Where the Devil Roams

Well, this is a first time for me.... never before have I finished a movie and immediately rewound it and watched it again. I was so intrigued, but felt like I missed out on so much of the story for various reasons and was not content with that haha.

The first thing you're likely to notice after the opening scene is the quality and style of the picture. It's so lovely and unique, it gives the entire film a very specific aesthetic vibe that I found very visually pleasing. Along with the picture, you are hit with disorienting music, wild imagery, and jarring characters that make you feel as if you're almost in a daze while viewing. 93% of the frames throughout this movie are so striking you could take a still at any given moment and frame it. There were also some shockingly successful practical effects in this. Tons of really awesome real to life and jarring gore. Unfortunately, the few green screen effects were not as successful. There are also plenty of Easter eggs and fun running themes throughout such as the shoes and the Frankensteined dolls and such. This is one to pay attention to so you can catch everything.

The acting here was really quite interesting. It was almost as if they were putting on this cultivated, stilted delivery that begged this almost dark, fanciful, dazed, story book atmosphere. Throughout the film I really enjoyed their odd family dynamic. They were presenting this almost "3 Wise Monkeys" theme that I found quite intriguing. The three of them did an excellent job. The entire experience was certainly on the thematically dark side, while being chock-full of symbolism, metaphors, allegories and nuanced messages... yet somehow, still managed to have an oddly lighthearted sensibility to it. It never felt like it was taking itself too seriously, despite the art house nature of it all.

As stated, I watched it a second time because I was a tad confused throughout and felt like I missed out on parts of the story that I wanted to partake in. I got much more out of it and enjoyed it even more the second go around. Unfortunately, you can guess the majority of people are not going to invest double the time into this, so I feel it won't reach as many people as it could. I do think there was a slight disconnect with the storytelling within the script that could've been addressed in the way of improving the viewer's accessibility and understanding of the plot.

Small example - a man says "They already took it" whereas, if he were to say "They already took it, the fat SOB came by today and made me sign it over"... it's not super spoonfed but makes me go "oh, that's who he is talking about". Little allusions such as this make it easier for the viewer to draw parallels and connections from scene to scene and character to character. I feel as though different occurrences of this were part of the reason I was confused during my first viewing. However, there is certainly something to be said for a sense of confusion and what that evokes. Not everything is meant to be explained or fully understood and I think this film is a good example of that. Even my second time there were things that went over my head and I could not decipher.

I have been a fan of this family and their work for quite some time now. I'm so pleased to see their success through bigger productions and quality work. I think they are innovative, original and creating truly unique work. As an indie actor, these are the kinds of productions I love to see and would kill to be in. This isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if it's not... go read a book lol. 6.5 rounding down to a 6, would recommend.