The Devil All The Time

What the actual f*ck?… That’s what I think of “The Devil All the Time.” There is legitimately no other way to describe that movie. As Robert Pattinson said in the film itself “DeLuSiOnS!!!” Amen, brother! Now, can someone tell me where the delusions start and end because I am confused af right now? Also can we talk about how we have 3 very British actors (Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Harry Melling) in big rolls in this movie and not once do they slip on the Southern accents that they’ve adopted.

The Devil All the Time is a psychological thriller directed by Antonio Campos who wrote the screenplay alongside his brother, Paulo Campos. The cast includes Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan and Mia Wasikowska whose characters’ plotlines weave together to arrive at the same destination in some insane way. It’s based on a novel of the same name and narrated by the author, Donald Ray Pollock and, if you want to see it for yourself, it’s available now on Netflix.

Honestly, the entire movie feels like a lesson in what a psychological thriller should be as the reality of the story seems to dissolve into madness but the acting is superb. Holland and Pattinson have garnered huge praise for their performances and it’s understandable why people enjoyed it. I, at some points, sat there wondering what kind of drugs this movie was on. It was, however, shot on film which adds to the grittiness of the story and film and was probably the best option. Clearly, time was well spent picking and choosing the best possible actors for the roles available regardless of nationality. Bill Skarsgård can convey so much torment and trauma in a single facial expression and really showed the audience just how damaged his character was and deserves recognition for that.

The movie has some shudder inducing moments (especially if, like me, you’re afraid of spiders) but what stood out to me was Arvin is much like a vigilante, taking the law into his own hands and doling out revenge as he sees fit. And spoiler alert, every character introduced in the first scene ends up dead so we’re led to believe they are our lead characters only to watch them disappear one by one. Most critics agree that the key themes are evil, religion, and the abuse of power in rural small-town America but, to me, the movie seems to focus on the generational continuation of violence. A literal representation of the old saying “like father, like son.” Some people have come to the conclusion that the events of the plot occured due to the mother’s failure to make good on her promise to God and so the family is haunted by that failure and that may be true too. With this movie, any explanation is plausible. The movie is dark, gritty, intense and violent but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

The thing is that the ending of this movie can be interpreted in so many ways; in fact, the whole movie can be interpreted in different ways. Some have seen Arvin’s last journey in the movie as his trip to the afterlife with Jesus (the long haired driver) as his guide. Some see it as the trip to his new life where he joins the army to have a reason for killing people as we hear that the war effort is still looking for soldiers. One thing that we don’t get much of is a deeper understanding of the side character’s motivations. We don’t get a look inside the minds of the sinners and Arvin’s driving force seems to be revenge. There is no real reason why any of the characters do what they do, though some of that reasoning may be found in the novel itself or the collection of short stories, called Knockemstiff, that preceded the novel. Who knows? Not me, that’s for sure. And, honestly, sometimes this movie makes you wish that parts of it are, in fact, “delusions.” 

Honestly, there are so many interwoven plot points in this whole story that it might have translated better as mini series. There is so much going on alongside the main plot that probably needed to be explored to help understand the outcome of the story. Believe me, I’ll be reading the novel during Booktober to see if it creates more opportunities for understanding though I’m not really hoping for much and I’ll let you know how it goes later in the month. Overall, it’s bloody and not exactly suitable for the faint of heart but worth a watch simply because it took a shot at telling a huge story and supported that with excellent acting and directing choices.