Devil in Ohio is the latest suspense thriller limited series released on Netflix on 2 September 2022. It is based on the book of the same name by Daria Polatin and directed by John Fawcett, Steven A. Adelson, Leslie Hope, and Brad Anderson. It tells the story of a hospital psychiatrist, Dr Suzanne Mathis shelters a mysterious cult escapee, her world is turned upside down as the strange girl’s arrival threatens to tear her own family apart.
There are 8 episodes in total with a runtime of about 40-50 minutes. The cast of the series includes Emily Deschanel as Dr Suzanne Mathis,
Sam Jaeger as Peter Mathis, Gerardo Celasco as Detective Lopez, Madeleine Arthur as Mae, Xaria Dotson as Jules Mathis, Alisha Newton as Helen, Naomi Tan as Dani, Djouliet Amara as Tatiana and Jason Sakaki as Isaac.
-Devil in Ohio Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
The series starts off with a typical horror scene where a young girl in a white ghostly dress is running away on a muddy farm with tall maize crops, as people are trying to catch her. Luckily she gets out on the main road but fails to hitchhike a car, playing Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘good 4 u‘ on a blast. The girl realises it could be because she is holding a knife in her hand. She drops it and hitches the next ride and is admitted to a hospital.
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I know it’s supposed to be a serious horror-esque thriller, but good for the girl in the white dress that she didn’t get a ride from the first car, because that ride would have been much scarier than what she is running away from. Anyway, at the hospital, they find that she has an upside-down pentagram etched into her back and call Dr Suzanne for help, who is a psychiatrist.
Dr Suzanne tries to build confidence with her and we get to know that her name is Mae and she’s from Amon county, known as a close-knit community of religious people. Suzanne, who also comes from an abusive family, feels deeply for Mae and fearing that she’s going to be killed or worse, taken back to the brutal community, Suzanne takes Mae’s guardianship.
Suzanne is married to Peter Mathis, a real estate agent who has gone to the freelancing route and has 3 children together, Helen, Jules and Dani. Jules is the first one to get introduced to Mae and is even made to move out of her room to give the space to Mae. From living in her room to wearing Jules’ clothes, and imitating her. Mae starts edging Jules out of her position on the school paper and completely takes over her life, with no intention of leaving.
Apart from this teen drama, we are shown some flashbacks from Mae’s memory, where she seems to be in a cult, which clearly worships Lucifer or Satan, and is confirmed by her prayer to the devil at the dinner table. She’s some chosen one who had to go through the ritual where she got the pentagram and has to be sacrificed to the devil. But she ran away and now the cult people are looking for her.
More backstory about the cult is revealed through the investigations done by Detective Lopez, who is trying to uncover the forces behind Mae’s strange case and Dr Suzanne, who is trying to help the girl in all ways possible. Suzanne has been through some traumatic events in her teenage years thus she is overly protective of Mae, as she reminds her of the troubled past.
Summing Up: Devil in Ohio
Devil in Ohio has all the elements that you would find in a horror, from dead ravens to hood-clad cult rituals and animal sacrifices. However, there isn’t much substantial horror apart from fake jump scares, because our Mae doesn’t make a sound while walking and likes to sneak up on people. By the 4th or 5th episode, I was expecting some bloodshed or Mae finally embracing her sinister persona, but to no avail.
They tried to co-relate the abused victim’s mental state with people who get out of cults and it becomes the sole point of Dr Suzanne trying to help the unfortunate girl or maybe not so much. The limited series could have been wrapped up in four episodes as everything becomes too predictable later in the series. Overall, the series is mildly interesting to watch until the characters start to feel too irritating with the dragging story.
Devil in Ohio is currently streaming on Netflix.
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