The Devil All the Time (2020)

Directed by Antonio Campos. Starring Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Eliza Scanlen, Sebastian Stan, Robert Pattinson, Haley Bennett, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Harry Melling, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Banks Repeta, Kristin Griffith, Pokey LaFarge, David Atkinson, (voice) Donald Ray Pollock. [R]

Bleak, fear-braised Appalachian Gothic (or Americana noir?) intertwines several lurid, fatalistic stories of haunted WWII vets, manipulative evangelical preachers, highway serial murderers, corrupt small-town sheriffs, and so on. Strong on evocative locations and seedy atmosphere, and the ease with which it peels away at the quaint veneer of rural America is borderline Lynchian, but the cruelty is too relentless for its own good, habitually reducing the compelling nature of doomed characters at the mercy of devastating coincidence to sinful pawns in a chess game that no one can win, just hope to survive. Hardly any loafers in the strong ensemble cast, with Pattinson’s weird charisma, transient Southern accent, and reptilian lechery representing the conspicuous standout. Narrator Pollock also wrote the source novel, which was adapted by director Campos and his brother, Paulo; Jake Gyllenhaal co-produced.

79/100