With an ensemble cast of Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgard, and more, I had high hopes for the new film, The Devil All The Time, written by Donald Ray Pollock and directed by Antonio Campos, and I wasn’t disappointed. The performances in this film were all outstanding, even though I wished Robert Pattinson would have scaled back on his accent he does for this film; the accent simply doesn’t match the face or physique. There is a lot of unexpected violence in this film, which raises the stakes and suspense for the characters to avoid becoming victims to the corruption and sinister people in their town.
In this film, Tom Holland plays the role of a moral gatekeeper. He seeks to protect those he loves from the evil in his town of West Virginia while struggling his own childhood trauma and unresolved issues with his family. He learns from his father, Bill Skarsgard, the importance of protecting the people he loves from people that have ill intentions. He protects his sister from rapists that try to get her after school almost daily, so it is heartbreaking to see that when he stops accompanying her to the church and cemetery that she gets assaulted and taken advantage of by Robert Pattinson’s character who is the new preacher. The revenge that Tom Holland’s character seeks toward the end of the film stirs the moral issue of killing someone, even if the person has done evil acts.
The costuming is outstanding as well, taking place in 1967 and earlier. I highly recommend this film as it delves into questions of morality in the face of evil. You can find the film on Netflix, but I do warn you of the gruesome violence and some instances of sexual assault.
