Netflix is heating up this September as a satanic thrill series, Devil in Ohio, is coming and it has an eerie ‘true story’ for inspiration.
The latest book-to-TV adaptation is set to hit the streaming site on September 2 starring Emily Deschanel and is based on Daria Polatin’s bestselling 2017 novel of the same name.
Netflix’s Devil in Ohio
In the limited series a midwestern psychiatrist, Suzanne Mathis’ (Deschanel) world is turned upside down when she decides to protect Mae (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before‘s Madeleine Arthur), a fragile teenager on the run from a cult.
According to the streamer: ‘As Suzanne’s daughter Jules (Xaria Dotson) begins to suspect there’s more to Mae’s story, a series of incidents—seemingly brought on by Mae’s presence—leave the family in chaos.’
Suzanne’s daughter Jules (Xaria Dotson) becomes suspicious of Mae’s past and as her true story begins to unravel the family must fight for survival against the devil-worshipping cult she ran from.
Devil in Ohio also stars Sam Jaeger, Gerardo Celasco and Alisha Newton.
Devil in Ohio ‘True Story’
One sure thing is Poltain, didn’t whip the story out of thin air, she told Criminal Element she researched several scary stories and incidents and even claimed it’s based on a true story.
Poltain, who also serves as the showrunner, told Netflix: ‘The book was inspired by true events from a story that our executive producer, Rachel Miller, heard, which actually took place in Ohio.
‘In the series, we get to lean into Suzanne and her backstory. Why does Suzanne take Mae home? Why is she so drawn to her? And why does she go so far to help her?’
With the stories she’d heard and the research she’s undertaken, Poltain then put it all to use in creating her own cult for the book.
She said: ‘Me and my writers’ room studied all of the cults. We tried to learn as much as we could about as many organizations, then we made up our own cult using elements of many different groups.
‘We came up with our whole ideology — and we even wrote some of the Book of Covenants, the cult Bible [in the show].’
One thing’s for sure and that’s Poltain will never reveal the identities of the person in the true story as she told Criminal Element: ‘I will never reveal details about my source but suffice it to say, it was quite horrifying to hear the details of how a young woman escaped from the satanic cult she’d grown up in.
‘Since many of the perturbing aspects of the story in Devil in Ohio were based on true events, my stomach churned whenever I heard about the scarring rituals, planting of mind-control triggers, and perhaps the most disturbing, how it tore a formerly tight-knit family apart.’