The Devil All the Time | 2020 | R | – 7.8.8

Why is “The Devil All the Time” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violence, bloody/disturbing images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few sex scenes between a man and teen girls leaving one pregnant, several implied sex scenes with partial male and female nudity, several photographs of partially nude men and a woman, and references to inbreeding; many scenes of murder by gunshot and a screwdriver of men and women and a dog with bloody wounds shown, the aftermath of torture in a war setting, and several fights with fists and hammers; and several arguments and at least 32 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Set from the end of WWII to the 1960s in the backwoods of Ohio and West Virginia, a young man (Tom Holland) becomes the instrument of retribution against a lecherous preacher (Robert Pattinson), a perverted couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough) and a corrupt sheriff (Sebastian Stan). Based on Donald Ray Pollock’s novel. Also with Bill Skarsgård, Haley Bennett, Harry Melling, Mia Wasikowska and Eliza Scanlen. Directed by Antonio Campos. [Running Time: 2:18]

The Devil All the Time SEX/NUDITY 7

 – A man and a woman are shown seated in a car and the woman’s arm moves rhythmically (below the frame) until the man ejaculates and he remarks about “catching it all in a cup” (we see him throw it out of the car). A man and a teen girl are shown kissing in a car in a secluded area, she opens the passenger door and lies back as he opens the driver door and his legs stick out (sex is implied) the man holds a pair of underwear to his face and tosses them on the ground after the girl rides away on her bike. A man sits in a chair with his shirt open and a woman (his wife) kneels on the floor and we see her head moving rhythmically at his crotch as he pushes her head up and down (oral sex is implied).
► A woman is shown wearing her bra and underwear with a pair of shorts partially covering her hips and thighs; the woman’s husband tells a man to join her and have sex with her while he takes pictures of them (the man refuses, please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A teen boy and a teen girl alone on a school bus kiss and the boy pulls down his pants; he is interrupted by a noise at the door (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man takes a teen girl for a ride in his car to a secluded spot where he tells the girl to “show herself to the Lord,” and she undresses (we see her bare shoulders and bra straps); the man kisses her cheeks, forehead and lips (sex is implied).
► We see photos and negatives in a few scenes of a woman with different men and they are in a variety of sexual poses with varying amounts of nudity (we see the woman’s bare breasts, back and abdomen as well as the men’s bare buttocks, genitals, abdomen and chest). A woman wearing underwear (we see her bare back, legs to the hips and the side of her bare breast) is shown standing next to a man with a bloody wound (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A woman in a bar tells a man that they have “cozy rooms in the back” if he needs “some company.” Several references are made to small towns and that everyone in them is related.

