When you visit the set of a horror movie, it’s always most fun to be there when the makeup effects are filming. And especially on a project by The Adams Family, whose previous films, including Mother of Flies, Where the Devil Roams, and Hellbender, have been distinguished by the handcrafted care put into them. They embody the can-do spirit of independent filmmaking, which is very much in evidence when FANGORIA arrives at their upstate New York home, where they’re making their new feature, The Glorious Dead.
Ghastly props created from found and store-bought objects are strewn both inside and outside the house. It’s a big effects day, and writer/director/stars John Adams and Toby Poser are putting appendages (both human and demonic), not to mention a full creature suit, before the camera. There’s also a large ring of dripping, twisted fake flesh that they’ve dubbed “The Devil’s Butthole,” which visual effects creator Trey Lindsay is shooting in front of a small greenscreen for later compositing. Several of the shots feature Adams, in that full demonic costume whose seams will be covered up by Lindsay’s digital wizardry, climbing out of the infernal orifice.
What leads to hell pooting out its minions to terrorize humanity? “I think the best way to put it,” Adams explains, “is that it’s about waking up in America in 2026, and feeling like it’s not exactly what you thought it was.” Adds Poser, “But the clothing it wears is that it looks like a small-town sheriff and her deputy wake up and experience an escalatingly very, very, very, very, very bad day.”
Poser plays that sheriff, Deb, and their daughter Zelda portrays her deputy, Mikey. Their other daughter Lulu, has cameo roles as a militant and a monster, while John plays a smaller part than usual, also as one of the resurrected dead. Which is fine with him. “This one was great because I was like, ‘You know what, let’s do a movie [focused on] Toby and Z. I love filming Toby and Z. I love watching Toby and Z. So I’m just dead, and it’s great.”
Lindsay is sneaking in before the camera as well. “I have a worse day than they do,” he says, as they all laugh. “I got to be one of my own effects, so that was fun.”
“Yeah, it was great to film Trey,” Adams says. “First of all, he’s a great actor, but also it was really fun to shoot him, knowing that he would be the one to add his beautiful effects on top of what we film. And I knew he would do a great job when it was him sitting there getting torn to shreds!”
Lindsay notes that there’s “a gallows humor” to talking about all the horrible scenes they’re capturing for The Glorious Dead, and that this is bleeding over into the production. “There is this apocalyptic feeling underneath the whole thing, so the characters in the movie almost have to have a gallows humor to not go insane, you know?”
“What’s often hard about making a horror movie,” Adams notes, “is that the characters are often in situations that are kind of ridiculous, right? Sometimes the filmmakers are like, ‘Yeah, let’s just make it ridiculous,’ and that’s cool. But then sometimes they try to put a real person in a ridiculous situation, and that can be hard, because how would you deal with something that’s so mind-bending? Like, if you literally saw these demons we’ve created—saw them crawl out of the earth in real life—how would you actually react? It’s fun to think that through and to give that a kind of integrity.”
The team has also clearly put a lot of thought into their approach to the religious themes underlying the horrors of The Glorious Dead. “We’re just exploring a belief system,” Adams states. “We’re not making a judgment on it. We’re saying, ‘Cool, you have described a belief system that judges a vast amount of people to a certain destiny.’ And then asking, ‘What does that destiny look like based on your set of rules?’ I don’t think anyone’s going to look at this movie and say, ‘That’s a political hit piece,’ because it’s not.”
“We’re just trying to portray something that feels very honest to us,” Poser adds. “Sometimes we talk about, ‘How will we debate or argue if people say this or that?’ But in the end, as filmmakers, as creative artists, it’s important to not censor ourselves. Our goal is just to make something as honest as possible, and not apologetic.”
Stay tuned for more on The Glorious Dead.
