The Devil All the Time Analysis

The Devil All the Time (2020)

Directed by: Antonio Campos
Written by: Antonio Campos & Paulo Campos
Based on a novel of the same name. On Netflix.

The film has religious dogmatism as the setting, the conflict and the threat too. There is a sense of mystery, and eeriness throughout the film. It starts with the scene where he puts spiders on himself, that's an excellent visual scene that sets the tone for the entire film. They use religion interestingly, in a way that we believe that a human could be capable of anything under the name of religion - and that's how the film goes slightly from thriller to horror. In a thriller, we are worried for the characters and in horror, we are worried for ourselves. This film makes us worried for ourselves, about what we might have to witness, about the plight of humanity, about the extremes to which a human can go to. The film has a bit of the modern Western influences, the way we see killings, revenge and that kind of things happening in the film. 

The film personally didn't mean as much to me, simply because I couldn't relate to what the film was talking about. The only thing that hit me was the sister committing suicide, which was well set up before the event happens. We see how much they mean to each other, how he takes care of her, The journey of Arvin, going through a childhood like that, going through his sister's death, killing them all and then taking a lift, and contemplating life - was an interesting aspect. I wish they explored the story in a slight coming-of-age zone from Arvin's perspective - amidst all the blood, revenge and killings. I'm not expecting a Boyhood out of Arvin's character exploration, but some more delving into his psyche.