The Fever of Faith: A Review of The Devil All The Time (2020)Dir. Antonio Campos

"Only in the presence of Death could he feel the voice of God," A telling line from Antonio Campos's ambitious new film, The Devil All The Time. It requires some skill to adequately create a movie involving several characters circulating and intersecting in some fateful schematic. There are great moments of drama and suspense in the film. The writing is admirable, and the cinematography is lush. The acting features strong performances, particularly from our more prominent stars Bill Skarsgård and Robert Pattinson. Yet, towards the end of two hours of perpetual cynicism, we wonder if there's more to this catalog of unfortunate, often sadistic events or if it's just that. 

Set in rural neighboring small towns in Ohio in the 1950s, The Devil All The Time brings us back to a time and place where piety and faith were assumed among the township. While the film's focus is on Arvin Russell, the film spends a generous amount of time shedding light on his father's past. During our time spent with the father, we meet several other characters, each having their own independent tale and ironically coinciding with each other. These characters' interactions always seem to climax with murder, sexual abuse, or suicide. And, they all seem to touch our unwitting Arvin, who flows through these things like a small creek within a nefarious forest. Witnessing so much tragedy has given Arvin a stiff upper lip in life. He isn't callous, but he is wary. Arvin finds strength in the silver lining of hardship and uses that strength to make his own decision of right and wrong. Much like the character of Justine in Lars Von Trier's Melancholia. Speaking of Trier, not even he treats his characters as cynically as Campos in the film. 

Every scene, I repeat, every scene in The Devil All The Time leads only to something dreadful. It is so constant it, at times, comes off as outlandish. But we're invested. We want to know what this is all about. The film achieves garnering our attention. While it seems our poor Arvin's story is a collection of coincidental cataclysms, there are layers of substance and theme to the film. We must now meet the film's real main character whose very appearance in the film is aptly debatable - God, or the Devil. The two opposing forces are interchangeable, indistinguishable, which is the most cunning aspect of the film.  

In reflecting on The Devil All The Time, I mused over its title. In observing our characters and their actions, it's in their darkest, most vulnerable places they turn to God, but the Devil greets them instead. Many are driven feverishly drunk of the Holy Ghost, which inevitably becomes their doom. Arvin, apathetic towards the faith, is not unscathed. He is prepared and vigilant to face the world and its cruel realities. 

I do not believe, on the whole, that the film is anti-religious. But, its grave warnings for stay clear of fanaticism and blind faith are clear. It is often the case when one commits so much to an ideology, they begin to turn into an incarnation of the very thing they oppose. The Westboro Baptist Church seemed to forget God's message of love, tolerance, and forgiveness in favor of hate and anger. While the citizens of Meade and Knockemstiff, Ohio, suffer atrocities so frequently it becomes absurd, there is undoubtedly a tinge of realism or at least reflection to take note of. 

7/10