All God’s Creatures

Jon brings a woman back to his apartment after a night out and offers wine. He drugs Jeanie, she loses consciousness, and the room becomes a site of ritual violence. He uses a plastic tarp and duct tape, and later dismembers the body, preserving a hand in a jar as a morbid keepsake.

The film shifts to Jon's mundane routine as a barista, a backdrop to his growing fixation on domination. Delia enters his life, offering warmth and flirtation, and he fixates on controlling her. He keeps up a normal public persona while cultivating a private, distorted fantasy of power.

A prostitute offers him a date, and he accepts. The encounter ends in murder, carried out in a matter-of-fact, almost clinical way. The act uses a hammer, echoing the cold precision of his first murder.

Delia is introduced as a recent arrival who is bereaved and seeking connection, sharing her grief and plans with Jon. She posts an online ad to move to town, while Jon maintains a neat, orderly image that masks darker impulses. He projects warmth outward while nursing a growing fixation on domination.

Back at the coffee shop, Delia fails to appear for a planned outing, and Jon interrupts his routine to search for her. He keeps up the illusion of normal dating life, even proposing a movie outing to stay ahead of suspicion. The tension hints at his controlling impulses simmering beneath a calm surface.

The same night, Jon reaches out to an escort to fill the void, and violence erupts again. He murders her in a private setting, the act described with clinical calm to emphasize compulsion over impulse. The killing reinforces the pattern that subjects all relationships to his control.

From Delia's perspective, the film shows her world—finding a job as an elevator operator, seeking a fresh start, and planning to bring her sister Lydia to live with her. She confides in a career counselor and shares her sense of moving forward. The looming threat of Jon's fixation adds tension to her fragile hope.

Delia visits Jon's place and their chemistry seems to rekindle as they talk over a wine-spilled carpet. Jon pretends to be caring and accommodating, while the presence of Lydia and the danger from her stepfather lurks as a subtext. The moment deepens the web of manipulation surrounding them.

Morning light reveals the aftermath of the previous night; Delia leaves after breakfast, and Jon's memory of their intimate moment is reframed as something larger and more dangerous. He continues to call Delia, seeking connection while clinging to his urge to exert control. The day-to-day facade remains intact even as danger grows.

Delia arrives to retrieve Lydia and discovers Lydia dead in the bathtub; Delia learns that her sister has taken her own life in the face of the stepfather's violence. The discovery compounds Jon's sense of power and invulnerability even as the danger around Delia and Lydia grows. The tragedy elevates the stakes for everyone involved.

At a bar, Jon encounters another woman who mistakes him for a professional athlete, inviting trouble into his life. He brings her home and she is strangled during sex, underscoring the reach of his violence. Delia returns unsettled, and they restrain her to avoid exposure as they erase evidence and cast the body into a river.

The couple plots to eliminate Delia's stepfather, waiting for his train at a station. They strangle him, but he is not fully gone, and a broken bottle becomes the instrument that seals his end. The act marks a final escalation, showing how the violence expands through shared criminal resolve.