Two sides of the same coin?

Devil All the Time (2020)

At one look, it seems that the story is going all over the place. At one time, you think that one particular character is the protagonist, but wham! she is killed off. Then another also killed off, and another yet again. There are plenty of killings and dying on the whole, but then, it all builds up to make sense at the end. There are many cryptic messages embedded within the storyline that questions the perception of what evil really is. Our divinity and evil part and parcel of the same continuum, not in contradiction but a mere extension of a spectrum? 

One complements the other. Just like how light is appreciated in darkness, evil is necessary for us to appreciate goodness. Like how it is a necessity that Tom never catches Jerry for the excitement to continue. Will E Coyote will never have the Road Runner for dinner for Coyote may become mad if, one day, he gets up in the morning to realise that he has nothing to do. Satan can never lose if Goodness were to be appreciated. The fight (if there is one) has to go on as long as life exists. All the events that happen in the name of God and the Devil are the ones that give meaning to the journey of life. We kid ourselves that everything is a mission as willed by God, even though we wonder why He who heals the wounds also send the flies.

After much beating around the bush, the viewers would realise that the movie is basically about a boy and a girl pair (Arvin and Leonora) who end up in the same foster home. Since both grew up together from a young age, they are close. Together they both carry the heavy baggage of sins of their parents. Arvin's mother succumbed to cancer whilst his father, a WW2 veteran, commits suicide after failing to revive her despite offering a sacrifice to God. Leonora's father, an evangelical preacher who was not right in his head, thought he had an audience. He believed God's orders were to kill his wife and resurrect her from death. He attempted, failed, bolted off and only to be killed by a husband-wife pair of serial killers.

Leonora grows very religious like her mother and is taken for a ride by a visiting preacher. She kills herself after finding herself pregnant out of wedlock. Arvin avenges her death and lands up with an encounter with the serial killers.

The complicated plots are set in the heart of the Bible Belt of America, where everyone is Christian by default. Everyone has their vision of how religion should be. Some expect something divine to be one that is kind, loving, tender and all accepting. Others justify violence in the name of the law to ensure the tenets of the religion are enforced. Many endure sacrifices for salvation. We use the name of the original sin as a get-of-jail free card to excuse our follies. We follow the same ill-fated paths that our fathers followed and say it is genes or 'sins of our fathers' in theological terms. 

Simon of  Cyrene to Jesus' aid to carry the Cross

As seen in the film, many seemingly unrelated events happen in our lives, but they do affect us in mysterious ways. Are these mere coincidences or sleight of hand of the Maker himself? Are they of no causal relationships as insisted by Freud or meaningful synchronicity as described by Jung?

Perhaps blind faith does not do anybody any good. True, religion forms a platform upon and above which intellect should complement the scriptures. This is best described by the painting of Jesus' long journey to Golgotha. A battered son of God could not carry the Cross. A random passerby, Simon of Cyrene, was summoned to aid in the task. In the same vein, one should not just depend on the Grace of God; we should make an effort to do it ourselves as well.

A gripping movie with Tim Holland of 'Spider Man' fame as Arvin. 

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