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You asked for my thoughts but I ended up writing a mini fecking essay
!!!!!!!!WARNING !!!!!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!!!
I really enjoyed it too. It felt like an early Coen brothers film with the mood, setting, narration and the music used. Amazing acting performances across the board too - especially considering none of the main cast were American (except Riley Keough), never mind from the bible belt. All of their accents felt completely natural.
As you said, there's not necessarily a clear narrative throughout, but I think there's something. Right at the beginning when Willard shows Arvin the cross he's built in the woods, the narrator says something like "Arvin saw his father 'fighting with the devil all the time'" and that's the only narrative that stands out to me. Like how he saw his dad, throughout the film, Arvin is 'fighting with the devil' and, perhaps, the rest of the characters were too.
Arvin has to live with his dad's way of dealing with the impending death of his mother (abusing him, then killing his dog - and then himself), dealing with the bullies who torment Lenora, then the preacher, then the murderous couple and then, finally the sheriff.
Here's the part where I look for more subtext...
Religion obviously played a huge part in the film and it appeared to negatively impacted everyone. Willard became obsessed with praying to god to save his wife and neglected and abused Arvin. He then sacrificed the dog in an attempt for his prayers to be answered.
Lenora's mother was seduced by Roy, a preacher who spiralled into madness because of his faith being tested and who then murdered her - thinking that he could get god to revive her. Also, Roy's cousin is in a wheelchair after drinking antifreeze in order to prove himself to god.
Roy was then murdered by a couple who preyed on people's trust in strangers. Sandy and Carl always spoke about Christianity with their victims. When the soldier says that he doesn't know the bible, Sandy asks if he was baptised and he says of course, I'm not a heathen. All of their victims bar one (Arvin) that we see confirm to them that their Christians.
Emma gets ridiculed by the new preacher in front of the congregation at his welcome party. To her, this is one of the biggest slaps in the face she could have had due to the strength of her faith.
Lenora's entire persona revolves around being a Christian. She gets seduced by the preacher who takes advantage of her beliefs and her naivety - gets her pregnant and then tells her that she's deluded and that they never had sex. He tells her to get rid of the child and then she accidentally hanged herself just after she came to the realisation that suicide wasn't the answer and that her family would forgive her, despite their beliefs.
I think Arvin states outright to Lenora that he doesn't pray anymore because of his childhood and he's the only one who 'survives' the story, really. Could just be a massive coincidence.
Not sure where the sheriff fits in with the religious angle, but I may have missed something (or my thoughts are the thoughts of shit ),
Anyway, I think the titular 'devil' of the film is actually god... as a lot of the tragedies and drama caused are due to the characters battling with their own beliefs or with others who are abusing them due to their beliefs.
Before you ask... no, I haven't smoked weed in years
I believe that to most of my generation the Coen brothers and that whole genre are just plain weird.