pushed beyond their means. So, he sticks to fingers only. Delight the bloodthirsty crowd with a few snips, reattach, and start again.

While sufficiently creepy, its narrative impact in providing that purpose will vary. I don’t personally think it’s enough on its own, but the nightmarish charm and effective gore of the whole do ultimately help get it over that hump. I’d place the film between Hellbender and The Deeper You Dig when it comes to the three films I’ve seen by the Adamses—the former on the higher end of success and the latter on the lower. Because while this heart does eventually give Eve and company a reason to kill that captivates beyond sheer malicious intent, it doesn’t necessarily make the journey any less shallow.

Where the Devil Roams is thus more a curiosity than story. More vibe-driven than thematically charged. They use the carnival setting to create uniquely interesting characters, but we learn little to nothing about them since we mostly follow the main trio when they’re off the reservation. The back stories for Maggie and Seven may also intrigue, but both exist less as reasons for Eve’s own psychopathic proclivities than excuses. To watch them isn’t to understand them, but to see how deranged their codependent volatility might get.

Horror fans can rejoice in the knowledge that the answer is pretty darn deranged. Add some humor to the mix via easy contrasts (Maggie is less educated than Seven; he’s more forgiving than her; and they all hate the smugness of the rich) that helps make the second half more entertaining with a sharper focus on cause and effect and the circumstances for brutality only multiply. Strange will always trump blood for me, though. And you don’t much get stranger than Eve’s industrious solution to remake her parents in her own likeness. Because if she can be the best version of them both, why can’t they?