We’ve seen Tom Holland prove his mettle by webbing up evil as Spider-Man, and we can’t wait for Robert Pattinson don Batman’s dark cape. Now, we get to see them sans the superhero façade in Netflix’s The Devil All the Time, a period drama film that explores the secrets of sin.
The movie is based on Donald Ray Pollock’s debut novel of the same name that was published in 2011. It revolves around the small rural town of Knockemstiff, Ohio in the 1950s and follows a slew of sadistic, and bizarre residents who hide their sinister drive under the guise of goodness.
The plot starts with the slow descent of army veteran Willard Russel’s (Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd) sanity as he returns home from the Second World War. Russell starts a family, and he tries to suppress the traumas that torment him by trying and failing to enact his faith. When his wife (Haley Bennett) dies of cancer, he tries to offer sacrificial blood that he pours on his “prayer log,” and when he fails to revive her, he commits suicide, leaving behind their son Arvin (Tom Holland), a brutish orphan, to fend for himself.
Then there’s the twisted tandem of Sandy and Carl Henderson (Riley Keough and Jason Clarke), serial killers who search America’s highway for suitable models to photograph and then kill afterward; the town’s pastor, Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson, who, according to the Internet, “butchered” the southern accent), a cruel and manipulative man of religion; Roy Laferty (Harry Melling), a minister who believes that God has anointed him with the ability to raise the dead; Lee Bodecker (Sebastian Stan; fun fact: replaced Chris Evans who was originally cast to the role), a crooked sheriff who bends the law to adjust to the criminal activities of his sister, Sandy.
All their paths converge in the small gothic community whose memories bounce between war to war and sticks Holland’s young character into an “unholy” predicament, pushing him to become more and more violent.
No doubt, the performers in this powerhouse cast can carry a film individually, so pitting them against each other in this disturbing period piece gives all of us a lot to look forward to.
You can stream The Devil All the Time on Netflix in the Philippines starting September 16.
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