The Devil All The Time: an unwaveringly miserable portrait of rural faith and community

SPOILERS WITHIN

When this film came out last year (2020), I was passively interested in it. It boasted a strong cast, and the inclusion of Sebastian Stan was enough to pique my interest. However, I never got around to watching it, and the more lacklustre reviews I heard, the less interested I became.

The other night, I decided just to bite the bullet and watch it. I knew it probably wouldn't be my cup of tea - and it wasn't - but I just decided to go for it anyway. It is absolutely one of the most miserable films I have ever watched in my life. The performances were, for the most part, pretty solid, but the film itself was bland and uninteresting. None of the characters were particularly compelling, and I found it difficult to really invest in any of them (except the women, who are all treated poorly and all die). Now, I don't think the film is meant to be enjoyable, per se, nor is it meant to be a good time, or fun. But it is just so overwhelmingly oppressive that it weighs you down, and leaves you wondering why you watched it in the first place.

I'm still wondering why I watched it, to be honest. I don't really know what the plot was, nor do I know what the point was. For context, it catalogues the lives of a variety of residents of a small town called Knockemstiff and the ways in which they engage with their faith. There are orphans, and serial killers, and law enforcement officers, and preachers, and they all do terrible, awful things. A dog is killed and sacrificed near the beginning of the film, in an attempt at resurrection. The same thing, for the same purpose, happens to Helen Laferty (Mia Wasikowska), who is murdered by her preacher husband, Roy (Harry Melling). Roy is possibly one of the most disturbing - and disturbed - characters in the film; he pours venomous spiders over his head during sermons, to show his faith in the Lord. We only see this happen once in the film, but it is horrifying.

I will say, the film did maintain my interest. There were some scenes that dragged, but for the most part I did want to keep watching, if only to find out what everyone's fate was going to be. As mentioned previously, the performances were strong and engaging; particularly Robert Pattinson's, who made an excellent, if terrifying, morally corrupt Reverend Teagarden. Sebastian Stan and Tom Holland, who have a fun dynamic in real life, played off one another really well in a tense scene towards the end. Stan's character - County Sheriff Lee Boedecker - is pursuing Holland - Arvin Russell - through the forest, armed with a rifle and the intent to kill. In a previous scene, Russell had been picked up by serial killer duo Sandy (Riley Keough) and Carl (Jason Clarke) and, upon discovering their scheme, had killed them both. It just so happened that Sandy was Boedecker's sister, and he would do anything for her - including avenging her death by going after her killer. The scene in question is fraught, as Boedecker pursues Russell through the thicket, and culminates in a - literal - bang as Russell adds to his kill count by shooting Boedecker.

There isn't much to say about the visuals of the film; the colour palette is bland and comprised mostly of neutral tones, save for splatters of blood that occasionally permeate the frame. While this means that the film doesn't look very interesting, it is evocative of the rural American landscape and milieu that these characters reside in.

I suppose the film is an unflinching portrait of what it can be like to live in a town like Knockemstiff, amongst people who are so resolutely dedicated to their faith that they will do anything in its name. It is just so incessantly depressing that it is difficult to gather any real meaning from it. If you have some spare time, and it sounds like your kind of thing, maybe give it a go. I'm torn between never wanting to watch it again, and watching it again to see if I can get anything more out of it the second time around.

What about you? Have you already watched The Devil All The Time? What did you think? Don't be afraid to get in touch and let me know.