Dark Poetry Abounds in WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS
Images courtesy Yellow Veil PicturesIf you’re not familiar with the Adams Family, they are made up of mother and father John Adams and Toby Poser, and their two daughters, Lulu and Zelda Adams — and they make horror movies. Together, the family not only acts in but writes, directs, produces, and sound designs movies. The films are self-funded, allowing the family team to make all the most important, integral decisions in making a film.
Coming off the success of Hellbender (2022), their latest is Where the Devil Roams — a movie about a family of carnies on a murder rampage through the Catskills, NY, during the 1930s depression.
The film opens as a vaudeville performer recites a deliciously dark poem that ends, “blood will thicken, the devil’s pulse begins to quicken, while the body rots to dust and bones, there’s a tear in the heart where the devil roams.” This is just the first of beautiful word play in a film that utilizes dark poetry as its beating, bloody heart.
https://medium.com/media/cc482dfc6cefa656d9db6e01934c9df2/hrefEve (Zelda Adams) is traveling with her parents (John Adams and Toby Poser) to various carnivals when she becomes entranced with a man who seems to have the magical ability to reattach his fingers after cutting them off for the benefit of awed audiences.
Meanwhile, her mother and father are a disturbing duo that wreaks havoc wherever they go. When their killing spree inevitably goes terribly wrong, Eve has to pick up the pieces (literally) and spell them back together.
The spell? A dark poem.
Dark poetry has a long history in horror — dating back to Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. But this is the first time I’ve seen it explored in a horror film, and as a dark poet, I was delighted. It captures effectively all of the thrall of dark poetry — which can dive into the most horrific of themes and often contains old-fashioned rhyme schemes.
Another poem referenced in the movie is Psalm 88, considered one of the darkest passages in the Bible:
Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
The poems in this movie weave through and with the storyline, driving the characters to more and more terrible decisions. Added to this experience is the fact that the Adams write and sing their own music.
The Adams were influenced by classic horror like Frankenstein and Nosferatu. The film’s cinematography is dark, moody, and grainy in the best of ways. It utilizes part black and white and part color scenes, which, as Zelda Adams said in the Q&A at Fantastic Fest, “shows the characters and their story are rotting.”
The film was shot on location at their home and family friends’ homes in the Catskills. They shot mostly in winter and in snow, and the film took about a year to make. I was surprised to learn that Zelda was a senior at the time, about to head off to college. “The film is also kind of about not wanting to let go of my parents”, she said, which must be difficult in such a close-knit family.
Where the Devil Roams is intricate, weaving multiple themes and references throughout its narrative until everything comes together in the end. Artsy but gory, elevated but terrifying, the film is difficult not to fall in love with. Perfect for the fan of dark poetry!
Where the Devil Roams releases in November and has been picked up by Tubi for streaming.
Image Credit Chris BilheimerThis article is part of Interstellar Flight Magazine’s coverage of Fantastic Fest , taking place in Austin, TX, 9/21–9/28, 2023. We thank Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse for providing access to these films!
Dark Poetry inspired by mythology from Maxwell I. GoldInterstellar Flight Magazine publishes essays on what’s new in the world of speculative genres. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin, we need “writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope.” Visit our Patreon to join our fan community on Discord. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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