The Devil All the Time
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): September 16, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 21, 2020
There is an argument here about the corrupting influence of religion on ordinary Americans, but it is made with such bellowing cacophony that tinnitus ends up blurring the syntax. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 16, 2020
There is something weirdly pointless about it all, and there is a kind of tonal gap where, in another kind of film, the humour might go – which would counterweight the nasty violence. But it sure does pack a punch. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 15, 2020
You can reject the conclusions of Campos’ movie, particularly its unrelenting pileup of dead bodies, and still take pleasure in its atmospheric surface — in the persuasiveness of its small-town environs (shot on 35-millimeter film by the gifted cinematographer Lol Crawley) and the vigor of its performances. He may not persuade you all the time, but the devil is very much in those details. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt MaytumSep 11, 2020
Robert Pattinson delivers another film-stealing supporting turn. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinSep 11, 2020
A mixed bag of bones and bodies, whose Southern Gothic atmosphere and superb performances — from Holland especially — are let down by the film’s lack of narrative focus. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsOct 8, 2020
The Devil All the Time has the pretensions of a mythopoetic story that’s chipping away at a community’s dark underbelly. But here the misery is as belly-up and eager to be noticed as a house cat or a dead fish. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 17, 2020
A little mystery and a lot less narration would have better-served this sordid saga. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleSep 17, 2020
The craft and thick Gothic atmosphere of The Devil all the Time is impressive. The movie has such fine-wrought texture that it holds you in its cold grasp. But it’s also somewhat oppressive. Read full review
50
Screen RantMolly FreemanSep 16, 2020
The Devil All the Time is a slow, sprawling thriller, unfurling with creeping tension, but the cast's performances are more rewarding than the story. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowrySep 16, 2020
The casting alone should spur interest in The Devil All the Tim -- Batman (Robert Pattinson) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), together at last -- but can't make the movie feel like less of a slog. Adapting Dale Ray Pollock's grim novel, awful characters proceed along parallel tracks, en route to a whole lot of violence and unpleasantness. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 15, 2020
The result is that the particularly cruel delights of Pollock’s writing get lost in an adaptation that can never nail any of its sprawling cast of characters, or escape the Southern-fried clichés that the novel transcends. Read full review
50
The PlaylistCharles BramescoSep 11, 2020
Like so many characters in this glum, shaggy ramble of a film, Campos gets lost in the woods. Most directors in his position fall victim to overreaching, as ideas overlap and confuse and weaken one another. He makes no such error, instead spreading a humbler film’s sum total of content across an unwieldy canvas. Read full review
42
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonSep 11, 2020
It’s a shame to see a movie this ambitious and well-cast turn out so wobbly, but The Devil All the Time inevitably sinks under the weight of its self-importance. Read full review
42
IndieWireRyan LattanzioSep 11, 2020
There is no reason to care about anyone in Antonio Campos’ The Devil All the Time, a sweaty, bloated mess of a movie that flushes a knockout ensemble down the drain. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 20, 2020
The Devil All the Time is an antiseptic slog, too streamlined to make us care and too literal-minded to pull us in. We never really get to know any of these characters aside from their villainy and/or victimhood. They’re paper fish in a cardboard barrel. Read full review
40
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 18, 2020
Even with Spider-man Tom Holland and new Batman Robert Pattinson in the leads, this violent tale of backwoods sin and corruption suffers from a severe case of too-muchness. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 16, 2020
Every faded dress looks attentively fitted, each ramshackle house artfully weathered. If the performances are considerably less persuasive it’s partly because Campos shows no interest in the inner lives of his characters. And while Pattinson’s and Keough’s roles are risible, the actors at least show signs of (comic) life. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2020
Antonio Campos introduces us to a world in which murder, violence, and suicide are commonplace, but he fails to find much new to say about this bleak thematic terrain. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 11, 2020
The Devil All the Time shows us a lot of bad behavior, but the movie isn’t really interested in what makes the sinners tick. And without that lurid curiosity, it’s just a series of Sunday School lessons: a noir that wants to scrub away the darkness. Read full review
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