The Devil All the Time Review

Tom Holland. Riley Keough. Jason Clarke. Bill Skarsgard. Robert Pattinson. Those are just some of the names in Netflix's newest movie "The Devil All the Time." If you don't recognize their names you certainly do their faces- there is a lot of talent onscreen, there's no arguing that. But the film is a disgusting pile of sewage, a messy exploitation of material that works in documentaries and not for entertainment.

The disconnected narrative follows Arvin Russell, played by Holland, who's dad (Skarsgard) killed himself after his mother's cancerous death. Now grownup, raised by his grandma and uncle, his step-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) kills herself after getting pregnant with the creepy local preacher (Pattinson). You don't want to be one of his relatives.

We also follow bent police sheriff Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan), who's promiscuous sister (Riley Keough) sleeps with hitchhikers before her husband (Clarke) kills them behind a camera lense. That's a problem for Lee, since he's up for reelection, a timely plot considering November is only two months away, but it never leans far into this political satire, instead settling into being but another way to sensationalize violence for the lusting camera.

These two primary stories are connected to each other not only with characters but with the picture's core concept, which is the corruption of religion. Everyone's motives, in some way or shape, leads back to god, and it's never for the better. Men and women are not only killed, but brutalized, both physically and emotionally. You see as much sex and gore an R rating will allow- even the dog dies!

Thankfully that's off camera, but why? Because people don't like it when an animal dies? Do you think they like it when a woman has a screwdriver shoved in her throat? Because that happens here, shown in its entirety. We see all the blood spill between her fingers as she tries to put pressure on the gash. This is a moral compass as corrupt as the characters it tries to villainize.

Save for Spiderman, every man targets women for their own perverse actions. If you're not comfortable with watching a grown man force fellatio on his wife, after having sex with an underage girl in his car, then please, keep scrolling through the list of recommended films on Netflix. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, a rampant exercise in sexism that just doesn't sit well with me. I refuse to accept this as a thriller, not only because the movie fails to thrill but because the material does too. Religion is ripe for mockery, but statutory rape is not.

Don't get me wrong- this is a well-made film. Director and co-writer Antonio Campos is obviously skilled, and there's a heavy layer of polish to the entire production. The cast brings their A-game too, it's just a shame this is what the results are.

IMDB.com tells me that the film's slogan is "Some people are just born to be buried;" some films are too.