Taglines: Some people are just born to be buried.
The Devil All the Time Movie Storyline. Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.”
There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.
The Devil All the Time is a 2020 American psychological thriller film directed by Antonio Campos, from a screenplay co-written with his brother Paulo Campos, based on the novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock, who also serves as the film’s narrator. The cast includes Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson, whose characters’ stories weave together.
The Devil All the Time was released in select theaters on September 11, 2020, and on Netflix on September 16, 2020. The film was the most-watched on Netflix over its first two days, and third overall in its first five days. In November 2020, Variety reported the film was the 22nd-most watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020 up to that point. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Holland and Pattinson, but criticized the dark tone.
About the Story
During World War II, while serving in the Solomon Islands, U.S. Marine Willard Russell finds Gunnery Sergeant Miller Jones skinned and crucified by Japanese soldiers. Willard ends Jones’s agony by shooting him behind the ear. After the war, on his way home to Coal Creek, West Virginia, Willard passes through Meade, Ohio, where he meets Charlotte, a waitress at a diner and a photographer named Carl Henderson. Willard and Charlotte marry and move to Knockemstiff, Ohio, where they have a son who they name Arvin.
In 1950, Helen Hatton marries Roy Laferty. Roy is a bizarre, albeit charismatic, evangelical preacher who pours venomous spiders over his head while giving sermons to demonstrate his faith in God. Helen and Roy have a daughter named Lenora. During a sermon, Roy is bitten by a spider on his face and has a severe allergic reaction that affects his grip on reality. He comes to believe that he has the ability to resurrect the dead and takes Helen out in the woods.
He stabs her in the neck with a screwdriver before trying and failing to resurrect her. Roy hitchhikes and is picked up by a married couple, Carl Henderson and his wife Sandy. Carl and Sandy are revealed to be serial killers who pick up male hitchhikers and encourage them to have sex with Sandy while Carl takes photographs before murdering them. Roy refuses to have sex with Sandy, so Carl shoots and kills him.
In 1957, Charlotte is diagnosed with cancer. Willard believes he can influence God with fervent prayer to remove cancer from his wife’s body. So he prays to God and sacrifices Arvin’s dog, kneeling before a rustic cross he had erected in the woods behind his house. Nevertheless, Charlotte dies despite his efforts and Willard commits suicide by slitting his throat. Arvin, now orphaned, goes to live with his grandmother Emma, where he meets Lenora, who becomes his adopted “stepsister”.
In 1965, Arvin is given his father’s Luger pistol as a birthday present. He is fiercely protective of Lenora who is bullied by some local boys, prompting Arvin to attack and beat them all mercilessly. Lenora grows close to the new, narcissistic Reverend Preston Teagarden. Preston seduces Lenora and she becomes pregnant. When she informs Preston, he denies her.
Not wanting to bring shame to her family, Lenora plans to take her own life by hanging herself. At the last second, she decides not to go through with suicide, but as she attempts to undo the noose, she slips off her support and dies. After the autopsy, Arvin is told that she was pregnant and suspects that Preston was the father. He follows Preston and sees him seduce another underage girl.
At church, Arvin confronts Preston about Lenora and shoots and kills him with the Luger before fleeing. Arvin hitchhikes and is picked up by Carl and Sandy. Arvin notices that Carl is carrying a gun. As Carl begins the pair’s ritual, Arvin shoots and kills both Carl and Sandy in self-defense. In the car’s glove compartment, he finds a collection consisting of several rolls of film. Sandy’s brother, Sheriff Lee Bodecker, learns about Sandy’s murder. To protect himself and his coming reelection, he goes to Carl and Sandy’s apartment where he finds and destroys Carl’s photo collection.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Directed by: Antonio Campos
Starring: Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, Kristin Griffith, Pokey LaFarge
Screenplay by: Antonio Campos, Paulo Campos
Production Design by: Craig Lathrop
Cinematography by: Lol Crawley
Film Editing by: Sofía Subercaseaux
Costume Design by: Emma Potter
Set Decoration by: Marthe Pineau
Art Direction by: James A. Gelarden
Music by: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
MPAA Rating: R for violence, bloody / disturbing images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language throughout.
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: September 15, 2020 (United States)
Visits: 38
