'The Devil All the Time' Reviews Are In - Find Out What Critics Are Saying!

Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a B+, writing: “That Campos manages to corral each one of them in under two and a half hours is no small achievement. But his greatest feat may be that he was able to wrangle a story as ripe and unwieldy as Devil at all — toeing a tricky line between art-house atmosphere and Southern Gothic soap opera, and somehow still managing to land on the grim side of fascinating.”

Variety gave the film a negative review, writing: “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.”

Roger-Ebert.com gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, writing: “The Devil All the Time is a stark collection of vignettes about violence and religion in the heart of the country. It is vicious and cruel in ways that will turn off a lot of viewers. I found Campos’ skill with ensemble and willingness to dig into the darkest aspects of the human condition dramatically rewarding enough, even if it doesn’t work, well, all the time.”

The UK Times gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars, writing: “The results, alas, although thematically consistent (God + Americans = mass psychosis), tend to be tawdry, repetitive and unmistakably shallow.”

The LA Times gave it a favorable review, writing: “You can reject the conclusions of Campos’ movie, particularly its unrelenting pileup of dead bodies, and still take pleasure in its atmospheric surface.”

IndieWire gave the movie a C-, writing: “A violent but soulless meditation on faith taken to harrowing extremes, The Devil All the Time hurtles toward a constantly-hinted-at awful endgame, but by the time the final crash arrives, well, thank God it’s over. ”

AV Club also gave the movie a favorable review, writing: “What’s haunting about The Devil All The Time—and, ultimately even a little hopeful—is this idea that there’s a world beyond this world, where perhaps not everyone is so cruel or intense. It may not be the biblical Heaven; but that’s okay. Sometimes Cincinnati will suffice.”

The Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 3.5 out of 4 stars, writing: “Once all the pieces are in place and we see the big picture, we’re left with admiration for director/co-writer Antonio Campos’ ability to weave a memorably brooding film from Donald Ray Pollock’s novel of the same name.”

The New York Times gave a negative review, writing: “There is little sense that the people in this world do anything but suffer or cause others to suffer in between working, church going and occasionally popping out babies.”