The Devil All the Time – Netflix Review (4/5)

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME is a new Netflix thriller with a wonderful cast and a very engaging story. It’s like a dark and quite sinister Fried Green Tomatoes which is a huge compliment. Read our The Devil All the Time review here!

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME is a new Netflix movie in the thriller, crime, and drama genres. It includes a serial killer couple and some preachers with diabolic behavior.

Overall, most will probably want to watch this Netflix thriller for the amazing cast, but the story alone makes it worth checking out.

Continue reading our The Devil All the Time review below.

Good versus Evil

In many ways, The Devil All the Time deals with good versus evil. However, it’s rarely quite that simple. For one, good people often find themselves having to commit evil acts to stop evil, which certainly takes away from them being all-good.

I loved the whole storytelling aspect of this Netflix movie which reminded me a lot of watching Fried Green Tomatoes. And since I truly adore that movie (and book), this is a huge compliment coming from me. Also, it’s pretty damn cool that the narrator in The Devil All the Time is the author of the book: Donald Ray Pollock.

In dealing with many sinister characters, we do move back and forth in chronology a bit. However, it never gets confusing or used as a “stunt”. Instead, we see events unfold and sometimes then revisit the past of one character involved in said events. All in the name of helping us understand why people act and react in certain ways.

The cast of The Devil All the Time

The Devil All the Time has a truly inspiring cast. We begin with Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise in the two recent IT movies) before moving on to Tom Holland (Spider-Man) and Robert Pattinson (Tenet). For me, it was especially the character portrayed by Robert Pattinson that really grabbed my attention – you’ll see why!

In other parts, we see Jason Clarke (Pet Sematary), Sebastian Stan (Destroyer), and Harry Melling. Most recently, we saw Harry Melling as the supervillain in the Netflix movie The Old Guard. He was over-the-top in that one but works quite well this time around.

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!

All about the guys

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.

Watch The Devil All the Time on Netflix

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!

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

Details

Director: Antonio Campos
Writers: Antonio Campos, Paulo Campos, Donald Ray Pollock (novel)
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Harry Melling, Tom Holland, Riley Keough, Haley Bennett, Bill Skarsgård, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Jason Clarke