Editorials
‘The Devil and the Daylong Brothers’ – Southern Gothic Is One of This Year’s Best Movies You Haven’t Seen
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers snuck onto my radar last month. A musical/thriller, it’s likely one you’ve never even heard of, but it’s among the year’s best films.
Writer/director Brandon McCormick, who co-wrote the script with Nicholas Kirk, stages an epic cross-country search for the devil. Three brothers – Enoch (Nican Robinson), Ish (Brendan Bradley), and Abe (Jordon Bolden) – have had their souls ripped from their bodies and sold by their father. They must now track him down, all while passionately confessing their deepest, darkest, and innermost thoughts in song. Along their journey, they come across Frankie (Rainey Qualley, Margaret Qualley’s older sister – yes, really!), who supposedly knows where their father, Nehemiah (Keith Carradine), might be hiding.
The film opens with the absolute barn-burner “‘Til the Burning’s Through,” set in a neon-soaked bar where the trio of brothers show a violent misogynist a lesson or two. It’s the perfect set-up for the kind of bluesy Americana songs the audience can expect throughout the film. Robinson, Bradley, and Bolden display roof-scorching vocal power that’ll knock you over. Their performances are full of yearning, bathed in a monstrous growl that seeks to tear you limb from limb. With humorous, twangy accents, particularly Bradley, who often feels like a caricature (complimentary), the trio emerge as vigilantes with strong moral codes. When someone is in peril, the Daylong Brothers are the first to step up and teach transgressors the error of their ways.
“Hell is at Hand” and “Ties That Bind” are also stand-outs from the soundtrack, equally electric and soul-shaking as the cast pushes the boundaries of their vocals and keeps rhythmic time with the earth-covered melodies. There’s nothing anybody can do when up against Abe, Ish, and Enoch – evidenced through plenty of action-packed sequences (while they’re singing, no less). They go toe-to-toe with various deviants, including a pastor who’s been dabbling in the devil’s work.
The trio revel in pulverizing morally-questionable characters; they suffer no fools and escape by the skin of their teeth. Their heroic journey is one of religious valor. It’s a tale as old as time. Set in a nondescript time period, they force the audience to reckon with their own beliefs and perhaps even light a match underneath their feet.
McCormick works with cinematographer Samuel Laubscher to bring the story to life. Through crisp camera work, the world pulses around the characters. When they’re in motion, so is the camera – offering swivel shots that mirror a character’s emotional state or action sequences that may even make audiences nauseous. But the camera always serves the narrative. There’s a clearly defined purpose to the choices McCormick and Laubscher make. Feeling both classic and contemporary, the film’s style anchors the heightened fantasy world and keeps the characters living in the here and now.
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers feels like something that would have been made in another time. From the dialogue to the presentation, it carries a vintage feel that gives it a timeless shimmer. Even the music seems ripped from the ‘80s or ‘90s Americana scene – a sound that would comfortably sit next to Lucinda Williams, Wilco, or Steve Earle. Blend all these parts, and you get a truly special experience. If you hate musicals, you might as well skip this one – but if your taste includes people singing songs randomly, you’ll surely enjoy the magic here.
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers is now streaming on Prime Video.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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