Devil in Ohio

 

Devil in Ohio

Devil in Ohio premiered on Netflix earlier this month based on the novel and creator, Daria Polatin. Starring Emily Deshenael, playing the character of Mae Dodd, she escaped from a cult leaving her in the hands of a psychiatrist at a nearby hospital. 

Watching the trailer got me so excited because I am a huge sucker for cult and crime documentaries. The acting in this show is… bad. However, even though it is not a documentary and more of a mystery drama, it does a good job with the suspense of the wonder of the cult. If you are interested in watching this series, I would not recommend reading as it will be filled with spoilers…Here we go!

Episode one is insane. Opening scene is Mae running through a corn field covered in blood, holding a knife as she runs to find someone who can help her. As she approaches a car, she throws away the knife to stop a truck to pick her up and help. Following, we get introduced to Dr. Mathis, a psychiatrist who works with Mae the rest of the series. They find an upside down pentagon carved into her back, and bruises on her wrists. As she does not talk, the wonder of the episode is who is this girl? And where did she come from?

Moving throughout the rest of the episodes is honestly a blur on which is which as I binged watched the whole series in a day. Mae gets introduced to Dr. Mathis family where she continues to stay the rest of the series. She is weird. However, who can blame her, she grew up in a cult. The show reveals that there is a cult in the neighboring town of Amontown, where one family owns everything from the land, to the sheriff department. They follow Lucifer as their savior, and harvest corn. As their corn gets a disease, it is up to the next prophet to marry the Lord to save the crops, in other words; You must sacrifice yourself in a white dress and burn to death to save the corn crops. Of course, Mae is the prophet, as she is the daughter of the ring leader, Mr. Dodd. 

The show carries on with Mae living with the Mathis family, and getting close with the daughter, Jules Mathis. Mae gets enrolled in school, and the classic ‘new girl gets popular and steals the boyfriend” trope happens. I felt this was the part of the show that definitely could have been left out, as I wish it focused more on the story of the cult rather than a teenage drama. Mae of course wins Harvest Queen at their school, and in the last episode she is kidnapped by the cult, and led to the ceremony where she must die. 

Dr. Mathis has been close to Mae, wanting to save her from the abuse, similar to what she had to go through as a kid. Fing Mae in Amontown, Dr. Mathis saves Mae from being killed, and returns home. This leaves the cliffhanger at the end of the season with proof that Mae may not be who she says she is.

This show was very well done with the graphic nature of cult society. Certain words were unsettling, and certain scenes left me with chills and almost the feeling of wanting to take a shower. I am looking forward to season two, and I want to just know what happens next!