The change from Meade to Knockemstiff for the film is a tribute to Pollock and the book that put him on the map, and it's well-deserved. In the book, all of the action in Ohio takes place in Meade, a small town about half an hour's drive away (in the movie, the diner where both Willard and Charlotte as well as Sandy and Carl meet is in Meade, but the rest of the proceedings have been moved further south). In fact, in the Devil All the Time novel, Knockemstiff isn't mentioned at all. One asked a preacher for advice, and he told her the man wasn't worth it, and that someone should 'knock him stiff.' Other tall tales claim that 'knockemstiff' was slang for moonshine, which was a popular product in those parts, or a reference to a long-forgotten brawl.Įither way, it's also where The Devil All the Time author Donald Ray Pollock grew up, and it's also the title of his award-winning short story collection. One common story contends that two women who lived there were feuding over a man. These aren't the kind of details you look for when watching The Devil All the Time - the story itself is gripping enough that it'll consume all of your attention - but trust us when we say you'd miss 'em if they weren't there.īelieve it or not, but Knockemstiff is an actual place, although no one's quite sure where its unusual name came from. Many are simple period details that draw on lesser known parts of The Devil All the Time's two-decade-long timeline and are designed to give the film a legitimate authenticity. Some are sly casting choices honoring the book, director Antonio Campos, and the rest of the movie's talented crew. Some of them are subtle nods to Donald Ray Pollock's original novel. You may not notice them while you watch, but rest assured that each one goes a long way toward making The Devil All the Time's southern-fried gothic landscape all the more realistic, and all the more horrifying. The Devil All the Time, which tells the story of a young orphan named Arvin and all the sordid characters he comes across, is stuffed full of small, evocative details and odd little Easter eggs. That's true of the film's characters, and it's true of the movie, too.

A devil all the time book