Netflix's The Devil All The Time - What We Know So Far

In the market for a dark Southern Gothic thriller with a cast to die for? Get ready for The Devil All the Time.

This Netflix original film, based on the 2011 Donald Ray Pollock novel of the same name, has been hotly anticipated ever since it was announced in early 2019. It follows a widely disparate cast of characters in the rural South in between the days of World War II and the Vietnam War — some dealing with slowly encroaching tragedy, others acting as agents of pure malevolence, and all hiding scars and secrets.

Pollock's novel followed his similarly-themed 2008 short story collection Knockemstiff, and it was widely acclaimed, drawing favorable comparisons to the works of such hard-boiled American authors as Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner. Adapting its many sprawling, intertwined narratives to the screen seems like no easy task — but having one of the most ridiculously qualified casts ever assembled should make it a bit easier for ascendant director Antonio Campos. Here's everything we know so far about The Devil All the Time.

As you're probably aware unless you just woke up from a six-month long nap, the television and film industry has been thrown into chaos this year, forcing nearly every movie production both large and small to shut down in the interest of public health. While some are beginning to ramp up again, the question of when movie theaters will be able to safely reopen en masse in any meaningful capacity is still an open one — but, thankfully for our entertainment-starved brains, Netflix has been able to fill the giant hole left by the absence of summer multiplex fare pretty admirably. 

This is because a fair number of the streamer's original films and series had already managed to wrap shooting before the pandemic hit, and The Devil All the Time is among them. In fact, it's been in the can since April 2019, apparently having spent the intervening months in just the type of lengthy post-production that we would expect from a work which will be tasked with juggling multiple complex narratives. It probably doesn't hurt that director Campos chose an editor who undoubtedly has a great deal of insight into his creative process — Sofía Subercaseaux, his wife of five years.

We imagine that Subercaseaux has spent the better part of this year sweating bullets in the editing room, but fortunately, it appears that her work is finished. Netflix recently announced via Twitter that The Devil All the Time will drop worldwide on September 16, 2020.

We may have mentioned that The Devil All the Time has an absolutely insane cast, so let's just start with the fact that a couple of the biggest stars from the biggest franchise ever — the Marvel Cinematic Universe — will appear in the film. Tom Holland, the MCU's Spider-Man, will star as Arvin Russell, the orphaned son of extremely troubled parents whose fundamentally good heart harbors a violent streak. Also in the mix is Sebastian Stan, who has portrayed Captain America's best buddy Bucky Barnes in the MCU since 2011. He'll be playing Lee Bodecker, a corrupt cop who happens to be the brother of a very dangerous woman. Interestingly, Stan scored his role in The Devil All the Time on the personal recommendation of Cap himself, Chris Evans, who had to vacate it due to scheduling conflicts.

As for the rest of the cast, it includes (excuse us while we take a deep breath): Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter series) as Roy Laferty, an unhinged, spider-handling preacher; Bill Skarsgård (It: Chapter Two) and Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train) as Willard and Charlotte Russell, Arvin's ill-fated parents; Jason Clarke (Pet Sematary) as Carl Henderson, a serial killer; Riley Keough (Hold the Dark) as Sandy Henderson, Carl's wife and accomplice, as well as Bodecker's sister; Mia Wasikowska (Alice Through the Looking Glass) as Helen Hatton, an old flame of Willard's; Douglas Hodge (Joker) as Tater Brown; and Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse) as Preston Teagardin, an unscrupulous preacher who preys on young girls.

The movie's plot will follow all of these characters through the use of non-linear narrative; that much we know for sure. What isn't exactly clear is to what extent The Devil All the Time will deviate from its source material, and whether some characters will hog more of the spotlight than others — other than Holland's Arvin Russell, who appears to be the linchpin tying all of the film's disparate plot threads together.

As for those plot threads, we also know that the movie will shift its attention between Arvin's parents Willard and Charlotte, exploring their tragic relationship and how Arvin came to be an orphan; the Hendersons, as they criss-cross the countryside looking for attractive young women to photograph and then murder; Roy, who is on the run from the law with his disabled sidekick; and Arvin himself, who struggles with his family's legacy of tragedy and death (via IMDb).

At the moment, there is not yet a trailer for The Devil All the Time — but considering that the official release date has now been announced, we expect that to change very shortly. As of this writing, the flick has less than two months to go before its debut on Netflix, and the streamer will want to get audiences pumped. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if we were to get a promo spot in the next few days, as seems to be par for the course for Netflix following release date announcements.

If you're as psyched for The Devil All the Time as we are, we'll have you covered with any new details that happen to come down the pike between now and September 16, a date you will want to mark on your calendar (if you haven't already). This may be the summer of shuttered movie theaters and overworked couches, but it's also been Netflix's time to shine — and with The Devil All the Time, we're betting on the streamer giving us the biggest film of the year.

Look to binge-watch some thrillers? After watching The Devil All the Time, try surfing Netflix for some of the best thrillers the service has to offer.