Early on in Antonio Campos’ The Devil All the Time – an adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s novel of the same name – Bill Skarsgard’s Willard is forced to bring a swift end to someone nailed to a cross in a battlefield. The soldier is stripped, bloodied and barely breathing as he begs Willard to end his misery. It’s a stark way to set the events into motion but, make no mistake, this is only the tip of the iceberg for how vicious Netflix’s latest gets – a seething, esoteric odyssey about faith, revenge, and violence.
“There’s a lot of no good sons of bitches out there”. This is something Willard instils into his son Arvin from a young age (Michael Banks Repeta). And as the characters in The Devil All The Time show, this much is true – from unhinged preachers (Harry Melling) to corrupt cops (Sebastian Stan) and a deranged photographer (Jason Clarke) who gets a kick out of forcing hitchhikers to sleep with his wife (Riley Keough). It’s a world driven by misguided faith – or a lack thereof. Upon returning from the war, Willard becomes more religious, especially so when his wife Charlotte (Haley Bennett) is diagnosed with cancer.
But Willard’s fervent prayer leads to his demise, something that Arvin has to reckon with later in his life (played as a 17-year-old by a brooding Tom Holland). Arvin was old enough to remember how prayers didn’t do him any good as a boy so he has a disregard for the church – much to his religious little sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen)’s dismay. On the other hand, Lenora is very religious – so much so that she gets bullied by kids in her school, who Arvin then beats the crap out of. But, as Lenora gets involved with unscrupulous preacher Preston (Robert Pattinson), Arvin finds himself being tested more than ever.
Penned by Antonio and Paulo Campos (and narrated by the book’s scribe Donald Ray Pollock), The Devil All The Time is a messy epic that takes place over several locations across many years. As characters weave in and out of each other’s stories, you can’t help but feel like this would have worked better as a miniseries. Or a 4-hour epic. It’s an ambitious piece of work that tries to cram a lot of arcs into 138 minutes, so the fact that Antonio and Paulo Campos are still able to make a cohesive and impactful film despite some thinly sketched subplots and weak characterisation is a testament to their craft. This is a deconstruction of religion that scrutinises violence and wrestles with the consequences of our own undoing. And it does so terrifically.
To say that The Devil All The Time is a bleak endeavour would be an understatement. This film is relentlessly miserable from its opening sequence, with only a fragment of hope ever shining through. It’ll turn viewers off, especially those MCU fans coming to see Tom Holland in a “dark” role. It’s more despairing than dark as Holland goes through the emotional wringer; the young actor leaves his A-list credentials at the door to turn in a soul-baring performance as Arvin – easily the magnum opus of his career to date. He leads a cast that is on a perfect form; there’s no such thing as a wasted or miscast role here, with every performer at the top of their game. But the notable turns come from Scanlen (who continues to impress after Little Women and Babyteeth) and Pattinson as the sinewy, vile Preston. He tends to show up in films super late (The King, Waiting for the Barbarians) super late and steal the show and The Devil All the Time is no exception.
While the narration is overbearing, with Pollock making very obvious and unnecessary comments, and even though the film can feel quite sprawling given all of the characters and plots being wrangled, there is still a lot to like about The Devil All the Time. Handsomely shot on 35mm by Lol Crawley with impeccable costume and production design from Emma Potter and Craig Lathrop, respectively, it’s admittedly a handsome piece of work. Campos is notorious for heady films about the unravelling of morality and The Devil All the Time is the filmmaker at his most moody and flippant. Here he has crafted a bleak, pensive gothic nightmare ripe with angst, melodrama and pure darkness. It’s brutal and slow – a meandering epic more focused on the smaller moments than the outright angry – and just like another recent Netflix endeavour, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, this won’t be for everyone. But it’s a riveting odyssey about faith, violence, and consequence.
The Devil All The Time
Summary
A handsome piece of work; A riveting odyssey about faith, violence, and consequence.
The Devil All The Time releases globally on Netflix September 16.