The Devil All the Time VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – A soldier finds a man tied and pinned to a cross (we see a knife through the man’s foot); it looks as if the man has been flayed and flies buzz around him as he gasps and wheezes until the soldier shoots him in the head (blood sprays). A man stabs a woman in the throat and we see blood gushing from the wound as she crawls on the ground until she dies. A man straddles a young man’s neck (the young man is nude and we see a lot of blood at his crotch) and we hear a gunshot (we understand that the young man was shot and killed). A teen boy holds a gun on a man in a church, then sits in a pew and talks to the man about things that he has done that he supposedly feels guilty about; the boy stands up and holds the gun on the man, the man throws a book at the boy, the boy shoots the man in the hand, and then another time in the abdomen and head (we see bloody wounds and blood pooling on the floor). A man wraps a gun in a towel and shoots another man in the head (we see blood splatter). A man shoots another man off-screen. A teen boy shoots a man in the abdomen twice and a woman in the head once (we see blood on the wounds and blood splatter on a car windshield behind the woman). A man shoots a shotgun at a teen boy hiding in the woods; the teen shoots the man in the abdomen and he falls to the ground with blood on the wound. A man shoots a dog off-screen (we hear the shot and the dog yelps); we see the man carrying the bloody animal as his young son pleads for him to stop and we later see the animal nailed to a cross in the woods (as a sacrifice to God). A man tells another man to have sex with his wife while he takes their photograph and the second man refuses; the first man shoots him twice and pushes him down a hill.
► A young boy finds his father motionless in the woods and when he touches him the man slumps to the ground dead (we see the man holding a knife in his hand). After killing a young man (we see the murder later) a man says, “He was just gonna get shot up in Vietnam anyway.”
► A teen boy pulls another teen boy off a school bus and hits him with a hammer several times (we see blood on his face and abdomen). A teen boy slams a car hood on another teen boy looking under the hood, he punches another teen boy and smears food in his face before putting a bag over his head and punching him a few more times; he puts a bag over the first boy’s head and threatens him (we see the attackers bloody hand). A man approaches another man, grabs and punches him to the ground, punches him repeatedly and presses his face into the mud; he then breaks another man’s car window using a rifle butt and hits the man in the car with the butt (we see the attacker’s bloody hands). Three teen boys bully a teen girl and make remarks about having her perform sex acts on them; one boy puts a bag over her head and another teen boy shoves and punches them and they punch and kick him before running away (we see him with a bloody nose later). Three ten boys chase a teen girl out of a school, she jumps into a car and they speed away. A police officer tries to get past a bouncer in a bar and the bouncer slams him to the floor and takes his gun away. A teen girl ties a rope around her neck and stands on a bucket in a barn; she tries to remove the rope but tips the bucket over and hangs herself and a teen boy tries to get her down but it is too late.
► A man and his young son stand at a graveside after the man’s wife and the boy’s mother died. A woman is found unconscious on the floor in her home and we hear that she has cancer; a doctor says that morphine will help with the pain but it’s terminal. Two men walking through woods see another man and his young son praying at a cross; one man mocks them and makes a threatening remark about “visiting the man’s wife.” A man talks about being afraid of spiders and during a performance in a church he pours a jar of spiders on his head and face (we see them crawling on him as people gasp and scream).
► A man and his young son pray loudly for help to heal the man’s wife and the boy’s mother; the man becomes angry and slaps the boy on the back of the head wanting him to pray louder to heal the woman. A man locks himself in a closet (we understand for 2 weeks) after being bitten on the face by a spider and his head swelled up (we do not see this). A woman talks about a man in a wheelchair having drunk too much strychnine or anti-freeze while “testing his faith” and causing his paralysis. A woman talks about a young woman and that her family burned up in a fire. A homeless man comes into a diner and a man inside tells him to leave or he would call the police.
► A man tells his young son that if someone bullies him and starts a fight, that he needs to “finish the fight.” A young man gives a man a gun and tells him that he was told that it was the gun that “Hitler used to blow his brains out.” A man asks if it is true that “the Japs ate their dead.” There are a few references to Vietnam and WWII in the South Pacific. A reference is made to a man fighting the devil all the time.
► A teen girl vomits into a bucket and we see goo. A man spits on some money on a table and we see the goo. A homeless man is shown missing part of his arm (we see his sleeve tied at the elbow). A woman blows a raspberry after a man leaves. We see photographs and negatives of dead bodies with bloody wounds on faces, abdomens and genitals.
► A hymn’s lyrics include the line, “Are you bathed in the blood of the lamb?”

The Devil All the Time LANGUAGE 8

 – About 32 F-words and its derivatives, 6 sexual references, 22 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 25 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for Japanese people, name-calling (godforsaken, ignorance, big dumb bastard, crazy, honey, no-good, outsiders, heathens, runt, jealous, drunk, liar, delusional, pretty little thing, loaded diaper, dogs, puss-gutted, just a preacher, pinched face and pious ways, dumb), exclamations (shut your mouth, no, heck), 11 religious profanities (GD), 42 religious exclamations (e.g. God’s Intention, God, God Please, Oh My God, Amen, Godforsaken, Holy [scatological term deleted], Oh Lord, With The Grace Of God, Holy Gift, Glory To God, God Loves You, Lord, Lord Knows, Praise The Lord, Amen, Thank Jesus, Jesus, Holy Ghost, a reference is made to a man fighting the devil all the time). | profanity glossary |

The Devil All the Time SUBSTANCE USE

 – We hear that a woman is given morphine for pain. A man drinks from a bottle of liquor while driving, men drink in a bar, a young man drinks from a bottle of liquor, and a woman drinks from a bottle of liquor and smokes a cigarette. A young man and a young woman smoke outside, a teen boy smokes at the dinner table and in the back of a truck, and a man smokes in a diner.

The Devil All the Time DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Small towns, faith, piety, bullying, death of parents, suicide, cancer, WWII, the Vietnam War, sacrifice, guilt, shame, teen pregnancy, loneliness, abandonment, envy, preying on the faithful.

The Devil All the Time MESSAGE

 – Rural Ohio and West Virginia are full of unsavory characters. Faith can sometimes lead to awful acts.