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The Laferty-Russells
Arvin Russell
Played by: Tom Holland
"I've been doing wrong and I wanna get right by the Lord."
Our rough and tumble protagonist.
- Anti-Hero: Arvin is a tough and broken person who has endured a lot of pain from bullying, losing his parents, and his eventual loss of his half sister Lenora. Despite this, he cared a lot about his family and goes so far as to kill Preston for pushing Lenora into suicide.
- Big Brother Instinct: He is fiercely protective of Lenora, his adoptive sister. When he learns that Preston is responsible for getting her pregnant and her eventual suicide, he hunts him down, stalks him and eventually kills him.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: When Lenora dies, Arvin crosses his moral lines and steals the Luger gun in order to kill Preston for being responsible for her death. Later he kills two Serial Killers for trying to murder him, and finally, guns down the corrupt hick who wants to save his image for the upcoming elections.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his tough personality, he was devastated that Lenora was forced to commit suicide for being pregnant and goes to kill Preston so no one would suffer the same fate as her.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Guns down Carl and Sandy after discovering that they're murderers.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Lenora's suicide pushes Arvin to cross the line to murder.
- Trauma Conga Line: Don't you hate it when your mother gets cancer and your violent father kills your dog and skins it and crucifies it above his "prayer log" as a sacrifice and it doesn't work and your mother dies and your father cuts his own throat directly under the corpse of your dog and your adopted sister gets Driven to Suicide by a corrupt preacher so you snap and kill the preacher and flee town but then your car breaks down and you hitch a ride with a nice couple of Serial Killers whom you only barely escape from with your life and finally you return to your burned-down childhood home to bury the remains of your dog and then out of nowhere a corrupt shotgun-wielding sheriff turns up to murder you?
Lenora Laferty
Played by: Eliza Scanlen
"Maybe you should try praying for a minute, would that hurt none?"
Arvin's younger adoptive sister.
- Driven to Suicide: Subverted, she initially tries to commit suicide, but changes her mind at the end. Unfortunately, she loses her footing and ends up dying.
- Morality Chain: She is the sole reason why Arvin is reserved. After her suicide, he immediately begins stalking Preston and plotting to kill him.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She is the reason why Arvin is able to cross the line to murder.
Grandma Emma Russell
Played by: Kristin Griffin
Arvin's grandmother.
Uncle Earskell
Played by: David Atkinson
Arvin's granduncle.
Willard Russell
Played by: Bill Skarsgård
"There's a lot of no good sons of bitches out there."
Arvin's father.
- Shellshocked Veteran: Fought in WWII. Comes home with anger issues and strong aggressive tendencies.
- Shoot the Dog: Subverted. He literally thinks murdering his son's beloved dog will save his wife.
Charlotte Russell
Played by: Haley Bennett
"Some people just need a little help once in a while."
Arvin's mother and Willard's wife.
Roy Laferty
Helen Laferty
Played by: Mia Wasikowska
"Maybe the Lord just wants you to come out into the light."
Lenora's mother and Roy's wife.
Theodore Laferty
Played by: Pokey LaFarge
"Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?"
Roy's cousin.
The Bodecker-Hendersons
Carl Henderson
Played by: Jason Clarke
"Tears make for a good photograph."
A photographer turned Serial Killer.
- Hate Sink: He's an absolute monster who traps his wife in a violent relationship and murders people by offering them false rides. It is very satisfying when Arvin kills him.
- Karmic Death: Ends up dying at the hands of Arvin, who Carl himself had planned to kill.
- The Sociopath: Has zero remorse in killing his victims, and is a skilled liar and manipulator to boot.
Sandy Henderson
Played by: Riley Keough
"Don't act like you do nothing wrong."
Carl's wife and accomplice.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Before she can atone for her actions, Arvin ends up killing her for pointing a gun to his head.
Sheriff Lee Bodecker
Played by: Sebastian Stan
"Some people are born just so they can be buried."
The corrupt Knockemstiff Sheriff.
- Sanity Slippage: Loses his composure after Arvin kills his sister and begins to shoot his shotgun in random directions in anger.
Other
Reverend Preston Teagardin
Played by: Robert Pattinson
"IT IS OUR DELUSIONS THAT LEAD US TO SIN! DELUSIONS!"
The reverend of the local Coal Creek church.
- Bullying a Dragon: Sort of. Preston angrily tells Arvin that it was Lenora's fault for falling prey to him even though he is guilty as charged.
- Boom, Headshot!: Has his head blown out by the last bullet that Arvin shoots.
- Ephebophile: He seduces the young Lenora and is also seen haing sex with another teenage girl.
- Hate Sink: Is this as he not only raped Lenore, but had also refused to take responsibility for his actions.
- Karmic Death: Is shot three times by Arvin.
- Large Ham: Wouldn't be a southern preacher if he weren't.
- Never My Fault: He refuses to take responsibility for making Lenora pregnant and simply brushes it off as her being delusional.
- Sinister Minister: He's a predator for girls in secret.
- The Sociopath: Uses his charm to manipulate Lenora into having sex with him, displays a profound Lack of Empathy when she tells him about her baby, and doesn't care one bit when she died. His demeanor when Arvin confronts him is unnaturally stoic, at least at first.
- Stealth Insult: In his debut, he stands before the church congregation and delivers a short sermon, saying that whoever brought the dish of chicken livers "in the cracked platter" to the potluck is obviously too poor to afford better fare, so he'll eat the dish as a Christian sacrifice. The Russell family can only silently seethe at the not-so-subtle insult.
- Too Dumb to Live: Remains aloof and irresponsible for Lenora's death. This caused him to be killed by an angry Arvin, who shoots him three time before blasting a hole in his head.
The Narrator
Played by: Donald Ray Pollock
"If you asked most people where Knockemstiff, Ohio or Coal Creek, West Virginia were, they probably couldn’t point ’em out to you on a map. But I guarantee, they’d be there all the same."
The narrator of the film.
- As Himself: A variation. Donald Ray Pollock is the author of the novel, which is quite fitting for him to be the narrator of his own story.
- Lemony Narrator: His role in the movie.
