Tom Holland plays a young man named Arvin Russell, and the movie he stars in is built around him. But The Devil All the Time is not a simple story about one boy. It is a Southern Gothic crime drama that weaves together the lives of half a dozen people across decades, from the end of World War II through the 1960s, in two small towns — Coal Creek, West Virginia, and Meade and Knockemstiff, Ohio.
The film follows Arvin as he grows up in Knockemstiff, a town so remote it barely exists on any map. His father, Willard Russell, played by Bill Skarsgård, is a veteran who returns from the Solomon Islands after killing a dying man named Gunnery Sergeant Miller Jones. His mother, Charlotte, played by Haley Bennett, runs a diner in Meade. Together they move to Knockemstiff, where Arvin’s uncle Leroy Brown, played by Douglas Hodge, and his wife Emma, played by Kristin Griffith, live nearby.
The film’s tagline sums up the whole picture: “Everyone ends up in the same damned place.” That is a promise the movie spends nearly two and a half hours trying to keep.
Trailer, via Netflix.
The Characters
Arvin is the center of the story, but the people around him are the ones who drive it forward:
- Willard Russell, the father, a war veteran carrying guilt from a kill he made in the Solomon Islands
- Reverend Preston Teagardin, played by Robert Pattinson, a preacher whose faith turns strange and dangerous
- Carl Henderson, played by Jason Clarke, a photographer and serial killer who picks up hitchhikers with his wife, Sandy, played by Riley Keough
- Roy Laferty, played by Harry Melling, a preacher who drinks poison and believes he can raise the dead
- Leroy Brown, a violent man whose wife, Emma, wants her son to marry Helen Hatton, played by Mia Wasikowska
Each of these characters gets their own thread, and each thread crosses paths with Arvin’s in some way. The film moves between these separate stories until the final act brings them together again.
Pattinson’s Performance
Robert Pattinson is the standout here. He plays Reverend Preston Teagardin as a man of faith who cannot hold onto it, and his performance is one of the film’s best moments. Pattinson has a gift for playing damaged men, and Teagardin is a character who feels that damage in almost every scene he is in.
Tom Holland, as Arvin, holds the film together. He plays a boy growing up in a town full of violence and fear, and he does it without ever becoming too big for the part. Holland carries the weight of the story’s moral center, even as the world around him goes wrong.
The Dark Tone
The film’s darkness is its biggest problem. The violence is harsh, the crimes are brutal, and the tone stays grim from start to finish. There is little relief, little humor, little light. That is a deliberate choice, but it is also a choice that wears thin over two and a half hours.
The Length Problem
At 138 minutes, The Devil All the Time runs long. Some of the middle sections feel like filler, spending too much time on secondary characters whose stories do not fully connect to the main thread. The film’s structure is ambitious, but the ambition is not matched by discipline.
Comparing the Threads
| Character | Role | Key Scene |
|---|---|---|
| Willard Russell | Father | Kills Gunnery Sergeant Miller Jones in the Solomon Islands |
| Reverend Preston Teagardin | Preacher | Turns violent and dangerous |
| Carl Henderson | Photographer | Serial killer with his wife, Sandy |
| Roy Laferty | Preacher | Believes he can raise the dead |
| Leroy Brown | Violent man | Wants his son to marry Helen Hatton |
The Final Act
The film’s ending ties everything together, bringing the separate threads back into one story centered on Arvin. It is a strong moment, but it comes after a long stretch where the middle sections drag. The payoff is there, but it arrives late.
The Verdict
The Devil All the Time is a flawed but ambitious film. Its cast is excellent, its performances are strong, and its central idea — that everyone ends up in the same damned place — is worth thinking about. But the film’s darkness and its length work against it. The middle sections lose focus, and the grim tone becomes exhausting.
The film is currently available to stream on Netflix, and it remains a solid, if demanding, watch for anyone interested in crime dramas with literary ambitions. Pattinson’s performance alone is worth the price of admission.
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