Devil in Ohio (2022): A Netflix Horror Series - Review

Devil in Ohio is an eight-part miniseries created by Daria Polatin, who has also written the script and the book this series is based on. It stars Emily Deschanel, Alisha Newton and Sam Jaeger.

Netflix offers us a horror series revolving around cults, awkward group dynamics and fear.

Plot

A psychiatrist lets a young woman, who appears out of nowhere in the middle of the night, into her home. It will turn out that the innocent girl has a past in a cult, and carries the baggage of abuse perpetrated on her in the sect. Her presence will affect the entire community.

About the Series

A classic American series that takes us deep into a community, and depicts how the arrival of a stranger affects the dynamics in the close-knit collective.

It is good at creating that ominous ambience, with dark hues and a score with chanting voices that will make your skin crawl. It does, however, come across as TV serial, and it has a slight moralizing-drama trait that doesn’t really convince us as an authentic thriller/horror show, with its simple photography and a traditional TV cinematographic approach.

Nevertheless, the series is dark and it manages to apply a narrative tricks to bring that ominous feel into relief with flashbacks scenes and the awkward glares of the newcomer.

It does not delve deeply into the characters, but it profiles their roles in the story sufficiently to creative a cohesive narrative. The cast is good, and the performances are acceptable.

Whether you like it or not, time will tell, but it’s not an epoch-defining piece a la The Blair Witch Project (1999) nor novel as Twin Peaks (1990) was. It is a mainstream horror series that tells, or retells, the same old story of good versus evil.

On a last note, the theme song “Lessons of the Fire” by Bishop Briggs & Will Bates is a wonderful gothic indie-rock number that fits the story well.