Staring: Bill Skarsgard, Michael Banks, Tom Holland, Harry Melling, Jason Clarke, Riley Keough, and Robert Pattinson
The effects of depravity and trauma are on hand in this sprawling account from director and co-writer Antonio Campos.
The Devil All The Time has raw intensity and brutality to spare in combining the illicit, febrile spirituality, and a ( Midwest Gothic) with psychological etchings. Which certainly is discomfiting, but still watchable from who exacts and is the recipient of torment.
The viciousness traverses West Virginia and Ohio from miscreants to the sacrifice of a pet by a father (Bill Skarsgard) for divine intervention for his wife’s cancer diagnosis. The son Arvin is played in youth by Michael Banks Repeta then as an adult by Tom Holland in a departure from Spider-Man Far From Home. Though not able to shed all that innocence and earnestness.
Hard-boiled preacher inhabited by Harry Melling thinks he’s got the power to resurrect his wife with a perfectly good screwdriver. Jason Clarke and Riley Keough are perverted husband-and-wife serial-killers of unsuspecting licentious folks. Then there’s the man of God filled with unctuous duplicity by Robert Pattison (the next ‘Batman’ who recently tested positive for COVID-19) who is a venal presence to those captivated faithful.
The nature of the plot in its interlocking format doesn’t sustain a clear focus or perspective as one might recall the more formidable The Place Beyond The Pines which starred Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper (as both by then had become A-listers).