Discover The Best Movies and TV Shows Like The Devil All the Time

Set in the backwoods of Ohio and West Virginia between World War II and the Vietnam War, *The Devil All the Time* weaves a grim tapestry of intergenerational trauma, religious fanaticism, and relentless violence. The narrative centers on Arvin Russell, a young man raised in the shadow of his father Willard’s obsessive, desperate prayers—a futile attempt to save his dying wife from cancer through blood sacrifice. Scarred by this upbringing, Arvin grows into a stoic protector of his stepsister, Lenora, a pious girl constantly tormented by bullies and the predatory machinations of the town’s new, corrupt preacher, Preston Teagardin.As Arvin navigates the moral decay of his community, the plot intersects with the lives of Carl and Sandy Henderson, a married couple who roam the highways as serial killers. Sandy, the sister of the local crooked sheriff, Lee Bodecker, lures unsuspecting hitchhikers into their car, where Carl photographs them before murdering them to satisfy a perverse voyeuristic urge. This dark web of depravity eventually ensnares the innocent, forcing Arvin to confront the darkness that has defined his lineage.The film’s tension escalates as Arvin’s violent past collides with the corrupt institutions surrounding him. When the preacher’s hypocrisy leads to Lenora’s tragic suicide, Arvin takes justice into his own hands, executing Teagardin in a desperate act of retribution. This murder sets off a chain reaction that brings him face-to-face with the Hendersons. In a brutal, climactic confrontation on a desolate road, Arvin kills Carl and Sandy, effectively dismantling the cycle of abuse that has haunted his life.The story concludes with Arvin, now an outlaw, drifting toward an uncertain future. He is a man defined by the sins of his father and the environment that forged him, yet he manages to break the chain of inherited trauma through his own bloody brand of morality. The film masterfully illustrates how religious fervor and unchecked power can poison a community, leaving Arvin as a lonely, haunted figure wandering away from the wreckage of his past, finally untethered from the suffocating grip of his upbringing, yet forever marked by the violence he was forced to embrace to survive.