The Devil All the Time Parent Guide

Arvin Russel (Tom Holland) grew up in tiny Knockemstiff, Ohio, with his father, traumatized WWII vet Willard (Bill Skarsgard) and mother, kind-hearted waitress Charlotte (Haley Bennett). His life goes drastically off the rails when his mother dies of an aggressive and untreatable cancer, causing Willard to commit suicide. Arvin is shuttled off to live with his grandmother (Kristin Griffith), Uncle Earskell (David Atkinson), and their adopted daughter (and kindred orphan) Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) in a marginally larger town in West Virginia, a town which is about to get a new and unpleasant pastor (Robert Pattison)…but there are bigger problems afoot. Carl Henderson (Jason Clarke) and his wife, Sandy (Riley Keough) have been riding the backroads, picking up hitchhikers, and brutally murdering them as part of a twisted sexual fantasy. Their stories draw closer together as life in the small town twists and turns, leading to a dangerous confrontation…

Let’s start with the downside: the content. There’s a lot here that makes this not only unsuitable for a family audience, but probably not ideal for most other viewers. If you’re squeamish in any way, there’s going to be something in this movie you’re not gonna like. Suppose you’re okay with seeing a captured soldier crucified alive and left for the flies? You’re going to love the next bit - brutal torture and serial murder. You’re okay with that? How about killing the dog? How about the creepy sex assault? Frankly, if none of that makes you uncomfortable, then you make me uncomfortable. It’s designed to be unpleasant.

The upside is that the story is well written and compelling. The characters are unique and well developed (which I should hope they would be, with over two hours of run time to flesh them out), and their intertwined stories don’t always go the way you’d expect. The film also does a good job balancing its “good” and “gad” guys, highlighting that religion does not automatically qualify anyone as one or the other – rather, it is the behavior and attitude of the characters that gives them a moral dimension. None of this is as simple as it sounds in a short review – either for the actors or the screenwriters – and the work really pays off.



Another advantage is the huge star-studded cast. The cast list reads like an Oscars afterparty Who’s-Who. I expected that to drown out some of the authenticity of the film, but I was pleasantly surprised that even minor characters get a good showing. With this many named characters, it can be easy to lose track, but I didn’t have that problem here – an achievement both for the film and myself, since I’ve lived in the same house for 18 years and still don’t know my neighbors’ names.

So, while the audience is likely pretty limited on the content alone, for those with strong enough stomachs and a fair amount of patience for long-form storytelling (see that monstrous runtime again), there’s strong story. The Devil All the Time captures the strange interconnectedness of small communities, and highlights that even in a place that barely merits a name on a map, people’s lives are varied and complex – and not always in pleasant ways.