THE DEVIL ALL TIME is a new Netflix film in the genres of thrills, crime and suspense. It involves a couple of serial killer, and other diabolically acted preachers.

Overall, most people want to watch this awesome cast Netflix thriller but the story alone makes it worth checking out. The Devil All the Time discusses good and bad in several respects. It's not quite that easy though. For one thing, good people frequently find themselves forced to do bad deeds in order to avoid bad, which definitely takes away all-goodness from them.

I loved this Netflix movie's whole storytelling aspect that reminded me a lot of watching Fried Green Tomatoes. And because I really love that film (and book), it's a huge compliment that comes from me. It is also pretty darn awesome that the book's protagonist is the narrator in The Devil All The Time: Donald Ray Pollock.



We switch back and forth in chronology even in dealing with several mysterious characters. But it never gets misunderstood or used as a "stunt." Instead, we see events happening and then occasionally revisiting the history of one character involved in those events. This in the name of helping us understand why sometimes people behave and respond.

The Devil All Time has a cast that is truly inspirational. We start with Bill Skarsgård (in the two recent IT films, Pennywise) before moving on to Tom Holland (Spider-Man) and Robert Pattinson (Tenet). For me, it was particularly the character that Robert Pattinson portrayed that really captured my attention – you'll see why!

We also see Jason Clarke (Pet Sematary), Sebastian Stan (Destroyer), and Harry Melling in other sections. We've seen Harry Melling most recently as the supervillain in the Netflix film The Old Guard. In that one he was over-the-top but this time around he functions very well.

I don’t want to give away much about any of their characters, but they do all deliver really solid performances. Still, I do have to mention the fact that they’ve attempted to make Sebastian Stan look overweight and he looks more like Marlon Brando in The Godfather. I keep expecting him to make someone an offer they can’t refuse!

While I did enjoy The Devil All the Time quite a lot, I have to admit that it suffers from the usual issue of being almost exclusively about its male characters. Sure, there are women in this movie and they’re portrayed by wonderful actors. The characters just tend to be a plot device meant to drive a male character’s story forward.



It’s nothing new, but a trope that could really do with an update.

The female characters in The Devil All the Time are portrayed by great actors with solid careers in their own right. They include Mia Wasikowska (Piercing), Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects), Haley Bennet (Swallow), and Riley Keough (The Lodge).

Only Riley Keough plays a character that seems to have her own storyline and plot points.

While I definitely could not help but notice that this story is overwhelmingly about the male characters, I also recognize that this movie is based on a book. And I know this director does not shy away from telling the stories of women as well.

Antonio Campos is the director of The Devil All the Time and he also co-wrote the script with Paulo Campos. As mentioned earlier, this movie is based on a novel by Donald Ray Pollock, who also takes part in this adaptation as the narrator. A stroke of pure genius and it works perfectly!

If the name Antonio Campos sounds familiar, it could be because you’ve watched The Sinner which he directed several episodes of (both in season 1 and season 2). Also, he directed the biographic Christine (2016) which is very much worth watching.

Up next for Antonio Campos is the movie The First Omen which is a horror movie. It’s written by Ben Jacoby who also wrote the horror movie Bleed (2016) which wasn’t exactly awesome, but I’m sure Campos will deliver.

For The Devil All the Time, the runtime is at 2 hours and 18 minutes. I was surprised though, that I did not feel this was a long movie. Instead, it felt perfectly paced and the serial killer aspect should keep many horror fans happy as well. There is a lot of death in this movie overall!

Plot
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters — an unholy preacher (Robert Pattinson), twisted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough), and crooked sheriff (Sebastian Stan) — converge around young Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family. Spanning the time between World War II and the Vietnam war, director Antonio Campos’ THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME renders a seductive and horrific landscape that pits the just against the corrupted. Co-starring Bill Skarsgård, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska, Harry Melling, Haley Bennett, and Pokey LaFarge, this suspenseful, finely-woven tale is adapted from Donald Ray Pollock’s award-winning novel.

The Devil All the Time is out on Netflix from September 16, 2020.