Direction: Antonio Campos
Country: USA
American director Antonio Campos has a penchant for dark thrillers, usually packing them with mystery, violence and emotional burden (Afterschool; Simon Killer). However, his new outing, The Devil All the Time, is not as crafted as the previous works, failing to live up to its potential as it never goes deep enough in the darkness of the chained plot threads.
This rural Southern tale, based on the novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock (the film’s narrator) and co-written by Campos and his brother Paulo, is presented with bluntly dried tones and little imagination.
It’s true that the storytelling is never muddled, but it’s too cold, bleak and tedious in its cinematic vistas. In the end, what stays with us is a repulsion for nearly every character and that weird sensation that there’s no message besides the evil omens.
