“All the Devils Are Here” (2025) wobbles a bit, but lands. Four disparate men work together to steal money, but when the job goes wrong, they find themselves cooling their heels at a derelict, abandoned country home until their employer, the never seen Mr. Reynolds, gets them. As supplies run low, their ability to work as a team deteriorates. Will they ever escape? Wherever you go, there you are. If you love the actors in this cast, you should definitely see this film. Everyone else may find the story too thin to stay invested in the plight of these characters, which may be an accidental by product of the intentional story that first time feature writer John Patrick Dover and director Barnaby Roper created.

While “All the Devils Are Here” is an ensemble movie, Ronnie (Eddie Marsan) is the protagonist, the de facto leader of the group and default narrator reading a letter to his twenty-year-old daughter. Ronnie has been in the game all his life, but old does not mean cold. Even though he is gentle, abides by a forgotten moral code and obedient to Mr. Reynolds, he is also the kind of man who wishes someone would try him. He may be the most dangerous one because no one sees him coming. Marsan is perfect for this role. He navigates both sides of the coin and makes his character into a cohesive whole. Name one movie that he acted poorly in. You cannot. He is flawless.

Grady (Sam Claflin) has a high pain threshold, which will be tested throughout “All the Devils Are Here.” This gift seemed to spark a desire to test others’ durability. He is the first person who screws up the job because he enjoys hurting people. Claflin often plays pretty boys in romance movies and/or men who die too soon. Here he seems to enjoy chewing up the scenery and acting against type. If the story lacks momentum, Claflin seems to decide to make up for it singlehandedly. Even though Grady is easy to peg, he offers surprising details about his past that make for a man harder to write off. When he decides to fix a filthy toilet without flinching, I was ready to forget everything that came before despite all evidence to the contrary. Claflin does a seamless job.

Royce (Tienne Simon) is a fuck up. Because of Royce, that toilet is a mess. They wound up in indefinite time out because of his driving skills. He is too young and naïve for the job. In better circumstances with more law-abiding opportunities, he would never cross paths with any of these people. Simon does his job in his big screen debut. All he had to do is not become utterly forgettable or drop the ball. The character is utterly forgettable, but for a Black guy to commit crimes and seem like the most innocent person in the group is not as easy as it sounds in a society inclined to deem such a person endemically flawed from birth. The role and the performance make Royce flawed as a person without indulging in any racist tropes.

You may not know Burn Gorham’s name, but when he appears in “All the Devils Are Here,” you will immediately recognize him. If you need an actor to play someone suspicious and probably is shady, put Gorham on speed dial. He is deliberately underutilized here as the accountant, Charles, hired to count and secure the money. He is the slightest man in the group and whiles away the time locked in his room in a drug induced stupor. He has a reptilian sense for sniffing out danger but has zero experience when it is time to get rough.

With solid character actors helming a dialogue heavy story, should “All the Devils Are Here” just be a play? No. I’m beginning to wonder if British films are actually good or the country landscape is so breathtaking that the key to a good movie is capturing the beauty on film at the right time to evoke the perfect prevailing mood of the story. Not an applicable theory because the interior scenes are just as effective in storytelling than anything else. Roper nailed it in the staging of the scenes with the white suited Harold Laing (Rory Kinnear). Even though all the lights are on, and sun streams through the high windows, these scenes feel as if they occur at night and underground as if he is a demon at the crossroads luring in his next victim. There are four scenes with Laing hiring each of the men individually, and he handles them differently. If you saw Kinnear in “Men” (2022) you will not be surprised that he may be the most fascinating character of the lot. If he suddenly subbed for the bartender at “The Shining” (1980), it would make sense. A minor criticism: the day countdown detracted from the film because it feels longer than the number written on screen.

“All the Devils Are Here” hits some bumps on the road. Except for “Fall is a Good Time to Die” (2025), deliberately omitting information in a scene is not a twist. At least Dover only indulges once, and it works, but once revealed, moviegoers will probably go, “ohhhhhhh, you were being literal,” and the tone of that exclamation will gauge how much the person liked it. Fortunately, the movie is short so unless it feels longer than it is, you probably made a good investment with one caveat: without subtitles, if you are not familiar with the accents, you will probably miss a ton of information. Sure, the working-class accent makes everything sound like poetry, but it also can be a challenge.

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If Jean Paul Sarte wrote “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990) as a crime drama, “All the Devils Are Here” would be the result. The movie lays itself bare at the end and explains that the men died at a certain point early in the movie, but I’ll take it one step further. Visually it is played correctly as if Mr. Reynolds was the devil, and each of them made a deal with his agent on earth. While it does not have to be literal, it could be. There are four pigs on the grounds mucking around. Pigs are an unclean animal and may be animal symbolism for these men. It is an incredibly morally conventional movie that delivers the lesson that choosing to be a criminal condemns one to eternal damnation or purgatory. Never forget the story of the two criminals that hung on either side of Jesus’ crucifixion.

I do like the idea that the house is deteriorating proportional to the health of their souls. Is C (Suki Waterhouse) an angel, Christ (C for Christ) or the ghost of the dead woman that Royce ran over with the car? Royce clearly recognizes her but never mentions it to the others. In the end, she does not say that she is dead like the men. “The boss sent me.” The boss, not Mr. Reynolds. Maybe THE Boss. She knocks on the door “to find out what you might need.” Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with me.” She only walks. Even though people can get hurt in that realm, she is unperturbed at Grady’s advances. How very Sodom and Gomorrah of Grady! There is even a lone lamb walking around the property. Jesus is the lamb of God! Get it! Get it! OK, I’m done.