It isn’t all that unusual for a streaming site to deliver a buzzworthy film or TV show anymore. Netflix has been slowly solidifying itself with prestige movies such as 2018’s “Roma” and 2019’s “The Irishman.” This year, one of the early contenders for that spot is “The Devil All the Time,” an adaptation of the Donald Ray Pollock novel of the same name. While it may not measure up to the streaming site’s other buzzy movies, it certainly puts in the work.

Directed and co-written by Antonio Campos, the film oozes with that southern gothic tradition of the grotesque, fear of the outside and with a healthy dose of religious overtones thrown in.

The film centers around Arvin Russell, played by the dynamic Tom Holland, and three stories that surround and connect back to him.

We start with his parents: After Willard (Bill Skarsgard) returns home from World War II and meets a young waitress, Charlotte (Haley Bennett), he immediately falls for her near a town in rural Ohio. They marry, have a child named Arvin, move into a rundown home and Willard finds God again. But as the film states, he fights the Devil all the time with his rage festering below the surface — he’ll do anything to save his family from harm and teaches Arvin to wait for his moment to strike back.

When Charlotte dies of cancer, Willard kills himself in a makeshift shrine he’s made in the woods near their house and Arvin is sent to live with his grandmother in rural West Virginia.

Meanwhile, two other stories interweave with Arvin’s life, including the spider-handling, would-be preacher named Roy (Harry Melling), who marries Helen (Mia Wasikowska) in Willard’s hometown in West Virginia. When Helen dies, Roy goes on the run, leaving their infant daughter Lenora behind. But he doesn’t get far as he’s picked up by two serial killers played by Riley Keough and Jason Clarke.

Flashing forward seven years, Arvin, now a young man, is the protector of his own family unit, which includes his grandmother (Kristin Griffith), his uncle (David Atkinson) and his adopted sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen).

Life is hard in the backwoods, and Arvin constantly feels the need to protect Lenora from bullies at school, waiting for his moment as his father had taught him. When a young, charismatic preacher (Robert Pattinson) comes to town, Lenora takes a shine to him even though he seems to pity her and her poor family.

The evil that permeates through Arvin’s life, with all the threads of every story coming together, unravel his world around him.

The film is quiet, plotting slowly along and weaving each story carefully through with each beat stitching toward the predicted but in no way boring conclusion. Every word and every action seems so carefully manicured that the film flows smoothly through the sepia-tinged carnage that it dishes out.

“The Devil All the Time” is not for the faint of heart, with brutal and sometimes upsetting images doled out, but between the bloodshed and the evil that drips from the frames, there is a beautifully acted and written world that sucks you in.

It would be easy to single out Holland for his performance, but the entire cast pulls their weight right alongside him, with Pattinson delivering a subtle and creepy performance with his nasally preacher, Scanlen shining sadness through her hopeful exterior and Griffith never veering too far into the land of the exasperated grandmother, clutching her proverbial pearls.

However, it fails in giving the viewer any respite from the wickedness it portrays. It’s like one bad thing right after another without much reason why.

In true Southern gothic style, it feels allegorical. Evil surrounds us, and all people fester with it, so you have to find your moment to fight it back and keep fighting because it’ll just keep coming no matter what, according to the film.

If it weren’t for the stellar cast and beautiful cinematography, the film would fizzle into a tortuous slog toward the conclusion. Luckily, Holland and his fellow actors find their moments.

“The Devil All The Time”

138 minutes

Rating: R for violence, bloody/disturbing images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language throughout

3 stars